ABOVE: THE HANFORD "SUPER SITE", WASHINGTON STATE, USA
ABOVE: DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, JAPAN.
THE "SILENT NUCLEAR WAR".
ABOVE: DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, JAPAN.
THE "SILENT NUCLEAR WAR".
PICTURED AFTER EXPLOSION, CHERNOBYL POWER PLANT, UKRAINE
ABOVE IMAGE: OCEAN DUMPING OF NUCLEAR WASTE, BY NATION AND AMOUNT.
THE AMOUNTS ARE ASTRONOMICAL TO TRY TO COMPREHEND.
Country total at the major site. SU: Soviet Union (39,243 TBq) and Russia (2.8v TBq), GB: UK (35,088 TBq), CH: Switzerland (4,419 TBq), BE: Belgium (2,120 TBq). US: United States of America (3,496 TBq), JP: Japan (15TBq), KR: South Korea (?TBq), NZ: New Zealand (1+TBq). France (354 TBq), Germany (0.2 TBq), Italy (0.2 TBq), the Netherlands (336 TBq), and Sweden (3.2 TBq) are within the GB marker.
IF WE LOOK AT ALL THE DATA, ALL THE READINGS, ALL THE "UNCLASSIFIED" DOCUMENTATION, ALL THAT WE'RE ALLOWED TO READ, WE MIGHT CHOOSE FUKUSHIMA AS THE MOST RADIOACTIVE SPOT ON THE PLANET TODAY, BUT THEN THERE'S HANFORD.
FUKUSHIMA IS AN ONGOING THREAT IN ITS 8th YEAR NOW, A NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE WE'RE TOLD WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER 40 YEARS BEFORE CLEANUP CAN EVEN BEGIN IN EARNEST, BUT HANFORD IN WASHINGTON STATE HAS BEEN QUIETLY SPEWING RADIATION FOR 60 YEARS NOW AND HANFORD SIMPLY ISN'T MONITORED AS IT SHOULD BE.
THE COVER-UPS AND 'TOP SECRET' CLASSIFICATIONS, STATE AND FEDERAL COMPLICITY, THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION'S DEVOTION TO "LOOKING THE OTHER WAY" HAVE KEPT HANFORD OUT OF THE NEWS FOR DECADES.
THE TRUTH IS, AS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND HANDLERS OF HANFORD HAVE HAD TO ADMIT, THAT NOBODY KNOWS HOW RADIOACTIVE HANFORD IS, NOR WHERE ALL THE RADIOACTIVE WASTE IS BURIED THERE NOR EVEN WHAT EXACTLY GOT BURIED THERE THAT WAS NEVER ENTERED IN ANY LOGBOOK.
HANFORD DEFINITELY TAKES THE #1 SPOT.
IT WAS HANFORD THAT GAVE US THE PLUTONIUM TO MAKE THE FIRST NUCLEAR BOMBS, SO HANFORD WAS HANDED A "GET OUT OF JAIL FREE" CARD AND HAS BEEN PLAYING IT EVER SINCE.
The Hanford Site occupies 586 square miles (1,518 km2)—roughly equivalent to half of the total area of Rhode Island.
The public, at least a few of the public, first knew of Hanford in 1943.
What was known then as 'The War Department' decided to locate portions of the Manhattan Project in this part of the state of Washington to develop atomic weapons in secret.
So, in early 1943, all of the residents of the towns of White Bluffs and Hanford were told to evacuate their homes and abandon their farms, and were given only 30 days and a very meager sum of money to do so.
51,000 workers were hired to accomplish creation of the "weapon to end all weapons" but fewer than 1% had so much as a clue as to what they were building there.
What none knew for years was that weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment, including the Columbia River, into which was dumped uncalculated, enormous amounts of radioactive waste.
Ask a government liar about Hanford and you'll be told that it shut down and cleanup began in 1987, 32 years ago.
32 years!
8,000 Hanford employees are involved in that interminable, chaotic, utter failure of a 'cleanup' today. The only ones "cleaning up" are the inept companies the Feds hire to attempt that impossible job. I'm sure they laugh all the way to the bank.
How can anyone clean up what they cannot locate?
How does one clean the soil, air, water, the trees, rocks, HUMANS?
According to the "official Hanford website",
"Solid waste can be everything from broken reactor equipment and tools to contaminated clothing that a worker wore during the plutonium production activities. The solid wastes were buried in the ground in pits or trenches. Some of the waste was placed in steel drums or wooden boxes before being buried while some of the other waste was placed in the ground without a container to hold it. Depending on when the waste was buried, records about what was buried and where it was buried can be either very good, or in some cases, very bad to nonexistent.
Besides the millions of tons of solid waste, hundreds of billions of gallons of liquid waste was also generated during the plutonium production days. These liquid wastes were disposed of by pouring them onto the ground or into trenches or holding ponds. Unintentional spills of liquids also took place. Liquid wastes generated during the process of extracting plutonium from the uranium “fuel rods” were put into underground storage tanks. Just like with the solid wastes, while some records accurately describe the kinds of liquid wastes that were generated and where they went, some of the spills and the volume of the spills went undocumented.
Solid transuranic waste is the debris that is contaminated with plutonium or other materials that may remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. This waste, referred to as TRU waste, is securely packaged (OR NOT!) and is shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP, another super-toxic radioactive horror) in New Mexico."
THE TEA ROOM WON'T REPEAT WHAT I HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN ON HANFORD, BUT I HOPE THAT YOU WILL GO READ THAT DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE THAT SHOWS HANFORD WILL NEVER CASE BEING A THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH AND A CURSE TO UNBORN FETUSES NEARBY.
PLEASE SEE MY OLDER BLOGS:
--RADIATION FROM HANFORD AND INFANT MORTALITY
WHICH DETAILS A 400% SPIKE IN INFANT MORTALITY AND BIRTH DEFECTS IN THE HANFORD ZONE.
--HANFORD NUCLEAR FACILITY FALLING APART. RADIATION LEAKING FOR DECADES.
-- 11 WORKERS SICKENED BY UNKNOWN FUMES FROM UNDERGROUND TANKS, SOME WITH NOSE BLEEDS OR COUGHING UP BLOOD.
“The place is falling apart and they (WRPS) aren't doing anything to fix it,” KING NEWS was told.
Several employees who spoke with the reporter Tuesday were upset that WRPS (Washington River Protection Solutions) has yet to install additional monitoring equipment in the tank farm areas. There is monitoring equipment available that can detect chemical releases but so far, none has been installed.
--NEW RADIOACTIVE WASTE LEAK AT HANFORD
"CATASTROPHIC"
56 million gallons of the most contaminated nuclear waste in the world.
THIS LEAK IS ASSUMED TO BE THE BIGGEST IN NUCLEAR TANK FARM HISTORY.
THIS LEAK IS ASSUMED TO BE THE BIGGEST IN NUCLEAR TANK FARM HISTORY.
--PLUTONIUM CONTAMINATION HANFORD NUCLEAR FACILITY ...AGAIN.
Hanford hosts 56 million gallons of hot reactor byproducts in 177 steel-walled underground tanks, some dating to the heyday of Betty Grable.
Collectively, they’ve leaked an estimated 1 million gallons of waste into the desert soil, creating radioactive plumes.
#2--FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN
THE ONGOING FUKUSHIMA LEAKS WILL AFFECT OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN.
Massive amounts of radioactive waste still spill into the environment each new day at Fukushima.
The highest radiation readings ever recorded on earth were very recently recorded at Fukushima, but, even then, the measuring device was SHIELDED, so it gave a false LOW reading!
As the Washington Post wrote:
"The 530 sievert reading was recorded some distance from the melted fuel, so in reality it could be 10 times higher than recorded, said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of Citizens' Nuclear Information Center. He agreed with Tanabe, saying that the findings underscore how difficult the decommissioning process will be."
WaPo went on to calm the populace and make light of the whole thing just as they are paid to do. "Don't worry, be happy!"
It is estimated that it will take at least four decades to decommission the power plant completely. Japan has admitted that the technology to even approach the damaged reactors does not exist and may take decades to invent, if such things can be invented.
So far radiation has fried the circuitry on everything they tried to send it to see what it all looks like inside the 3 reactors.
They have only had a brief glance inside ONE of those.
We're told that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant area won't be safe for human habitation for at least 20,000 years. Chernobyl saw ONE reactor melt down, found the corium and built a sarcophagus over the remains, all in less than a year.
Fukushima lost 3 reactors, has NO idea where any of the corium is, can't build a sarcophagus because the ruins of the plant sit on a major aquifer and also sits right on the Pacific Ocean.
They claim to HAVE to dump over 300 tons of contaminated water into that ocean EVERY DAY. But they want to dump ALL their tanks and start over.
Our own nuclear "scientists" seem to agree to allow this.
WHY? So they can do the same?
"How long has contaminated water been leaking from the plant into the Pacific?"
Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, has told reporters that it’s probably been happening since an earthquake and tsunami touched off the disaster in March 2011. (See related: "Photos: A Rare Look Inside Fukushima Daiichi.")
According to a report by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, that initial breakdown caused "the largest single contribution of radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed." Some of that early release actually was intentional, because TEPCO reportedly had to dump 3 million gallons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific to make room in its storage ponds for more heavily contaminated water that it needed to pump out of the damaged reactors so that it could try to get them under control."
According to a report by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, that initial breakdown caused "the largest single contribution of radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed." Some of that early release actually was intentional, because TEPCO reportedly had to dump 3 million gallons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation into the Pacific to make room in its storage ponds for more heavily contaminated water that it needed to pump out of the damaged reactors so that it could try to get them under control."
Like many Japanese, Okano lost faith in the government after the nuclear meltdown seven years ago.
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
Like many Japanese, Okano lost faith in the government after the nuclear meltdown seven years ago.
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
Like many Japanese, Okano lost faith in the government after the nuclear meltdown seven years ago.
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
Fukushima stands today in the path of typhoons, in an area of the world renown for earthquakes AND volcanic eruptions, possible tsunamis and frequent flooding rains.
Whoever imagined to build nuclear power plants there must have been completely insane...or completely determined to nuke the entire planet.
Like many Japanese, Okano lost faith in the government after the nuclear meltdown seven years ago.
"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
THE TEA ROOM HAS WRITTEN MORE ON FUKUSHIMA THAN ANY OTHER TOPIC. I HOPE A QUICK READ THROUGH SOME OF THOSE POSTS WILL HELP YOU PREPARE YOUR CHILDREN FOR WHAT IS YET TO COME."The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.
Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.
To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.
"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.
"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-citizen-scientists-track-years-fukushima.html#jCp
#3 Chernobyl, Ukraine
In April 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was engulfed in a massive fire after a malfunction during a safety check. The deliberate shutdown of safety systems, flaws in the design of the reactor and misarranged reactor cores led to overheating that generated uncontrolled steam and an open air graphite fire that sent radioactive fumes to the atmosphere. Six million people were exposed, and $18 billion was used to control the damage. The area around the nuclear plant is still closed from public access. Almost 6 million people were at a risk of exposure due to this huge disaster.
The effects on children of victims of this disaster are heart-rending and will be handed down to future generations.
April 26, 1986: A routine test at the power plant went horribly wrong, and two massive explosions blew the 1,000-ton roof off one of the plant’s reactors, releasing 400 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The disaster killed two workers in the explosions and, within months, at least 28 more would be dead by acute radiation exposure. Eventually, thousands of people would show signs of health effects—including cancer—from the fallout.
It wasn’t until 5 a.m. the following day that Reactor No. 3 was shut down. Some 24 hours later, Reactors No. 1 and 2 were also shut down.
By the afternoon of April 26, the Soviet government had mobilized troops to help fight the blaze. Some were dropped at the rooftop of the reactor to furiously shovel debris off the facility and spray water on the exposed reactor to keep it cool.
The workers were picked up within seconds to minimize their radiation exposure. It would take nearly two weeks to extinguish all the fires using sand, lead and nitrogen.
It took days for Soviet leadership to inform the international community that the disaster had occurred. The Soviet government made no official statement about the global-scale accident until Swedish leaders demanded an explanation when operators of a nuclear power plant in Stockholm registered unusually high radiation levels near their plant.
The damaged plant released a large quantity of radioactive substances, including iodine-131, cesium-137, plutonium and strontium-90, into the air for over a period of 10 days.
The radioactive cloud was deposited nearby as dust and debris, but was also carried by wind over the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
Over a hurried construction period of 206 days, crews erected a steel and cement sarcophagus to entomb the damaged reactor and contain any further release of radiation.
As former liquidator, Yaroslav Melnik, told the BBC in January 2017, “We worked in three shifts, but only for five to seven minutes at a time because of the danger. After finishing, we’d throw our clothes in the garbage.”
Starting in 2010, an international consortium organized the building of a bigger, more secure sarcophagus for the site. The 35,000-ton New Safe Confinement was built on tracks and then slid over the damaged reactor and existing sarcophagus in November 2016.
After the installation of the new structure, radiation near the plant dropped to just one-tenth of previous levels, according to official figures. The structure was designed to contain the radioactive debris for 100 years.
#4 The Polygon, Kazakhstan, also known as The Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Polygon in modern day Kazakhstan was used by the Soviet Union as a test site for nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
Prior to 1990, Semipalatinsk (today known as Semey) was one of the numerous closed cities of the Soviet Union. Only high-ranking officials of the politburo knew about the going-ons within these cities. Nobody except those few with clearance were allowed to enter or leave these areas, and these closed cities did not even appear on maps or road signs.
In total, 456 nuclear tests had been conducted there between 1949 and 1989, including 340 underground and 116 atmospheric explosions. Altogether, the number of nuclear explosions at Semipalatinsk equals more than 2,500 Hiroshima bombs. A huge number of craters, partly filled with water, testify to these experiments. It was not the only nuclear test site of the Soviet Union, but it was the only one close to major settlements.
The area had been considered uninhabitable although more than half a million people have lived in the area. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people are still suffering from the adverse effects of being exposed to radioactivity. The area has been abandoned, and no visitors are allowed.
Following the independence of Kazakhstan, the closed city status was abolished.
The site may have been closed and the tests may have stopped, but the legacy of the nuclear tests lingers on. An area of more than 18,000 square kilometers is heavily contaminated and seemingly as many as 1,5 million people – a tenth of the total population of the country – have been diagnosed with health problems, that can be attributed directly or indirectly to the nuclear tests.
Even today, people continue to live in the Polygon area. Since this is one of the poorer regions of Kazakhstan, few people have been able to move away. Those who stayed continue to rely on contaminated local crops and water, and even dismantle structures of the Polygon to achieve scrap metal they can sell. Cancer rates are still as extraordinarily high as they have been decades ago, as are leukemia, infertility and depression. Still, one in twenty children are born with severe birth defects – and almost none of the other nineteen are born healthy.
The disturbing 2010 documentary film “After the Apocalypse“ describes the current situation of the site.
Unlike the Polygon that was used as a testing site for nuclear weapons, Mailuu-Suu was rich in uranium which prompted the Soviet Union to set up a mining facility in the area. The area was heavily mined while toxic waste was buried in the excavated areas. However, the excavation and disposal of the waste left a significant amount of radioactive elements above the ground. The region is also known to experience earth tremors which expose the buried elements.
The USSR left 23 unstable uranium tailings pits on the tectonically unstable hillside above the town. A breached tailings dam in April 1958 released 600,000 cubic metres (21,000,000 cu ft) of radioactive tailings into the Mailuu-Suu River. In 1994, a landslide blocked the river, which flowed over its banks and flooded another waste reservoir. A flood caused by a mudslide nearly submerged a tailings pit in 2002.
Mailuu-Suu was found to be one of the 10 most polluted sites in the world in a study published in 2006 by the Blacksmith Institute.
#6 The Somali Coast
The Somali Coastline in Africa may seem like an odd place to find radioactive elements. There are no nuclear plants or weapons in Somalia or any of its neighboring countries. However, in the 1980s the government's inability to monitor activities along its coastline and the need to dispose of nuclear waste by Swiss and Italian companies led to massive disposal of hazardous material in the Somali Coast. It is estimated that an Italian company sunk thirty ships loaded with nuclear waste in the Somalia's coastline.
In the early 1990s, when the government of Somalia collapsed, foreign interests began swooping into unguarded coastal waters to trawl for food — and venturing into unprotected Somali territories to cheaply dispose of nuclear waste. The ramifications of toxic dumping hit full force with the 2005 tsunami, when leaking barrels were washed ashore, sickening hundreds and causing birth defects in newborn infants.
The waste came from European companies, which paid shady intermediaries as little as $2.50 a tonne to dispose of it, compared with about $1,000 a tonne in Europe.
#7 Sellafield, UK
Sellafield is UK’s equivalent of Hanford. A nuclear enrichment plant was built in the area to enrich plutonium. During its peak period, the plant released 8 million liters of radioactive waste water into the sea daily. In 1957, a huge fire ravaged the plant releasing radioactive fumes into the atmosphere. The incident earned its place as the worst nuclear accident in the United Kingdom’s history. A large number of marine mammals died due to the disposal of waste water into the sea while thousands of people suffered from respiratory problems as a result of inhaling the contaminated air.
Sellafield which is located near the village of Seascale across the coast of the Irish Sea in England was originally a nuclear site which was used for the production of plutonium. From the time the site started its operation, there have been a number of cases of accidents that have been reported at the site. The Irish Sea which is considered to be among the most radioactive seas in the world receives around 8 million liters of contaminated waste from this plant per DAY.
Sellafield was originally a plutonium production facility for nuclear bombs, but then moved into commercial territory. Since the start of its operation, hundreds of accidents have occurred at the plant, and around two thirds of the buildings themselves are now classified as nuclear waste. The plant releases some 8 million liters of contaminated waste into the sea on a daily basis, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world. England is known for its green fields and rolling landscapes, but nestled in the heart of this industrialized nation this toxic, accident-prone facility, spews dangerous waste into the oceans of the world.
#7 Mayak, Russia
Russia built a number of nuclear power plants in the region of Mayak during the cold war. A plant in the region suffered a Level 6 disaster on September 29, 1957 (to put this into perspective, Chernobyl is classified as a Level 7). The fatalities that resulted from the incident are still unknown to this day. Although radiation clean up was attempted, the area immediately surrounding the original disaster is still heavily contaminated.
There were about 100 tons of radioactive waste that was released on account of an explosion. This waste was dumped into Lake Karachay and the surrounding regions which led to the widespread contamination of the waters.
The industrial complex of Mayak, in Russia’s north-east, has had a nuclear plant for decades, and in 1957 was the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents. Up to 100 tons of radioactive waste were released by an explosion, contaminating a massive area.
The explosion was kept under wraps until the 1980s. Starting in the 1950s, waste from the plant was dumped in the surrounding area and into Lake Karachay. This has led to contamination of the water supply that thousands rely on daily. Experts believe that Karachay may be the most radioactive place in the world, and over 400,000 people have been exposed to radiation from the plant as a result of the various serious incidents that have occurred — including fires and deadly dust storms.
The natural beauty of Lake Karachay belies its deadly pollutants, with the radiation levels where radioactive waste flows into its waters enough to give a man a fatal dose within an hour.
#8 Siberian Chemical Combine, Russia
The Siberian Chemical Combine facility is located around 3000 km away from Moscow in Siberia. Since the beginning of the Cold War, this site was used as part of the Russian nuclear program for about 40 years, where nuclear material was being produced. The plant was shut down but it was continued to be used as a storage facility containing radioactive materials. Most of the liquid waste is stored in pools without any shelter and the about 125,000 tons of solid waste has been kept in badly maintained containers.
#9 Westinghouse's Nuclear Fuel Plant (Columbia, South Carolina)
According to NRC's report on occupational radiation exposure at NRC-licensed facilities in 2017, the workers receiving the highest individual doses in the U.S. nuclear fuel industry are those employed at Westinghouse Electric Co.'s Columbia nuclear fuel plant. In 2017, the individual TEDE (total effective dose equivalent) annual dose of workers with measurable dose was 1.74 mSv at this plant, while the average for all five fuel facilities covered was 0.088 mSv.
Underground piping leaks at Westinghouse Columbia nuclear fuel plant (2008)The NRC has said it did not know about the 2011 uranium spill until the fall of 2017.
Now, it has learned of pipe breaks in the same area beneath the plant that occurred in 2008, said Smith and Tom Vukovinsky, a senior fuel facility inspector with the NRC in Atlanta. Westinghouse disclosed this information to the NRC amid growing questions about the 2011 leak, officials said.
The 2008 pollution leaks are the third to surface publicly this summer. In July [2018], the NRC learned that uranium drained through a hole in the floor of the plant building. The NRC's environmental report in June mentioned the 2011 leak that not been reported. In examining the circumstances surrounding the 2011 spill, leaks from 2008 were discovered, according to the NRC. (The State Aug. 30, 2018)
Dangerous equipment malfunctions and environmental contamination from an atomic fuel factory near Columbia have been fixed, federal regulators and officials from the factory say. But those fixes have done little to quell the outrage of citizens and residents who say they've been left in the dark about the plant's progress and who question its dedication to environmental safety.
SEE ALSO:
The Most Dangerous Nuclear Power Plants in America https://www.times.org/nuclear-power-back/2018/3/8/the-most-dangerous-nuclear-power-plants-in-america
#10 was hard to determine, but Indian Point seems to win that last spot since San Onofre is being decommissioned at last.
Location: Buchanan, NY (24 miles north of New York City) Reactors: 2 Electrical Output (megawatts): Unit 2: 1020; Unit 3: 1025 Year Operating License Issued: Unit 2: 1973; Unit 3: 1975 Population within 50 Miles: 17,452,585 Relative Safety Rating: bottom third Risk of Natural Disasters:
Likelihood of Earthquake (scale 0-6): 2 Expected Number of Hurricanes in Next Century: 20 - 40 Miles to Potentially Active Volcano: not a factor
Significant Tornadoes (1921-1995): 0-5
A radioactive spill here in April, 2016 marked seven major malfunctions — pump and power failures, a transformer explosion, radiation leaks, a fire and an oil spill. Governor Cuomo ordered a further, full investigation and stated that all these accidents demonstrate that Indian Point can no longer operate safely.
The licenses for Indian Point’s two reactors expired in 2013 and 2015; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was still weighing whether to renew them in 2016.
In 2007, Barack Obama called the commission a “moribund agency” that was a captive of the industry it regulated. It still looks that way today.
Poor maintenance at Indian Point has caused groundwater radiation levels to soar to 740 times federal limits, yet the commission just handed Entergy a five-year delay of the deadline for testing for possible leaks from the No. 2 reactor — the suspected source of this latest leak of radioactive contamination. The commission admits that tritium in the groundwater will reach the Hudson River and that the radioactive isotope, for which there is no safe dose, can cause cancer.
Indian Point also has about 1,500 tons of radioactive waste in the form of spent fuel rods packed into pools. These, too, are leaking radiological contamination that violates the Clean Water Act. In addition, the plant’s cooling system has devastating effects on the Hudson’s ecology, killing more than a billion fish, eggs and larvae each year as it draws millions of gallons of water per day from the river.
The commission has reported that one of Indian Point’s reactors has the highest risk of all the country’s reactors of being damaged by an earthquake, and federal studies show that Indian Point is incredibly vulnerable to acts of terrorism. Tens of millions of people live within the reach of an Indian Point nuclear disaster. An evacuation would be practically impossible and emergency responses would be largely futile.
TOP 10? MAYBE NOT.
Calling these ten the worst contaminated is iffy at best. Other sites may soon top these as time is running out for most of the world's crumbling nuclear facilities and 'accidents' increase.
We are surrounded by reactors used well past their safe limits and dump sites that are anything but secure and well maintained.
We no longer have to rely on these aging, unsafe nuclear plants. There are much safer, cheaper, and more reliable methods to create energy.
The accursed Nuclear Regulatory Commission should cancel all operating licenses in the U.S. immediately and start overseeing an orderly closing of these antiquated, deadly sites.
Maybe the rest of the world would follow suit.
______________________________________
OTHER SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
America’s Atomic Time Bomb: Hanford Nuclear Waste Still Poses Serious Risks, SPIEGEL ONLINE
Half Life—The Lethal Legacy of America’s Nuclear Waste, National Geographic
Radioactive Waste Contamination of Soil and Groundwater at the Hanford Site, University of Idaho
A New Analysis Triples U.S. Plutonium Waste Figures, NYTimes.com
Hanford related disaster alerts:
Nuclear Event in USA on Saturday, 28 July, 2007 at 17:38 (05:38 PM) UTC
HAZMAT in USA on Wednesday, 10 August, 2011 at 03:13 (03:13 AM) UTC.
HAZMAT in USA on Tuesday, 14 February, 2012 at 04:14 (04:14 AM) UTC.
HAZMAT in USA on Wednesday, 22 August, 2012 at 03:18 (03:18 AM) UTC.
Environment Pollution in USA on Tuesday, 11 September, 2012 at 03:17 (03:17 AM) UTC.
Environment Pollution in USA on Tuesday, 23 October, 2012 at 16:09 (04:09 PM) UTC.
HAZMAT in USA on Tuesday, 08 January, 2013 at 08:18 (08:18 AM) UTC.
HAZMAT in USA on Saturday, 22 June, 2013 at 04:33 (04:33 AM) UTC.
Nuclear Event in USA on Friday, 23 August, 2013 at 15:22 (03:22 PM) UTC.
INTERNATIONAL:
Interactive map of toxic shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, in.fondo.al.mar
Ecofamia Radioactive Waste Dumping in Mediterranean: International Catastrophe Coming to Light, Ecosalon
Toxic waste dumping by the ‘Ndrangheta, Wikipedia
Somalia: The Most Dangerous Environment on Earth [Disturbing Images], Environmental Graffiti
More Illegally Dumped Radioactive Waste Found on Somalia’s Coast, EcoLocalizer
Root causes of Piracy, mtholyoke.edu
Somalia used as toxic dumping ground, The Ecologist
Somali pirates versus European toxic-waste dumpers, BoingBoing
Kyshtym-57: A Siberian Nuclear Disaster, GeoCurrents
In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You! DamnInteresting.com
The Mayak Chemical Combine, Bellona
ON SELLAFIELD:
Report damns Sellafield firm over clean-up, The Independent
Dealing with Sellafield’s radioactive legacy, BBC
Sellafield (including Calder Hall and Windscale), Nuclear Decommissiong Authority
The ‘Hot’ nature created by Sellafield, Lakestay
Sellafield swallows contaminated by radioactivity, guardian.co.uk
Sellafield: The dangers of Britain’s nuclear dustbin, RT
ON SIBERIAN SITES:
Siberia Nuclear Waste, Trade Environment Database Case, The Mandala Projects
European Court of Human Rights finds in favour of villagers suing the Siberian Chemical Combine, Bellona
Siberian Chemical Combine (SKhK), The Nuclear Threat Initiative
The Radiological Accident in the Reprocessing Plant at Tomsk, IAEA
Russia plays down effect of nuclear accident: ‘Cloud of uranium and plutonium’ over Siberia, The Independent
Tomsk-7 / Seversk Combine 816 / Siberian Chemical Combine, Global Security
Current Environmental Issues Associated with the Mining Wastes in Kyrgyzstan, Central European University
Environment and Security: Transforming risks into cooperation, GRID-Arendal
Uranium mining site, Hibakusha Worldwide
Worst Polluted: Maylisuu, WorstPolluted.org
Mailuu-Suu Legacy Uranium Dumps, Blacksmith Institute
JAPAN:
The Implications of The Massive Contamination of Japan With Radioactive Cesium, ClimateViewer News
Ten Years of Fukushima Radiation Crossing the Pacific Ocean, ClimateViewer News
//WW
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