URGENT UPDATE WIPP NUCLEAR WASTE SITE

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY JUST RELEASED PHASE 2 OF THEIR REPORT AND NOW STATE THAT THE PLUTONIUM RELEASED WAS MAGNITUDES HIGHER THAN INITIALLY BELIEVED. 

370 Billion Bq of Plutonium equivalent may have escaped from the ruptured drum at WIPP during “thermal runaway” and multiple fires.

For the amount of radiation released to be that high, a “significant number” of breached drums is expected. 

THEY CANNOT RULE OUT THAT THERE ARE OR WILL BE MORE LEAKS.

Ted Wyka, the DOE safety expert who led the investigation, stated:

“The ineffectiveness and weaknesses in the oversight activities were at all levels."    

Independent monitors up to a half mile away detected radiation at levels the U.S. Department of Energy characterized as less than harmful, and 8,000 feet of the WIPP underground complex experienced detectable contamination.  

WHAT IS NOT SAID HERE IS THAT THE MONITORING AND REPORTING AGENCIES ARE ALL FUNDED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE)! 

EVEN THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL KNOWS THAT! 

THOSE GLOWING REPORTS THAT ASSURE RESIDENTS THAT ALL IS JUST PEACHY KEEN COME FROM CEMERC (Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center ), AND NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY SWEARING THEY PROVIDE "INDEPENDENT MONITORING" IS NOT WHAT WE NEED! 

WHEN THE UNIVERSITY PULLS OUT OF THAT NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION'S GRANTS PROGRAM, WE MIGHT START TO BELIEVE THEIR DATA!

[THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION DECADES AGO STATED THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SAFE LEVEL OF RADIATION.

I PRESENTED THEIR QUOTES HERE IN OTHER BLOGS.]

Visual evidence from the room where the drum burst did not reveal any other ruptured containers, but Wyka would not rule out minor seepage from other drums.

THEY ADMIT "SOME" LEAKAGE REMAINS, NOT SURE WHERE, "SMALL AMOUNTS", THEY HAVEN'T BY ANY MEANS CLEANED THAT PLACE UP, THEY TELL US NEW LEAKS ARE POSSIBLE ANY TIME BECAUSE THE LOS ALAMOS BARRELS HAVE THAT SAME PROBLEMATIC KITTY LITTER IN THEM, THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE ARE HAVING TO BE RE-TRAINED, THAT HUMAN ERROR THERE WAS RAMPANT, THERE IS LIKELY STILL A PROBLEM WITH THE FILTRATION SYSTEM, BUT...
BUT IT SHOULD BE JUST DANDY, JUST FINE TO REOPEN THE LEAKING NIGHTMARE IN 2018????

The final report about the leak, issued last week by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Accident Investigation Board, spotlighted a series of blunders, lapses in oversight and shortcuts by entities ranging from waste handling subcontractors at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the top levels of the U.S. Department of Energy division responsible for safe handling and disposal of nuclear waste." 

FOR THOSE WHO LIVE WITHIN FALLOUT RANGE OF WIPP, OR WHO ARE CONCERNED, THE FULL FINAL REPORT CAN BE FOUND BY <CLICKING HERE>.

FROM THAT REPORT (EMPHASIS MINE): 

6.4.1 Analysis Summary

• The radiological release… resulted from an exothermic reaction that led to a thermal runaway in drum 68660 [that] exhibited the following fire behaviors: 
• Expanding flame front of material expelled from drum… Ignition of exposed combustibles… Propagation within the waste array by flame impingement… Melting and burning of exposed plastics.
• The combustibles external to the waste containers were ignited… direct fire effects were limited to Rows 8 through 18… there were multiple small fires that caused direct flame impingement on several waste packages… the fire… caused the migration of contamination throughout Panel 7 [and] significant fire damage.
• A thermal runaway is characterized as a very rapid temperature rise within the container… [This] ultimately… led to failure of the lid… permitting a rapid release of combustible gases and combustible solids.

7.1 Accident Scenarios and Source Term Evaluation   

• The chemical reaction resulting in over-pressurization of the drum described above is similar to the… evaluation of a drum deflagration from hydrogen buildup from radiolysis which assumes burning of material expelled from the drum and a contained burning of material remaining within the drum… [The modeled] release estimate from a drum deflagration is about 3 percent of the 0.1 PE-Ci source term at Station A… the actual amount of material released as measured at Station A was larger than the amount predicted…by almost two orders of magnitude…
•  For either the drum over-pressurization or drum deflagration scenarios discussed above, a much greater airborne source term is possible if the nitrate salts behaved as a combustible dust ignited in air or if a greater fraction of material were ejected and burned.
• The 0.1 PE-Ci source term at Station A can be divided by the range of 0.01 to 0.05 LPFs [Leakpath Factor] to estimate the range of source terms initially released… This results in a range of 2 to 10 PE-Ci [74 to 370 billion Bq] airborne in the room… [I]nventory in drum 68660 [was] 2.84 PE-Ci.
• If drum 68660 released a source term as modeled… a significant number of waste containers would be expected to be breached to cause the 2 to 10 PE-Ci source term estimate… Based on the above estimates… release fractions and deposition in the underground, indicated the release from drum 68660 alone was much larger than what would be modeled… [T]he source term evaluation, using conventional release modeling assumptions, could not conclusively affirm that container 68660 was the sole contributor to the release.

WIPP HAS STILL NOT COMPLIED WITH CLEANUP ORDERS, NOR HAS IT ATTENDED TO ABOVE-GROUND CONTAINERS DEEMED UNSAFE SHOULD WILDFIRE OCCUR, AND WHICH "MAY" ALSO HAVE A FEW LITTLE LEAKS.
WIPP STILL REFERS TO ITS UNDERGROUND LEAKS AS "MODERATE".
DEFINE MODERATE! 

AND NOW, NEW MEXICO HAS CAVED-IN ON THAT $73 MILLION IN FINES, ALLOWING WIPP TO GO SCOTT FREE AND JUST "PROMISE" TO PAY FOR PROJECTS IN THE AREA!
THIS WAS ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY <HERE>.

"Included in these projects is $34 million to improve a road deemed a WIPP road and transportation routes around WIPP."

$34 MILLION FOR A ROAD FOR WIPP?
INSANE!
HOW FAR WOULD THAT $$$ GO TOWARD CLEANUP? 

Town hall Meeting with WIPP A YEAR AGO...A FULL YEAR AND NO ANSWERS! 
At about 12 minutes in on the video you can see by <clicking here> and then clicking on the video pic, a lady challenges them regarding how WIPP can be re certified when it’s not supposed to leak for 10,000 years. They said that that’s after it is backfilled and sealed. Apparently it is allowed to leak until then?   

And when it does start leaking after 10,000 years, HOW MANY will be totally screwed then? 
DOES THE DEPT. OF ENERGY GIVE A DAMN, DOES ANYBODY IN OUR GOVERNMENT CARE? 

WHEN 6 OF 7 RADIATION MONITORING LEVELS SHOWED SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN MARCH AFTER THE ACCIDENT, D.O.E. SAID, "DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!"

<<He says high wind speeds are causing natural radiation found in the Earth’s soil to land on the filters.

“This is not man-made stuff, but God-made stuff that’s in the ground that’s getting blown around,” said Hardy.>>

WELL, 'HARDY', THEN EVERY TIME THE WIND BLOWS AND EVERY TIME THE WIND BLEW PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, WE SHOULD SEE SPIKES, RIGHT?
WE DON'T.
WE DIDN'T.

WHY HASN'T WIPP EVER RELEASED MEASUREMENTS OF THE GAS, THE RADIOACTIVE GAS THAT WAS 'RELEASED'?
WHY DOESN'T 'HARDY' TELL US HOW MUCH GAS THOSE FILTERS CATCH? 
HE'S TALKING SOLIDS, NOT GAS, AND IT WAS THE GAS THAT WAS AND WILL BE A PROBLEM.

FILTERS ATTRACT RADIATION?
WHO KNEW?
ALL THE LITTLE RADIATION ATOMS SEE A FILTER AND JUST DIVE INTO IT, DO THEY?

[VIDEO HERE]

THE WIPP AND DOE GUYS SOUND LIKE THE JAPANESE OFFICIALS WHO ARE STILL TELLING RESIDENTS OF FUKUSHIMA TO "SMILE, SMILE AND THE RADIATION WILL NOT AFFECT YOU."

When, and if, WIPP is closed, and there is no longer ventilation, or monitoring, is when the REAL trouble starts. 
It is difficult to say which is the more likely source of the radiation right now. 
Did someone cut a canister due to speed ups, which is leaking in the newest panel 7? 
Or, is the radiation from an explosion in the abandoned, backfilled, unventilated part? 
We will probably never know for certain. 

The reported measured contamination in WIPP is 10,000 Disintegrations per minute of radiation on an area of 100 cm2. 
That means it is an area which is 10 x 10 cm in size or 4 inches by 4 inches. 
This is 10,000 dpm in a very small space.

WHO EVER EXPLAINED THAT "GREEN BURST" THAT LOOKED SO FAMILIAR (FUKUSHIMA'S DAI'ICHI) OR THAT "CRITICALITY EVENT" THE OLD D.O.E. ET AL WERE SUPPOSED TO BE INVESTIGATING AT WIPP?
DID THEY HIRE A 'GOOD FAIRY' TO WAVE A MAGIC WAND AND MAKE ALL THAT GO AWAY?

HOW ARE THEY GOING TO "STABILIZE" THE HUNDREDS (THOUSANDS??) OF DRUMS FROM LOS ALAMOS THAT WE KNOW HAD THE SAME DAMNED KITTY LITTER IN THEM? 
VOLUNTEERS?

OR WILL THEY JUST WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THEM TO ALL BLOW UP SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO SPEND $$$ ON ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING? 

ABOUT THAT FILTRATION SYSTEM, THEY LIED TO THE PEOPLE AND THEN GOT CAUGHT LAST YEAR, SO WILL THEIR NOSES GROW TO SHOW US WHEN THEY'RE LYING AGAIN?  

"How long did an uncontrolled radiation release happen before the HEPA filters were turned on at WIPP? 
The above video shows that there was at least 1/2 hour of uncontrolled (AND, INITIALLY, UNREPORTED) radiation release from WIPP. 
It is estimated 99% of the radiation was released during that time, from the initial 'explosion' or fire, or squashing of one or more barrels underground at WIPP. "     
[THERE IS A VIDEO AT THAT SITE.]

THE FILTERS HAD TO BE MANUALLY SWITCHED ON!
THE SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONED.
IS IT 100% FUNCTIONAL TODAY?
WHAT "INDEPENDENT" GROUP IS MAKING SURE OF THAT? 
MAYBE FAMILY MEMBERS OF THE DOE WHO NEEDED SUMMER JOBS?

FOR ALL TOWN HALL MEETINGS TO DATE, <CLICK HERE> 

FOR A DIFFERENT TAKE, FROM A MINING PERSPECTIVE, ON WIPP AND A GOOD NEWS SOURCE FOR MATTERS RELATED TO SUCH, WE'D ALL DO WELL TO READ THE LATEST FROM THIS SITE.
'MINING AWARENESS PLUS'

FOR SEMI-CURRENT INFORMATION THAT OUR "UNCLE SAM" WON'T BE BROADCASTING, CHECK INTO THIS SITE FROM TIME TO TIME. 
'RADNET AIR MONITORING'.

STAY AWARE, PEOPLE OF EARTH.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER WHICH ERASES FEAR!