Quote:
Originally Posted by skihikeclimb
What radioactive spills? Furthermore I don't see how Asia is contributing to our cancer rate. If pollution were the sole source of our cancer than the east coast of the United states and the Rust Belt should surpass the Seattle area.
I do think it has something to do with lack of sunlight (vitamin d) though, which many have already stated is linked to higher rates of cancer.
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Did I ever claim any were the SOLE source? There are many variables which should be taken into consideration.
Pollution will concentrate with snow and rainfall. Snowmelt will bring those concentrated pollutants into the groundwater. The water you wind up drinking, use in gardening/farming and with animal maintenance. Which agin will concentrate contaminants.
Here are similar stories.
Radioactive boars in Germany a legacy of Chernobyl - CSMonitor.com
For a look at just how long radioactivity can hang around, consider
Germany's wild boars.
A quarter century after the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the
Soviet Union carried a cloud of radiation across
Europe, these animals are radioactive enough that people are urged not to eat them. And the mushrooms the pigs dine on aren't fit for consumption either.
Britain's farmers still restricted by Chernobyl nuclear fallout | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Britain's farmers still restricted by Chernobyl nuclear fallout
Environmentalists say controls on 369 farms highlight danger of plans to build nuclear plants around UK
Toxic Pollution Discovered On Mount Everest
Mountain snow is a major source of drinking water for the world’s population. An estimated ten percent of the world relies on snowmelt from mountains across the globe as their main source of water. Therefore, pollution levels in snow and subsequently snowmelt are important for millions on this planet. In their study, the researchers stated: “Understanding the amount of pollutants in soil and snow is critical to maintaining the quality of alpine water sources.”
The study, which was published in the journal Soil Survey Horizons, found extremely high levels of arsenic and cadmium. These substantial levels were discovered at elevations between 17,500 and 25,400 feet. Arsenic and cadmium are both consequences of the use of oil, coal and other such fuels. Both are also found to cause cancer, often through ingestion.
The study also found that the pollution increased as the elevation increased on Mount Everest. The researchers pinpoint the cause of this to the pollution being spread to the mountain through
wind. Specifically, the cause of the Mount Everest pollution is the fossil fuel usage in Asia.
Regarding spills, these were easily found. You may want to spend sometime checking into half lives and soil/water concentration of radioactive materials.
Hanford Site - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A huge volume of water from the Columbia River was required to dissipate the heat produced by Hanford's nuclear reactors. From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river and, after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned it to the river. Before being released back into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basins for up to six hours. Longer-lived
isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several
terabecquerels entered the river every day. These releases were kept secret by the federal government.
[4] Radiation was later measured downstream as far west as the Washington and
Oregon coasts.
[43]
The plutonium separation process also resulted in the release of radioactive isotopes into the air, which were carried by the wind throughout southeastern Washington and into parts of
Idaho,
Montana, Oregon, and
British Columbia.
[4] Downwinders were exposed to
radionuclides, particularly
iodine-131, with the heaviest releases during the period from 1945 to 1951. These radionuclides filtered into the food chain via contaminated fields where
dairy cows grazed; hazardous fallout was ingested by communities who consumed the radioactive food and drank the milk. Most of these airborne releases were a part of Hanford's routine operations, while a few of the larger releases occurred in isolated incidents. In 1949, an intentional release known as the "
Green Run" released 8,000 curies of iodine-131 over two days.
[44] Another source of contaminated food came from Columbia River fish, an impact felt disproportionately by
Native American communities who depended on the river for their customary diets.
[4] A U.S. government report released in 1992 estimated that 685,000 curies of radioactive iodine-131 had been released into the river and air from the Hanford site between 1944 and 1947.
[45]
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Salmon spawning in the Hanford Reach near the H-Reactor
Beginning in the 1960s, scientists with the
U.S. Public Health Service published reports about radioactivity released from Hanford, and there were protests from the health departments of Oregon and Washington. By February 1986, mounting citizen pressure forced the Department of Energy to release to the public 19,000 pages of previously unavailable historical documents about Hanford’s operations.
[4] The Washington State Department of Health collaborated with the citizen-led Hanford Health Information Network (HHIN) to publicize data about the health effects of Hanford’s operations. HHIN reports concluded that residents who lived downwind from Hanford or who used the Columbia River downstream were exposed to elevated doses of radiation that placed them at increased risk for various cancers and other diseases.
[4] A
mass tort lawsuit brought by two thousand Hanford downwinders against the federal government has been in the court system for many years.
[46] The first six plaintiffs went to trial in 2005, in a
bellwether trial to test the legal issues applying to the remaining plaintiffs in the suit.
[47
Cleanup era
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Image of the surface of waste found inside double-shell tank 101-SY at the Hanford Site, April 1989
On June 25, 1988, the Hanford site was divided into four areas and proposed for inclusion on the
National Priorities List.
[48] On May 15, 1989, the
Washington Department of Ecology, the federal
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Energy entered into the Tri-Party Agreement, which provides a legal framework for environmental remediation at Hanford.
[8] The agencies are currently engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup, with many challenges to be resolved in the face of overlapping technical, political, regulatory, and cultural interests. The cleanup effort is focused on three outcomes: restoring the Columbia River corridor for other uses, converting the central plateau to long-term waste treatment and storage, and preparing for the future.
[49] The cleanup effort is managed by the Department of Energy under the oversight of the two regulatory agencies. A citizen-led Hanford Advisory Board provides recommendations from community stakeholders, including local and state governments, regional environmental organizations, business interests, and Native American tribes.
[50] In recent years, the federal government has spent about $2 billion annually on the Hanford project.
[51] About 11,000 workers are on site to consolidate, clean up, and mitigate waste, contaminated buildings, and contaminated soil.
[5] Originally scheduled to be complete within thirty years, the cleanup was less than half finished by 2008.
[51] Of the four areas that were formally listed as
Superfund sites on October 4, 1989, only one has been removed from the list following cleanup.
[52]
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Spent nuclear fuel stored underwater and uncapped in Hanford's K-East Basin
While major releases of radioactive material ended with the reactor shutdown in the 1970s, parts of the Hanford Site remain heavily contaminated. Many of the most dangerous wastes are contained, but there are concerns about contaminated groundwater headed toward the Columbia River. There are also continued concerns about workers' health and safety.
[51]
The most significant challenge at Hanford is stabilizing the 53 million U.S. gallons (204,000 m3) of high-level radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks. About a third of these tanks have leaked waste into the soil and groundwater.
[53] As of 2008, most of the liquid waste has been transferred to more secure double-shelled tanks; however, 2.8 million U.S. gallons (10,600 m3) of liquid waste, together with 27 million U.S. gallons (100,000 m3) of salt cake and sludge, remains in the single-shelled tanks.
[5] That waste was originally scheduled to be removed by 2018. The revised deadline is 2040.
[51] Nearby aquifers contain an estimated 270 billion U.S. gallons (1 billion m3) of contaminated groundwater as a result of the leaks.
[54] As of 2008, 1 million U.S. gallons (4,000 m3) of highly radioactive waste is traveling through the groundwater toward the Columbia River. This waste is expected to reach the river in 12 to 50 years if cleanup does not proceed on schedule.
[5] The site also includes 25 million cubic feet (710,000 m3) of solid radioactive waste.
[54]
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Grand opening of the
Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF)
Under the Tri-Party Agreement, lower-level hazardous wastes are buried in huge lined pits that will be sealed and monitored with sophisticated instruments for many years. Disposal of plutonium and other high-level wastes is a more difficult problem that continues to be a subject of intense debate. As an example, plutonium has a
half-life of 24,100 years, and a decay of ten half-lives is required before a sample is considered to be safe.
[55][56] The Department of Energy is currently building a
vitrification plant on the Hanford Site. Vitrification is a method designed to combine these dangerous wastes with glass to render them stable.
Bechtel, the San Francisco based construction and engineering firm, has been hired to construct the vitrification plant, which is currently estimated to cost approximately $12 billion. Construction began in 2001. After some delays, the plant is now scheduled to be operational in 2019, with vitrification completed in 2047. It was originally scheduled to be operational by 2011, with vitrification completed by 2028.
[51][57][58]
In May 2007, state and federal officials began closed-door negotiations about the possibility of extending legal cleanup deadlines for waste vitrification in exchange for shifting the focus of the cleanup to urgent priorities, such as
groundwater remediation. Those talks stalled in October. In early 2008, a $600 million cut to the Hanford cleanup budget was proposed. Washington state officials expressed concern about the budget cuts, as well as missed deadlines and recent safety lapses at the site, and threatened to file a lawsuit alleging that the Department of Energy is in violation of environmental laws.
[51] They appeared to step back from that threat in April after another meeting of federal and state officials resulted in progress toward a tentative agreement.
[59]
Wikinews has related news:
Milestone at world's largest cleanup site: Hanford nuclear basin removed A sample of purified plutonium was uncovered inside a safe in a waste trench at the site during excavations from 2004 to 2007, and has been dated to approximately the 1940s, making it the second-oldest sample of purified plutonium known to exist. Analyses published in 2009 concluded that the sample originated at Oak Ridge, and was one of several sent to Hanford for optimisation tests of the T-Plant until Hanford could produce its own plutonium. Documents refer to such a sample, belonging to "Watt's group", which was disposed of in its safe when a radiation leak was suspected.
[60][61]
Energy Department Fined $500,000 for Hanford Radioactive Spill
[SIZE=+1]Energy Department Fined $500,000 for Hanford Radioactive Spill[/SIZE]
RICHLAND, Washington, December 6, 2007 (ENS) - The Washington State Department of Ecology has issued a $500,000 penalty against the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, for a release of radioactive hazardous tank waste to the soil at the Hanford Nuclear Site on the Columbia River in central Washington.
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