22 October 2014 (14:22 UTC-07 Tango)/27 Dhu l-Hijja 1435/30 Mehr 1393/29 Jia-Xu 4712
United States: What does a 1994 U.S. Department of Energy memo say is the best treatment for tritium exposure? Water, lots and lots of water. Is that the real reason the U.S. military suddenly (in the mid-1990s) adopted a policy of “Drink water!” for ground troops?
In Louisiana, a nuclear disaster drill was held (one of dozens that have been held across the U.S. this year) and it involved a nuke waste truck heading to New Mexico’s WIPP, and a school bus. The area was chosen because WIPP waste trucks actually drive that route: “We actually transport radiation. It’s materials left over from the production of nuclear weapons. So it’s how to respond to radiation should it occur. And it’s different in the chemical aspect because you can’t see it taste it or smell it.”-Bobby St. John, Waste Isolation Pilot Project
In Seattle, Washington, residents near Magnuson Park are outraged after learning the popular park is actually contaminated with radiation left over from the Second World War. Renovations of two buildings revealed radium contamination. When some local news sources heard the rumor, and then went to the park, they found Washington State Department of Ecology employees with geiger counters. The state employees said the radiation levels were OK for a person to be in the area for two hours per day, five days per week. One politician is pissed: “Totally unacceptable. It’s a gross injustice to say we’re going to call this safe and cleaned up when future children using the park will be at risk of getting cancer.
…..How many of you have children or high school students who use the park more than two hours a day?”-Gerry Pollet, state representative
Canada: U.S. based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is now warning that Fukushima radiation, still flooding into the Pacific Ocean, is about to come ashore on North America.
On 02 August 2014, a water sample taken off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, showed cesium-134 and 137 originating from the GE designed disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. Woods Hole officials will reveal more at a public announcement in November: “There is definitely offshore Fukushima cesium now. It’s not on the beaches, but it’s offshore.”– Ken Buesseler
Japan: Continuos tropical storms and cyclones are flooding contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. Phanfone and Vongfong have increased leaked cesium levels to 251-thousand becquerels per liter, tritium as high as 150-thousand bq, and strontium to 1.2-million bq!
And soon they’ll be even more, as Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun controlled demolition of reactor building 1. The problem is TEPCo tried that last year with reactor building 3 and the result was massive contamination of rice fields due to radioactive dust being spread by the demolition.
This time TEPCo officials say before they remove the protective canopy from reactor 1 building they will spray down the interior with chemicals to try and reduce the amount of dust.
A former news anchor for Japanese state TV revealed he was fired for reporting the truth about Fukushima Daiichi: “I am a newscaster, but I couldn’t tell the true story on my news program. I was on the ground in Fukushima, and a lot of people kept asking me, why didn’t you tell us earlier about what is happening? ….then my superiors said the NHK was getting complaints from politicians about what I was saying. They told me I had to stop.”-Hori Jun, former anchor-reporter for NHK
Russia: Studies aboard the International Space Station are showing that cosmic radiation is not as big a threat to astronauts as first thought: “This finding is crucial to the planning of protracted space flights. It means in practical terms we can fly longer and go further.”-Vyacheslav Shurshakov, Institute of Medical-Biological Problems