The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?

Indian Point, NY's steam generator tube rupture in Feb. 2000, and Davis-Besse's Hole-in-the-Head reactor lid corrosion in 2002 were examples of "break-down phase" accidentsInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman, who has been exposing the nuclear industry's cover ups for decades (Karl's first book, published in 1980, was entitled Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power) published an article today at Counterpunch entitled "The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?" Since the year 2000, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rubberstamped 73 license extensions for 20 additional years of operations at U.S. atomic reactors, on top of the original 40 year licenses. 13 additional atomic reactors are now lining up, hoping to get their 20 year extensions rubberstamped. But Beyond Nuclear is helping lead environmental coalitions against the Seabrook, NH and Davis-Besse, OH rubberstamps; Natural Resources Defense Council is challenging the Limerick, PA applications; and Missouri Coalition for the Environment is opposing the Callaway, MO license extension. Most of the remaining 20 atomic reactors in the U.S. also plan on applying for 20 year license extensions in the years ahead.

In addition, the NRC has rubberstamped scores of "power uprates" (with many more applied for), allowing atomic reactors to generate more electricity, in order to boost profits, by running hotter and harder than they were originally designed to operate.

But the insatiable greed and technical arrogance of the nuclear establishment knows no bounds. On Thursday, NRC will sit down with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy, as well as the nuclear industry's Electric Power Research Institute, to consider allowing atomic reactors to split atoms for 80 years, despite the radioactive bullets -- "break down phase" risks -- we have already been dodging by the skin of our teeth for many years (see Dave Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists "Bathtub Curve of Nuclear Accidents," above left; the title refers to the shape of the curve, which shows that as atomic reactors age, the risk of disasters increases).

Karl, a Beyond Nuclear board member, quotes Bob Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies: “The idea of keeping these reactors going for 80 years is crazy! To double the design life of these plants—which operate under high-pressure, high heat conditions and are subject to radiation fatigue—is an example of out-of-control hubris, of believing your own lies.”

"Experts: Nuclear Power Industry Woes Spreading Across Nation from Florida to Iowa"

Physicians for Social Responsibility's website, www.nuclearbailout.org, features a May 23rd press release and audio press conference entitled "Experts: Nuclear Power Industry Woes Spreading Across Nation from Florida to Iowa: As Ratepayer Rebellion Rages in Florida, Small Modular Reactor and 'CWIP' Advance Financing Drive Stopped Dead in Iowa; Next Battleground States: Missouri and North Carolina." The expert speakers featured were: Florida State Senator Mike Fasano; Steven Falck, senior policy advocate, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Iowa; Edward Smith, safe energy director, Missouri Coalition for the Environment; and Matthew McKinzie, PhD, senior scientist, Nuclear Program and Lands and Wildlife Program, Natural Resources Defense Council.

Defend assault on Canadian environmental laws and NGOs

Many NGOs in Canada, and some in the US, are today "blacking out" their websites in defense of Canada's precious ecosystems which are under assault from draconian new regulatory changes embedded in the latest Canadian federal budget. The changes will allow extractive industries to plunder Canadian resources at will, virtually unfettered. Canadian NGOs are also being stripped of their non-profit status using spurious accusations that they are "too political" (The IPPNW Canadian affiliate - Physicians for Global Survival being one such.)

Today's Speak Out action includes an on-line petition and other actions of solidarity.

Right now, Parliament is pushing through a bill to weaken many of the country's most important environmental protection measures and silence the voices of all Canadians who seek to defend nature. Today it's our voice; tomorrow it could be yours. Read more here.

Stony Brook and Stanford Universities link radioactive bluefin tuna caught off California coast to Fukushima

A study, published by the universities at Stony Brook and Stanford, has scientifically linked  radioactive contamination in bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California in August 2011, to the massive releases of radionuclides into ocean waters from Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear catastrophe which began in March 2011. The scientific report concludes that Fukushima has "caused significant local and global concern regarding the spread of radioactive material."  The authors with Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University jointly published "Pacific bluefin tuna transport Fukushima-derived radionuclides from Japan to California” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The authors report "unequivocal evidence" that the radioactive cesium-137 and cesium-134 contamination in the bluefin tuna is from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear catastrophe.  The bluefin tuna spawn in the waters of the Western Pacific off the coast of Japan each year and then migrate across the Northern Pacific to the eco-systems in the Eastern Pacific off the coast of California.   Radioactive cesium accumulates in the muscle tissue of fish.  The report states, “Because bluefin tuna are harvested annually in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) at 1.7 – 9.9 x 10³ metric tonnes (between 1700 and 9900 metric tonnes) for human consumption (2000 to 2010), the possibility of radioactive contamination raises public health concerns.”

The report further states that the samples showed a 10-fold increase in radiocesium concentrations in the commercial fish and, presently, would likely only provide low doses of radioactivity through consumption relative to other naturally occurring radionuclides in those same fish.

However, the study appears to have measured only one kind of radiation: gamma. The researchers do not mention measuring beta or alpha radiation, two types that deliver a much higher dose once inside a human body. This means that any radioactive decay level (usually given in becquerels - Bq) would under represent the actual level of radioactivity. Additionally, the researchers attempt to compare radiocesium contamination with that of naturally occurring radiation. However, such comparisons should be avoided because studies show that cesium can behave very differently, collecting in unexpected places in the body and residing there longer than expected.

The study represents the first evidence that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, coming by way of the Pacific Ocean marine food chain, can ultimately end up increasing internal radioactive exposure and body burden for humans in the US. Since publishing the study, the authors have now caught more bluefin tuna that have completed additional migrations between Japan and California.  These commercial fish will be tested for increased bioaccumulation of radioactive isotopes. Additional bio-magnification of radioactive isotopes like cesium-137 can be expected to continue to increase in the fish food stock in these contaminated eco-systems. The average life span of bluefin tuna can be up to 15 years, meaning that additional fish migrations into these contaminated eco-systems can increase as the result of bio-magnification, bio-accumulation and  the uptake and retention of radioactivity in muscle and organ tissue.