– Mistake at Congressional Hearing? Senator: “Radioactive releases from WIPP have been at levels that are a public health danger” — EPA: “This is a big deal” (VIDEO) (ENENews, April 17, 2014):
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, published Apr. 9, 2014 (at 3:00 in):
- Sen. Tom Udall, New Mexico: I appreciate that many in your agency have made it clear that the radioactive releases from WIPP have been at levels that are a public health danger and I’m hopeful that you’re monitoring and verification will continue to support their unfortunately the facts are the two accidents have happened to WIPP that we’re not supposed to happen — a fire in a mine and a radiological release. DOE oversight has already been found to be lacking and that’s why it’s important to the community that an independent public health agency like EPA be on the ground overseeing the recovery phase to ensure public health is protected. […]
- Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator: EPA’s main job in this is to ensure that we’re looking at any level that could have been exceeded in terms of protectiveness to the outside, so that the surrounding communities are aware of any concerns […] So far, it looks like any release has been far below any levels that are necessary for protection […] We know people have concerns, this is a big deal.
While checking if there were any other reports on this topic, a website Mining Awareness Plus was found. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post (emphasis added): Now we imagine that [Sen. Udall] didn’t mean to say that. But, he spoke the truth whether he knew it or not. The WIPP released plutonium and americium, which are long-lived alpha emitters, which can stay in the body for a lifetime. They thus bioaccumulate upon inhalation and ingestion, and even absorption. That is the hidden, dirty, secret. […] The BEIR VII report is well-known for its Linear No-Threshold Model (LNT), i.e. no safe dose: “the risk of cancer proceeds in a linear fashion at lower doses without a threshold and that the smallest dose has the potential to cause a small increase in risk to humans.” However, BEIR only “focuses on the health effects of low levels of low linear energy transfer (low-LET) ionizing radiation such as x-rays and gamma rays.” And, as pointed out “Most radiation sources have a mixture of high- and low-LET radiation. Compared to high-LET radiation [Alpha radiation is high LET; beta and gamma radiation are low LET], low-LET radiation deposits less energy in the cell along the radiation path and is considered less destructive per radiation track.”
Related info:
– WIPP Officials Admit New Release Of Plutonium And Americium – Nearly Double February Leak
This is the only big deal, the only big story because we cannot stop it. Our food is being ruined, our air and water destroyed. We cannot live in a radioactive world, and that is what we now confront.
I listen half heartedly to fools who speak of pending elections and politics, but cannot give them any interest because they no longer matter. I just brought home a beautiful cantaloupe. It looks perfect, but tastes terrible….that is only one aspect of what we face.
We can eat nothing from the ocean, we cannot eat chicken and now, it isn’t safe to eat beef. Our water is being poisoned along with the soil and the seeds.
I paid $5.00 for a cantaloupe I cannot eat. High prices are only one aspect……I bought a box of Cheerios that smelled odd. I tried to eat some, there is something wrong with the ingredients. It is becoming commonplace, and I wonder how many people are paying attention.
I don’t know about others, but I have no intention of dying of radioactive poisoning, it is like being cooked from the inside out. It is time for people with sense to look for alternative methods. I have an illness that will soon take my life, in that sense, I am better off, but I am not going to cook to death.
Not telling people what they are facing is the cruelest thing of all. In the movie On The Beach, the government provides pills so people can go to sleep and die in comfort. This government is too dysfunctional, and so are the Russians. Thank the Japanese and the Americans. At least, Russia buried their nuclear disaster in concrete.
Telling people nothing is the worst.
Thanks for staying on this story.
More bad news from Fukushima.
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-embarrassing-radioactive-leak-332/
The way they keep hiding it, the more worrisome it becomes. Why are they lying?
Those smart engineers who developed the nuclear and neutron bomb both died deaths of despair because they realized (too late) that mankind isn’t advanced enough to realize what dangerous things they had………and look at the destruction it has already caused.
Absolutely terrifying to those of us intelligent enough to realize it.
The mindless (indeed the most dangerous) never think of it…..or of anything else besides themselves.)
Here is another big deal, one that happened in Simi Valley in 1959…..I knew nothing about it until reading it on line.
Here is the article, it also covers some other nuclear accidents nobody reports. FYI
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20975-remembering-rocketdyne-discussing-americas-worst-nuclear-meltdown-not-three-mile-island-with-erin-brockovich