Bluefin tuna contaminated with Fukushima Daiichi cesium documented on U.S. West Coast

Common Dreams, Reuters, and the Guardian (including a videoof the Japanese government's response to the news) have reported that bluefin tuna which had migrated from Japan's east coast to the U.S. west coast tested positive for elevated levels of radioactive cesium in August 2011, about four months after massive radioactively contaminated water releases to the Pacific Ocean took place at Fukushima Daiichi. Bluefin tuna is a prized seafood. Although the levels of radioactive cesium-137 and cesium-134 are reportedly lower than Japanese and U.S. permissible levels for consumption, the U.S. National Academy of Science has long maintained that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how low the dose, carries a health risk of cancer, and that these risks accumulate over a lifetime.

The Reuters article gives the false impression that radioactive cesium-137 is somehow naturally occurring. While Cs-137 was released from atmospheric atomic bomb tests for decades beginning in 1945, and thus can be termed a part of "background" radioactivity levels, this should not be confused with "natural background," for atomic weapons blasts, and their radioactive fallout, are far from "natural." Cs-137, with a 30 year half-life and 300 to 600 year hazardous persistence, was released in large amounts by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, especially in March and April 2011. Cs-134, with a 2 year half-life (and 20 to 40 year hazardous persistence), contamination in bluefin tuna is unmistakably of Fukushima Daiichi origin.

Update on May 31, 2012 by admin

In a segment entitled "Charlie the Tuna Glows in the Dark?", Thom Hartmann, host of The Big Picture, interviews Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps about Fukushima's radioactive "chickens (of the sea) coming home to roost," along the California coast.

Chernobyl Radiation Leaves Male Birds Singing the Blues

One audible legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster is that the woods surrounding the derelict Ukraine power plant are filled with the songs of lonely male birds.

Very high levels of nuclear contamination have killed far more of the female birds, mainly due to the stressful combination of coping with the radiation while reproducing.

Writing in the journal PLoS One, biologist Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina says that after counting the number of females to males around Chernobyl, researchers concluded that lonely bachelors are spending more time calling out for mates that just aren’t there.

The study also found higher percentages of yearlings, rather than more mature birds, meaning the survival rate is relatively low in the contaminated zone.

“It’s what we’ve seen for many years now,” said Mousseau, the director of the Chernobyl Research Initiative at USC, which has sponsored studies on the long-term ecological and health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. More.

Environmental coalition continues to defend endangered species against Fermi 3

NRC file photo of Fermi 2 on the Lake Erie shore, where Detroit Edison wants to build a giant new reactorOn Feb. 13, 2012, attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo, on behalf of an environmental coalition, filed a rebuttal to challenges by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and Detroit Edison. The agency and utility were challenging contentions filed by the environmental coalition on Jan. 11, 2012 concerning NRC's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) about the new Fermi 3 reactor, a proposed General Electric-Hitachi ESBWR (so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor"). The new contentions involve such issues as impacts on endangered and threatened plant and animal species (such as the Eastern Fox Snake, the Karner Blue Butterfly, the Prairie Fringed Orchid, the American Lotus, and others), and their critical habitats, from the overall Fermi 3 proposal, as well as related sub-proposals, such as the contemplated transmission line corridor; radiological health impacts on the Monroe County community from Fermi 3, which has already suffered a half century of radiological and toxic chemical harm from the Fermi 1 and Fermi 2 reactors, as well as a number of giant coal burning power plants; and impacts on the Walpole Island First Nation, just 53 miles away across the U.S./Canadian border. The coalition includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

Beyond Nuclear has compiled all the filings relating to the battle over the Fermi 3 Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Update on February 14, 2012 by admin

The environmental coalition issued a media release about its defense of contentions against the NRC's Fermi 3 DEIS.

Prairie Island leaks tritium and toxins into soil and groundwater

NRC file photo of Prairie Island nuclear power plantXcel Energy's Prairie Island nuclear power plant has made what appears to be two admissions of separate toxic chemical and radiological spills in less than a week. Residents, and the tribal day care center, of the Prairie Island Indian Community are located within hundreds of yards of the nuclear power plant. While the nuclear establishment's philosophy is one of "dilution is the solution to tritium pollution," impacts on area flora and fauna -- such as bioaccumulation up the food chain, the reverse of dilution -- very often go unmentioned and unstudied. Read more...

Update on February 8, 2012 by admin

The Saint Paul, Minnesota Pioneer Press ran a front page article about the recent spills at Prairie Island nuclear power plant, quoting Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps responding to Xcel Energy's and the NRC's downplaying of the risks of the tritium spills:

"But Kevin Kamps, a radioactive-waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a Maryland-based watchdog group that focuses on the nuclear power industry, said it was irresponsible to claim that there was no danger.

'We do take exception to that flippant disregard they have. Tritium is a clinically proven cause of cancer, birth defects, and genetic mutations,' Kamps said. 'It's long known that any exposure carries a health risk.'

...But just because the level is below the EPA's limit does not mean there's no risk, Kamps said.

'It's long known that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, still carries a risk of cancer," he said. "And those risks accumulate over a lifetime."

The articles reports that Xcel Energy did not notify the Prairie Island Indian Community, located 600 yards from the nuclear power plant, about last November's spill until last week, and waited till Monday to notify them about last Friday's spill, as it had occurred "after business hours" just before a weekend.

"Fermi 3 foes urge health analysis"

NRC file photo, showing Fermi 2 located on the Lake Erie -- which Waterkeeper Sandy Bihn calls "the fishiest," that is most biolgically productive, of the Great LakesOf course, health damage to humans from nuclear radiation is a strong indication that health damage to other mammals -- be they domestic or wild -- not to mention other life forms, is a strong possibility. Although the following article focuses on human health impacts, impacts to other animals should be kept in mind...

The Detroit News has reported, in an article entitled "Fermi 3 foes urge health analysis," that indications of health damage from the operations of Fermi 2 be further studied before any plans for a new reactor at Fermi 3 move forward. The article reports on the questions raised in a recent report by Joe Mangano, Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, such as why Monroe County suffers from inexplicably high rates of infant motality, low birth weights, cancer mortality, and non-fatal cancer incidence.

Mangano serves as an expert witness for the international environmental coalition officially intervening against the Fermi 3 proposal. The coalition's member groups are Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

The article quoted from Mangano's submission: "Of 19 indicators, the Monroe County rate change (before and after Fermi 2 began operating) exceeded the state or nation for all 19...".

The article also quoted from Don't Waste Michigan's Michael Keegan: "It's important to establish what the situation is...If you're talking about putting another reactor into play, you need to know where you are with baseline cancer statistics."