WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
I'm surprised that this hasn't been mentioned anywhere on the forum until now. Anyone here from around New Mexico? Are people there aware of what is going on? If so, do they believe the official story?
The headline: in February 2014, there was a release of plutonium into the environment from an underground nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico. The authorities say that it is all contained and nothing to worry about, but there are plenty of indications that there is a lot to worry about. The authorities have admitted that 13 above-ground workers have tested positive for radiation exposure - and bear in mind that the whole purpose of the design of the WIPP was never to allow radiation to escape the facility. One of the main issues now is the air filtration system, how badly damaged it is. And the big questions - are releases of plutonium ongoing, if so how much and where is it heading?
WIPP also cancelled all radiation collection efforts and will not allow anyone from outside of WIPP onto the site. That is not a good sign. Hiding, secrecy and cover ups are what major nuclear disasters are made up of.
In more detail. WIPP is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an underground waste disposal facility for plutonium and other "transuranic" waste, which means materials above uranium in the periodic table. The non-technical meaning is, nasty, nasty stuff. Not only is it radioactive, it is highly toxic. If you breathe in one tiny speck of plutonium, and it gets stuck in your lungs, death is the likely result.
A part of the problem here is the use of confusing/technical words like "transuranic". It means plutonium, and other nasty stuff (like americium, which is also nasty, but doesn't sound so bad!)
Here's the wiki entry on WIPP for background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_I...on_Pilot_Plant
We all know that wiki only provides the "official truth" not the actual truth, but we can start with that and then try and figure out what is really going on. From wiki:
"On February 5, 2014 at around 11am a salt haul truck caught fire, which caused an evacuation of the underground facility of the site.[11] Six workers were taken to a local hospital with smoke inhalation, and all were released by the next day. Lab tests after the fire showed that there was no release of radiological material.[12]
"On February 15, 2014, authorities ordered workers to shelter in place at the facility after air monitors detected unusually high radiation levels at 11:30pm the previous day. None of the facility's 139 workers were underground at the time of the incident, and none were exposed to radioactive contaminants.[13][14] Later, trace amounts of airborne radiation consisting of americum and plutonium particles were discovered above ground, a half mile from the facility.[13] According to the Carlsbad Current-Argus, "the radiation leak occurred on the evening of February 14, according to new information made public at a news conference [on February 20]. … Joe Franco, manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, said an underground air monitor detected high levels of alpha and beta radiation activity consistent with the waste buried at WIPP."[15] Ceiling collapse is one theory of the cause of the leak.[15]Regarding the elevated levels of plutonium and americium detected outside the nuclear waste repository, Ryan Flynn, New Mexico Environment Secretary stated during a news conference, "Events like this simply should never occur. From the state's perspective, one event is far too many."[16]
"February 26, 2014, it was announced by the Department of Energy 13 WIPP above ground workers had tested positive for radiation exposure. Other employees are in process of being tested. Thursday, February 27th, DOE announced sending out "a letter Wednesday to tell people in two counties what they do know so far. DOE said 13 WIPP staff who were working above ground the day of the leak have tested positive for radiation.Officials said it is too early to know what that means for the workers’ health.." [17]. Additional testing will be done on employees who were working at the site the day after the leak. Currently 182 employees continue to work above ground at WIPP. February 27, 2014 update included comments on plans to discover what has occurred below ground first using unmanned probes and then people. [18]"
So what is really going on?
Effect of the initial fire is unclear, but it may have lead to a collapse of the ceiling of the storage rooms (probably room 7) which cracked the containers of the high-level nuclear waste inside. To say this is bad news is a huge understatement:
http://enenews.com/most-likely-a-wor...dmit-that-prob
First of all, contamination is likely widespread:
http://enenews.com/radioactive-conta...pulation-state
and a lot of plutonium has been released:
http://enenews.com/new-tests-show-pl...ion-leak-video
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com...-at-least.html
the scope of the problem is unknown and increasing:
http://enenews.com/officials-even-mo...g-stage-videos
new releases of plutonium may occur:
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com...plutonium.html
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/...m-damaged.html
In short, the situation is highly unstable and dangerous, and the authorities are releasing miminal information, and only when they have to.
This is getting no exposure in the media, even less than Fukushima. And even on Project Avalon, this is the first post about WIPP.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
I am aware that it is poor form to reply to my own thread, but the situation is developing, and not in a good way. This blogger has received inside information from someone working at WIPP that the 14 February plutonium/americium release lasted much longer than publically admitted, meaning much more nasty stuff was released than admitted. That would explain why 13 employees have been contaminated outside the WIPP (which, to repeat, was NEVER supposed to happen - and the facility was supposed to store the waste for 10,000 years! It can't even manage 15 years...) - probably there is much more contamination which has not been noticed (plutonium is invisible and only emits small amounts of alpha radiation (which is relatively weak)... for millions of years... so it is much harder to detect than the cesium and strontium being pumped out from Fukushima)...
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com...indicates.html
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Please don't ever apologize for replying to your own thread.
Would you think it wrong to write a second chapter of a book?
Then why do people online hate it when you reply to your own header?
I think your post is appropriate.
Nuclear stuff is one of those "God"-level issues that most Americans won't talk about.
Thank you for being willing to do so.
Maybe someday better humans than we are will tear down the Trinity monument and put this to rest.
I think nuclear power is really scary, the way it's practiced.
Even tho I hate Bill Gates, some of the newer reactors look safer than the old piles of crap that we see melting down.
Also the spent fuel storage is a huge problem.
The people who are behind traditional nuclear power are decreasing the amount of land available for human use.
Just a fun fact.
I'll try to find links for the news, I hadn't followed this story, but am not surprised, just sad. :( (P.s. I can see the B.s. in this story: )
http://news.yahoo.com/more-radiation...224142028.html
More radiation detected near New Mexico nuke site
Associated Press
February 24, 2014 5:41 PM
Quote:
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — More airborne radiation has been detected in southeastern New Mexico from a leak at the nation's first underground nuclear waste dump.
The U.S. Department of Energy said Monday the results are from samples collected last week at numerous air monitoring stations at and around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
Last week, DOE officials confirmed the first-ever leak at the facility. It stores plutonium-contaminated waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory and other government nuclear sites.
The results are consistent with the kinds of waste stored at the plant, but officials say there's no public health threat.
Carlsbad's mayor has scheduled a community meeting Monday evening.
Waste shipments to the site were halted earlier this month after a truck caught fire underground. Officials say they don't think the incidents are related.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...in-new-mexico/
Radiation Levels Fall after Nuclear Waste Leak in New Mexico
The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to reenter the deep-underground waste repository to determine the cause of the spike
Feb 26, 2014 |By Jeff Tollefson and Nature magazine
Quote:
Radiation levels within and around the United States’ only deep-underground nuclear waste facility continue to drop, nearly two weeks after a mysterious leak triggered alarms and shut down the facility, according to data released this week by the US Department of Energy and an independent air-monitoring group.
The sharp spike and subsequent decline in radiation are suggestive of a single release of contamination on 14 February at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It is the first reported leak at the WIPP, which is a permanent repository for nuclear waste that has been carved out of ancient salt beds 655 metres underground. Contamination escaped the facility, but officials say that the levels are low and pose no health threat. Because no one was underground when the radiation alarms went off, it remains unclear what caused the release.
One possibility is that a large chunk of salt fell from the ceiling of the repository and damaged one of the metal storage drums, says Russell Hardy, director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center at New Mexico State University, which independently monitors radiation at the site. “But until they get underground and find out what happened, it’s really all just speculation at this point,” he says.
The WIPP opened in 1999 and has since taken in more than 80,000 cubic metres of material – including work gloves, tools and machinery – that is contaminated with radioactive elements such as plutonium as well as hazardous chemicals. On 16 February, two days after the initial release, Hardy’s centre detected plutonium and americium contamination at an air-monitoring station 1 kilometre away from an exhaust shaft leading from the facility. The centre's latest results, released on 25 February based on samples collected four days after the leak, identified no plutonium and sharply lower levels of americium. Hardy says that the centre’s data align with reports from the US Department of Energy. The agency estimated that a person at one of its above-ground monitoring stations would have sustained a cumulative radiation exposure of 1 millirem – ten times less radiation than that delivered during a typical chest X-ray.
Although no data were released from real-time radiation detectors within the facility this week, the Department of Energy says that radiation levels are dropping and seem to be limited to one section of the facility. Energy Department spokeswoman Deb Gill says that the agency and its contractors – an industry consortium led by the San Francisco-based URS Corporation – are still working on a plan to re-enter the facility.
The leak came nine days after an apparently unrelated incident in which a vehicle caught fire underground. The Department of Energy had already appointed a panel to investigate the fire, and that panel will now investigate the radiation leak as well, Gill says.
Hardy says his group is still analysing samples taken directly from the exhaust shaft – both before and after the air is filtered – and plans to release the results as early as today. The findings will determine whether the air filtration system, which is designed to capture 99.97% of the radiation, functioned properly. “We’ve never had to test it under live conditions,” Hardy says.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on February 26, 2014.
Could this story have been timed to cover up this story?:
http://enenews.com/tv-extremely-high...-still-underwa
TV: “Extremely high levels of radioactive substances” leaked Wednesday night at Fukushima plant — 25 trillion becquerels of Strontium-90 and other beta emitters estimated to have flowed out — “Investigation is still underway” (VIDEO)
Published: February 19th, 2014 at 11:44 pm ET
By ENENews
Email Article Email Article
238 comments
Quote:
NHK, Feb. 19, 2014: Highly radioactive water leaks at Fukushima plant [...] [Tepco] says water containing extremely high levels of radioactive substances has leaked from a storage tank. [and] was found on Wednesday night [...] the water leaked from a seam near the top of the tank. It traveled along a rainwater pipe and flowed outside the barrier that surrounds the tank. [...] Officials say their investigation is still underway.
Bloomberg, Feb. 19, 2014: Tepco Says New Leak of Radioactive Water Found at Fukushima Site [...] About 100 metric tons (26,400 gallons) of water [...] Beta radiation readings of 230 million becquerels per liter were taken in a water sample collected today near the H6 tank area [...] About 300 tons of contaminated groundwater seep into the ocean each day [...]
“The sample was collected today near the H6 tank area”… Why not sample the water from inside the tank it leaked out of?
100 metric tons with 230,000,000 Bq/L = 23 Trillion Bq of Strontium-90 & other beta emitters, with half generally being Strontium-90 — about 11.5 trillion Bq of Sr-90
Tepco claims 10 trillion Bq of Sr-90 entered the sea from May 2011 to Aug. 2013
Kyodo News, Feb. 20, 2014: Roughly 100 tons of highly radioactive water leaked [Tepco] said Thursday [with] 230 million becquerels per liter of strontium and other beta ray-emitting radioactive substances. The utility believes the liquid has not flowed into the adjacent sea as there is no drainage nearby [...]
Tepco “believes the liquid has not flowed into the adjacent sea”… yet. A recent special on Japan TV about Fukushima’s contaminated water summed up the situation this way:
NHK (at 36:30 in): “What has become clear is that it’s very hard to control radioactive materials once they get into the environment.”
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Gentle Tesla, thank you. I will continue to monitor this story and post updates here.
Unfortunately, the news is not good. Now officials are unable to say with 100% certainty that population centers are safe. Ther are only "pretty sure". You know what that means, right? It means, they are not safe at all!
If they are following the normal playbook, the next step will be to say that they are "baffled" and "confused" about how this accident happened and any plutonium at all could have got into the air.
Of course, they will do everything possible not to collect all the data about how much plutonium actually is floating about (and plutonium is NOT easy to measure, it just kills easily when inhaled/ingested), so they can say "we have no data that suggests any danger to the public", etc. Technically, that statement could be correct, but actually, it's a LIE!
Really, this approach gets old in a hurry.
http://enenews.com/report-officials-...lect-radiation
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Hi folks - does anyone have a surface map, showing where this site is located, where the rivers and population centers are? tnx.
Quote:
Posted by
Cognitive Dissident
[...] Now officials are unable to say with 100% certainty that population centers are safe.
Quote:
Posted by
Tesla_WTC_Solution
[...] On 16 February, [B]two days after the initial release, Hardy’s centre detected plutonium and americium contamination at an air-monitoring station 1 kilometre away from an exhaust shaft leading from the facility.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Bobd, here is a link with some maps. Note, the contamination is mostly by air rather than water, so it can spread a long way. Also, note that contamination is continuing and depends partly on wind direction so these maps, which are a few weeks old, will be out of date:
http://optimalprediction.com/wp/plut...aste-facility/
Below are some update stories. The "official story" - that is everything is now fine - is becoming more obviously false. Perhaps they will not be able to enter the underground for a long time, during which time the air releases will continue, in relatively small but deadly amounts:
http://enenews.com/accident-at-wipp-...ly-happened-do
http://enenews.com/gundersen-wipp-wh...ast-30-minutes
http://enenews.com/concerns-about-su...waste-is-video
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Quote:
Posted by
Cognitive Dissident
Thanks for bringing up the links of the map - the spread never-the-less would be vast..
What is significant to me is the salt-roof (a chunk they are saying), broke free, and damaged the storage containers..
To me that should lead one to question the mindset that says burying in a SALT DEPOSIT is absolutely safe for nuclear wastes..
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
I live in New Mexico and they are acting like nothing happened.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
lelmaleh, I hope you are OK and are following this closely. Not to spread fear, but so that you are well informed. In particular, keep an eye on wind direction and if you are downwind of WIPP, take precautions.
www.enenews.com is a good source of information
http://enenews.com/tv-officials-now-...-blew-up-video - plutonium and/or americium reached Carlsbad - not good news!
also http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/ has some good information and analysis.
It is not surprising that most people are ignoring it, it is just much too disruptive and/or difficult. I hope that you stay safe.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
I live directly north and little west, 268 miles away, scary.
¤=[Post Update]=¤
Thank you for this information.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Quote:
Posted by
lelmaleh
I live directly north and little west, 268 miles away, scary.
¤=[Post Update]=¤
Thank you for this information.
You're welcome. It is hard to find much in the MSM, but if you search there should be some group of concerned citizens in New Mexico who are trying to monitor the problem. Unfortunately I haven't had time to search.
Also, unfortunately, plutonium is hard to detect, it only gives off alpha, whereas cesium gives off alpha and beta (I think - not an expert!).
Keep an eye on the wind direction and prevailing wind - if you are always upwind of WIPP, your risk will be much lower.
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
A good summary of the current situation is here: http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com...14-in-new.html
More news comes in from time to time, not much of it good. For example, the HEPA filters, which are the main protection against radioactive releases from underground, are the original 15 year old filters! They have never been replaced! How effective do you think they are after 15 years? (Rhetorical question).
Also, the "official story" is that the roof collapsed and damaged a container, releasing the pollution. However, it is equally (if not more) likely that the contents of the container generated gases which caused an explosion. This is more worrying, since if it happened once, it could happen again...
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com...e-at-wipp.html
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/ continues to provide very good and detailed analysis. Their latest story is pretty worrying:
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com...officials.html
Dear lelmaleh, I hope you are OK and are keeping an eye on the news (not the MSM) and also on the prevailing wind patterns. Did you manage to find any local groups who are trying to monitor the radiation in New Mexico?
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
I am going to continue to update this thread with information on this very important story. The latest is that the electricity sub-station at WIPP almost shorted-out in February, which would have led to huge contamination across the mid-West of America. Of course, this story is totally ignored in the MSM.
If you need one verifiable story to show a friend why the MSM is a huge cover-up, here it is (I hope I am not overstating here - your feedback appreciated), the story of WIPP in general, and this detail in particular:
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com...w-lead-to.html
Re: WIPP - ongoing plutonium contamination "incident" in New Mexico
Denver airport tunnels wouldn't be in its path would it?
