RADIATION LEAK AT WIPP NEW MEXICO SITE STILL UNIDENTIFIED

[UPDATED APRIL 10, 2015, WITH FUTURE UPDATES GIVEN IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS BLOG.]  

THE ABOVE MAP DOES NOT SHOW AREAS AFFECTED BY WIND DIRECTION DURING OR AFTER THE ACCIDENT AT WIPP NUCLEAR DISPOSAL FACILITY, NEW MEXICO.   

THESE ARE AREAS WHERE OFFICIALS HAD BEEN PLANNING EVACUATION OF RESIDENTS IN CASE THE LEAK WAS WORSE THAN INITIALLY STATED.

WORSE?
WHAT'S WORSE THAN A 33 MINUTES OF AN UNREPORTED RELEASE OF PLUTONIUM?

WORKERS AT WIPP HAVE BEEN TOLD NOT TO SPEAK TO THE PRESS!

THEY ARE NOW PLANNING TO SEND ROBOTS DOWN INTO THE UNDERGROUND CAVERN WHERE THE HIGHEST RADIATION READINGS ARE DETECTED.

WIPP OFFICIALS CLAIM THEY ARE "CLOSE TO KNOWING" WHERE THE RADIATION CONTINUES TO LEAK FROM. 

"CLOSE TO KNOWING"??? 
IT'S ONLY BEEN 2 MONTHS AND A FEW DAYS, SO TAKING YOUR TIME, ARE YOU, FELLOWS?
WHILE THE THING CONTINUES LEAKING? 
DON'T RUSH ON OUR ACCOUNT...

04/25/2014<<More than two months after a radioactive release began at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – North America’s only nuclear waste deep burial site – the source remains unknown.  
The U.S. Department of Energy released a "Phase 1" report on April 24th, stating that while the direct cause of the failure that resulted in radiological release remains unknown, the root cause of the release was NWP’s and DoE Carlsbad field office’s "management failure to fully understand, characterize and control the radiological hazard.">>

IF THE SOURCE REMAINS UNKNOWN, THE REPAIR HAS NOT BEEN DONE!
THE DAMNABLE THING IS STILL LEAKING!

"The more they went into panel 7, the more it started becoming more widespread," said WIPP deputy recovery manager Tammy Reynolds. "They were picking up contamination more frequent." [Panel 7 is a storage unit.]   
HUH? WHAT?

MAYBE SHE MEANT MORE FREQUENTLY?

INCREDIBLE OVERUSE OF THE WORD 'MORE' IN ONE SENTENCE.

AND THIS IS AN "OFFICIAL" SPEAKING?

SURELY NOT!

SORRY, BUT FRUSTRATION AND DOUBT MAKE ME ASK, IS SHE AN OFFICIAL BECAUSE SHE WAS ONE OF THE FEW AT THE WIPP SITE WHO GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL WITH A PASSING GRADE IN A COURSE IN PHYSICS ?

<<Inspectors plan to go back down and explore things further, but in case the radiation levels pose too much of a threat, robots will go underground instead.

"Robot operators have already been to the WIPP site, received all of the training to go to the underground," said Reynolds.>>

SHORT TRAINING PERIOD FOR THAT THEN!

WAS IT AN ENTIRE WEEK OR JUST A FEW DAYS IN THAT WEEK?    

HOW EXACTLY DOES ONE "TRAIN" A ROBOT?   

<<Employees at the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant learned this week how to operate robots from Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.>>

THEY ALSO HAD TO CALL IN HELP TO SHOW THE WIPP EMPLOYEES HOW TO CHANGE THOSE AIR FILTERS!!!
THEY DIDN'T KNOW???  

<<Also this week, experts from the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site arrived in Carlsbad to train WIPP employees in replacing air filters crucial to the nuclear waste site's ventilation system.  

New filters are required to replace those that captured radiation following the fire and radiation leak. 

SO, WHAT WAS RELEASED BECAUSE OF THE CONTAMINATED FILTERS ALL THAT TIME?

To assist in the training, WIPP constructed a mock-up of the filter bank.
[MAYBE SOME GUY BROUGHT IN HIS KID'S LEGOS?]

On Monday, waste handlers at WIPP removed waste packages from four containers used to ship transuranic waste. Routine surveying of shipping containers is completed periodically to allow for off-site maintenance.  

The containers arrived at WIPP prior to the February incidents. 

After they're evaluated, the containers can be used to remove waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory by the state's June 30 deadline.  

This week's town hall meeting about WIPP has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Carlsbad City Council chambers at 101 N. Halagueno St.>> 

THEY ARE JUST NOW REPLACING THE DAMAGED/FAULTY FILTERS?
IT'S BEEN OVER 2 MONTHS! 

WELL, NOW WE MAY SEE THE BIG PROBLEM AT WIPP, N.M.
NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO CORRECTLY DO ONE BLOODY THING! 
AND WE'RE TRUSTING THIS BUNCH WITH THE DEADLIEST NUCLEAR WASTE ON THE PLANET?  
WHY?

BIG CHANGES FOR WIPP WORKERS
<<Bob McQuinn, president and project manager of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Energy Department contractor that operates WIPP.    

“Now we’re going to have to wear protective equipment – coveralls, shoe covers and gloves – to make sure contamination doesn’t get on us and respirators so it doesn’t get in us. People who haven’t had to wear protective equipment will have to.”>>

THEY NEVER WORE PROTECTIVE GEAR BEFORE?
CAN THIS BE FOR REAL? 

IT READS LIKE SOMETHING A GRADE SCHOOL KID MIGHT SAY, THAT BIT ABOUT "SO IT DOESN'T GET ON US"!   

KOAT, Apr. 20, 2014: “The more they went into panel 7, the more it started becoming more widespread,” said WIPP deputy recovery manager Tammy Reynolds. [...] Inspectors plan to go back down and explore things further, but in case the radiation levels pose too much of a threat, robots will go underground instead. 
 “Robot operators have already been to the WIPP site, received all of the training to go to the underground,” said Reynolds.

"There will be progress to report in terms of what might have been the cause," said former State Rep. John Heaton at a town hall meeting which was called to update people on the progress at the Waste Isolation Plant.

REALLY?

WHEN?

ANOTHER MONTH, 2 MONTHS, 12? 

MEANWHILE THE LEAK IS STILL LEAKING AND THE WIPP BOYS ARE STILL DANCING US AROUND. 

<<The contaminants were spread through more than 3,000 feet of underground tunnels, leading to the 2,150 foot exhaust shaft into the surrounding above-ground environment.>>  

THAT IS A LOT TO CLEAN UP JUST INSIDE THE FACILITY!
WHAT ABOUT THE CONTAMINATED AREAS DOWNWIND?
WHAT ABOUT CONTAINERS SITTING TOO LONG ABOVE GROUND RIGHT NOW?  

WHICH OF THESE WIPP CRAZIES ARE CHECKING THOSE AND HOW?

HAS ANYONE ARRIVED TO SHOW THEM HOW TO DO THAT YET? 

NO ONE REALLY KNOWS THE DAMAGE DONE TO THE 21 WORKERS WITH RADIATION SICKNESS/EXPOSURE, AND THEY WON'T ALLOW THEIR WORKERS TO SPEAK WITH THE PRESS!!!

“The first rule of thumb is nobody thinks any of this is good for you,” said Dr. Fred Mettler, a radiologist at the Albuquerque Veterans Affairs Medical Center and U.S. representative to the United Nations World Health and Atomic Energy Agency. “So you want to keep doses as low as possible.

Medically, it’s very, very difficult to get the stuff out of you.” 

NOW THERE'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT!

LET'S REMEMBER: "NWP workers are not permitted to speak to the press, according to a spokesman."  
SO, WHO IS GOING TO SPEAK TO THOSE DOWNWIND, NEXT DOOR?  THE EASTER BUNNY? 

HANG ON!  The United Steel Workers union represents about 300 WIPP workers. Jim Frederick, USW assistant director of health, safety and environment, says the union’s primary question is: “Is this place going to be safe for our folks to go back to?” 

Like other stakeholders, the union is awaiting the results of the investigation into the radiation leak before it weighs in on what kind of protections may be needed going forward. 

“What was not in place that might have kept this from happening?” Frederick asked. “And what do we need to do to keep the workers safe and make sure the public health risks are kept at zero or very, very close to zero?”  

GAG ORDER, FREDERICK.
YOU CAN'T BE GIVEN ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS....IT'S A SECRET!

The DOE investigation MADE PUBLIC LAST WEEK determined that the Carlsbad Field Office had "insufficient nuclear safety management and staffing" since 2010. The report cited the retirement of a senior technical advisor combined with a lack of staff expertise.

SO FOR 4 YEARS, WHAT?

INMATES WERE RUNNING THE ASYLUM THERE?

THE BLIND LED THE BLIND?

THERE ARE DEADLINES FOR "CONTAINING" THE NUCLEAR WASTE STILL SITTING ABOVE GROUND AT THE NEW MEXICO SITE!

LOOKS LIKE THOSE MAY PASS WITHOUT SENDING THAT WASTE SOMEWHERE ELSE!

[NOTE: AS OF MARCH 2015, YES, THEY WERE STILL SITTING THERE.]   

AS WILDFIRE SEASON APPROACHES, N.M. GOVERNOR PUSHES FOR DISPOSAL OF ABOVE-GROUND CONTAINERS THAT WOULD BE AT RISK IF FIRES INVADED THE NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP SITE. 

After a large wildfire lapped at the edges of lab property in summer 2011, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez identified removal of the waste as a top priority.

The Federal Government still hasn't removed the nuclear waste which is now a public health hazard.

<<The New Mexico Environment Department is giving the federal government a deadline for dealing with radioactive waste that's sitting above ground at a nuclear dump.

Dozens of drums and other special containers of waste are being stored in a PARKING LOT at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and inside the facility's waste handling building.

The waste is usually taken to its final resting place deep in underground salt beds. But, the repository has been closed since early February after back-to-back accidents, including a radiation release that exposed at least 13 workers, which has been making headlines.

In an administrative order that was just made public, deadlines and other requirements for the dump were outlined. State officials say this order helps them keep a closer watch on what is happening at that site in New Mexico. 

USA TODAY REPORTS:

Under its permit with the state, the dump can keep waste stored in the parking area for only 30 days and up to 60 days in the handling building.   

BUT....   

Due to the closure, the state is extending both deadlines to allow the federal government time to develop an alternative storage plan if the underground dump remains off-limits for more than three months.  

Jeff Kendall, general counsel for the department, said state officials believe allowing a little more time to fully vet all the options for safely storing the waste is the best bet.

The above-ground material targeted by the state Environment Department's order includes 145 cubic meters of waste in containers of various sizes and shapes.  

THAT "EXTENSION" MUST BE NICE FOR WIPP, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE ALREADY EXCEEDED THE LIMITS BY 40 DAYS AND 16 RESPECTIVELY, BUT WHAT IF WILDFIRES BURN THOSE CONTAINERS?  

Gov. Susana Martinez is warning New Mexicans that the state is entering what could be another season of dangerous wildfires.

At a press conference in Albuquerque Monday to kick off "Wildfire Awareness Week," she said continuing historic drought conditions heighten the risk of what already has the potential to be another active summer of fires.

So far this year, nearly 100 fires have burned close to 6,000 acres of state and private land.

SENDING ALL THOSE BARRELS TO LOS ALAMOS WON'T GET THEM OUT OF HARM'S WAY.

WILDFIRES CAME DANGEROUSLY NEAR THAT FACILITY BEFORE, TOO!

SEE: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/wildfire-continues-to-burn-near-nuclear-facility-in-new-mexico/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0  

WIPP WAS FOUGHT AGAINST AND VOTED DOWN BY NEW MEXICANS, BUT IT WAS OPENED ANYWAY.  

<<In 1989, in the run-up to a referendum in Caithness in November of that year on whether or not to allow Nirex to search for a deep disposal site in the County, the Head of Information Services at Dounreay used WIPP as an example of a successful waste disposal site in an article he wrote for the John ‘O Groat Journal.  

 In response, a letter from the US Radioactive Waste Campaign described the article as “an outright lie”. 

 McRoberts had claimed that WIPP was already receiving shipments and that the repository was dry.  

OTHERS CLAIMED that the repository remained unopened at the time because in 1987 salt-laden water was found to be seeping inside.  

[NOTE:IT HAS BEEN DISCLOSED THAT THE SALT CAVERNS OF WIPP WERE INDEED LEAKING BEFORE THE FACILITY WAS OPENED!  SOMEONE FOUND PHOTOS OF THE STALAGMITES/STALACTITES FORMED BY THOSE VERY LEAKS!]

MINING AWARENESS PLUS WEBSITE ALSO CONFIRMS THIS FACT.

DO GO SEE THEIR 1987 AND 2005 PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE AND THE ACTUAL 1987 DOE DOCUMENT THAT ADMITS THERE WERE STALACTITES FROM LEAKAGE!  

WIPP'S STALACTITES ARE COMPOSED OF HALITE.   

"Halite is NaCl -common salt- which is highly reactive with metals, both of the metal barrels and the transuranic metals (e.g. plutonium, americium) found within the metal barrels.  

Stalactites, leaks and even roof collapse might be controllable if they would put proper rows and aisles in the WIPP “Facility”, but no, they think they must jam pack the maximum nuclear waste possible into the space. That is dumb. And, WIPP is therefore a DUMP."

GOOD CALL, GUYS!

One State Senator told the New Mexico press that:

“We have waste we aren’t sure about, stored in containers that haven’t been approved, travelling over roads that haven’t been improved and being put in salt beds we don’t know about. 
 We’d like to put the brakes on before we get to the edge of the cliff.” 

Given that WIPP, until the recent problems,  was the only OPERATIONAL deep geologic disposal facility operating in the world (in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, it is frequently–and incorrectly–described as a “high-level” radioactive waste site by nuclear advocates), the lessons, whatever they turn out to be, from the series of WIPP failures surely will affect other proposed and potential sites for years to come.

INTERESTINGLY, IN 1990, JUST SUCH AN ACCIDENT WAS PREDICTED BY EXPERTS!

"The past 100 years, April 10, 2015

Santa Fe New Mexican

April 9, 2015

April 10, 1990: A radiological health expert Monday predicted five accidents in New Mexico involving nuclear waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant during the project's 25-year life - including one in which radioactivity would be released.

A poll found residents of southern New Mexico opposed the project three to one, but because of considerable encouragement from local businessmen and politicians, the project eventually moved forward. 

Many New Mexicans fought the WIPP project, knowing that, in the expected 10,000-year life of the project, there eventually would be problems.  

Locals felt their concerns had been ignored, while local and state politicians used the depressed economic conditions in southern New Mexico to push the project forward since it promised jobs.  

Given that it is a mere 15 years since the site began receiving waste, the concern appears to be justified. 

[THE POLITICIANS PROBABLY MADE A CONSIDERABLE DEPOSIT TO THEIR CAMPAIGN CHESTS BY PUSHING WIPP THROUGH! SELLING OUT THE VOTERS PAYS!] 

BUT DO NOTICE....THE FACILITY BEGAN RECEIVING WASTE 15 YEARS AGO (AS OF 2014) , BUT PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS REVEALED WATER SEEPAGE, ONGOING LEAKS AND STALACTITES IN 1987... 27 YEARS AGO!  

WIPP LIED, THE DOE LIED, WHEN THEY TOLD RESIDENTS THE PLACE WAS DRY!  

Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at Southwest Research and Information Center, who has been monitoring WIPP since 1975 and is familiar with the technical, policy, regulatory and legal issues related to the site, is reluctant to state there are any “guaranteed” methods of safely storing radioactive waste. 

“Given that long-lived nuclear wastes are dangerous for thousands of generations, emplacing them deep underground is a possible ‘solution,’ but it certainly isn't ‘guaranteed,’ ” he said.

“Neither WIPP, nor the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada, are ‘ideal’ and meet publicly accepted standards. Both sites were picked for political, not technical, reasons, so it is not surprising that they are inadequate.”

Hancock believes that what is needed is a decades-long program to develop technical standards for any sites then a comprehensive national effort to identify the “best” sites that might meet the standards, then testing and establishing public “consent” for such sites (including a truck and train transportation system). 

He also recommends careful state and national regulatory oversight of development, operation and decontamination and decommissioning of such facilities, and long-term safety procedures to help protect future generations, should nuclear waste operations be continued.>> 

MOST LIKELY, YOU COULD NOT PAY ANY POLITICIAN TO LIVE NEAR ANY NUCLEAR FACILITY LIKE WIPP, BUT YOU MOST LIKELY COULD PAY THEM TO PUT ONE ANY PLACE NOT NEAR THEIR SAFE HOMES THAT YOU CHOSE ...FOR ENOUGH MONEY!  

MONEY TALKS AND SPEAKS FLUENT "CONGRESS-ESE"!

ONCE AGAIN, THE AMERICAN CITIZENS HAVE BEEN DECLARED "EXPENDABLE".

TO CONTINUE TO EXTEND THE TIME LIMITS PLACED ON BOTH CLEANUP OF THE MOST RECENT ACCIDENT AND WASTE DISPOSAL OF ABOVE-GROUND CONTAINERS AT THE WIPP SITE IS TO INVITE DISASTER! 

WHEN YOU GO TO THE POLLS NEXT TIME, TRY TO REMEMBER WHO FOUGHT FOR YOU AND WHO FOUGHT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD AND RUN THESE NUCLEAR FACILITIES!

WIPP HAS FEWER THAN 2000 EMPLOYEES, AS COMPARED TO MANY MILLIONS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS WHO ARE EACH DAY IN HARM'S WAY FROM THIS STILL-LEAKING NIGHTMARE!   

WIPP, FUKUSHIMA, AND ALL THE OTHER SUCH DELAPIDATED NUCLEAR FACILITIES HAVE CONTINUOUSLY LIED AND DOWNPLAYED THEIR HARMFUL EFFECTS ON HUYMAN LIVES.

SO HAS THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND ALL WHO HAVE  FINGERS IN THE NUCLEAR ENERGY PIE.

WE CANNOT COUNT ON ANY OF THEM FOR STRAIGHT ANSWERS OR FACTS OR TRUTH.

WE MUST RELY ON THOSE WHO LIVE NEAR THESE CURSED SITES WHO ARE EXPERIENCING THE EFFECTS OF "NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS", ANTIQUATED, LEAKY SYSTEMS AND RUN-DOWN CONTAINMENT STRUCTURES.   

UNFORTUNATELY, SADLY, TOO MANY OF THEM HAVE DIED TRYING TO GET THE REST OF US TO LISTEN, TO SEE, TO CONSIDER THEIR PLIGHTS WORTHY OF OUR CONSIDERATION.  

IMAGINE YOU LIVED DOWNWIND FROM WIPP.   

OR HANFORD, OR YANKEE, OR TURKEY CREEK, OR ANY NUCLEAR SITE IN AMERICA. 

IMAGINE WHAT YOU WOULD HOPE ALL OF AMERICA DID TO HELP YOU SURVIVE!  

THERE IS NO SAFE LEVELS OF RADIATION, AS THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ADMITTED IN THE 1940s! 

NEVER WAS, NEVER WILL BE.

PERIOD, THE END.