New Mexico is America's newest "Bikini Atoll" of nuclear research; cause you can't just let a good nuclear disaster go to waste. Just tell the natives its all safe; then offer them free "Health" research and track them over the years.
"CEMRC provides a free lung and whole body counting service to adult citizens living within a 100-mile radius of the WIPP facility. Concerned citizens can be measured to see what radiation may exist in their lungs and whole body. This service is available by scheduling an appointment with the CEMRC Internal Dosimetry Lab at 575-234-5530"
If we lived within a 100 miles of WIPP we would have already evacuated. But this disaster has a huge Normalcy Bias, as people don't want to believe how bad it is, especially since people can't see or YET feel what's killing them.
But again don't worry, in the same press release in which they're offering the free whole body and lung counts they are assuring people the inhaling Plutonium is no more dangerous that eating a banana. Funny thing is, you don't see the Dole Food Company offering free whole body radiation scans to people who eat their brand name Bananas.
On the other hand maybe you should be VERY WORRIED, as the people who lived near the 3 Nuclear Meltdown's in Fukushima were only offered HALF-PRICED whole body scans.
These whole body scans won't directly detect the Plutonium these poor people have ingested, as the massive tissue destroying and cancer producing Alpha radiation particles don't travel very far. They may be able to detect some associated gamma radiation from the Americium traveling along with the Plutonium.
The best comparison would be if you had such a scan before the disaster and then after, that would offer some level of comparison and some evidence in court. Other than that, it smacks of nothing more than a DOE / DOD/ BARDA research project into the effects of Plutonium poisoning. Heck, you won't even know you're a research subject, they'll be able to track your progress / demise via ObamaCare reporting.
So New Mexico, welcome to your own little Bikini Atoll; the only real difference is the Government hasn't evacuated you yet (the Navy hasn't figured how to get the evac boats in Carlsbad yet).
Sources:
CEMRC detects trace amounts of radiation from WIPP, no danger to public (yet were giving you free whole body radiation and lung scans)
Thanks for being all over this. If the radiation release is ongoing or becomes worse and the plume travels where the wind blows do you expect that people will be able to detect this radiation with their Geiger counters? I have an Inspector Alert, Alpha, Beta, Gamma but am a novice and really only do 10 min counts. You are in St. Louis, I am in Illinois so I expect you would detect something first. When you have gotten elevated counts in the past and the wind is headed my way I usually go out and take a reading.
ReplyDeleteSaturday 2/15 we noticed a slight unusual up tick in airborne radiation readings, but we have not investigated the data yet. Our guess is that It probably rained out on us on 2/17 during the mini ice storm.
DeletePlutonium is difficult to detect, a pancake Geiger counter is the best bet for detecting it directly. But even then the Inspector would have to be within about 2 inches of the Plutonium to detect it. Likely you would have to take cumulative average timed readings over several hours and compare then with previous history to make an airborne detection. You might want to consider the Radiation Alert "Observer" Software (you can find it on Amazon)
However a surface swipe from a contaminated surface, has a better chance of being detected, so that would be your best bet of detecting Pu 239 directly. The Am241 released with the Pu239 is more readily detectable. The importance of taking rain sample swipes has greatly increased.
If there is another explosion / fire at WIPP, the airborne release would likely be detected as a rapid passing airborne spike. At locations further away from the WIPP site, those spikes would be lower in magnitude but longer in duration.
The best info on making detections is in the "DOD 3150.08-M "NUCLEAR WEAPON ACCIDENT RESPONSE PROCEDURES" (NARP)" we linked above.
The best preventative measure is to filter the air, and stop eating drinking anything fresh grown from the Mid / South west. We have already cut out milk, as the cows will take take up Pu239 and Am241. Am241 is a bone seeker; all very nasty and concerning.
re: "Our guess is that It probably rained out on us on 2/17 during the mini ice storm."
DeleteI don't know if you have access to the NETC.com charts, but several of those charts for the cities in the mid-west do show a noticeable spike from Tuesday afternoon to Tuesday evening, moving from west to east.
If someone was out in a snowstorm with this stuff, but kept the snow flakes away from their face, would they still be breathing it in? What about if they were out when it was not actually snowing but in between snow storms ... is the stuff still hanging in the air? (I'm guessing the answer to both of these is yes, but I'd be interested in your opinion).
Thanks
Thats too difficult to answer at this point. In hindsight we would have taken much stronger risk mitigation actions here in Saint Louis. Avoiding the snow would have been the way to go, but is it enough concern to fret about in hindsight? For your location, probably not. You were on the North End, it rained here for hours before it got to you.
DeleteFor people a few states away, do you think there is elevated risk walking outdoors when it is NOT raining, snowing, or any other kind of precipitation (or low hanging fog).
DeleteDoes the stuff hang close to the surface no matter how far it travels, or is the stuff that travels farther mainly at higher altitudes?
We think the risk is definitely elevated, but to what extent is hard to know, but its greater the closer you get to the site. Plutonium atoms / particles will carry in the wind just as readily as any other particle. The question is how easily does it attach to rain and snow? Here in Saint Louis we are not wearing P100 masks, but we are using HEPA filters full time. Probably will regret the decision though.
DeleteSince they are trying to save the site for future use, at some point they will try to super ventilate the fine to clear out the air for the workers, that means another large exposure down wind. They'll probably shut down RADNET when they try something like that .
"They'll probably shut down RADNET when they try something "
DeleteActually, Radnet IS down currently. And even before it was fully down (but after the WIPP releases) it was showing no data for all the cities I looked at. But if the WIPP releases were mainly alpha, while Radnet monitors beta and gamma, would it really show much of a spike? I know Americium can give off some gamma too, but would there be enough extra gamma to show visibly elevated levels?
Why does the EPA get away with turning off (or leaving broken) their monitors EVERY TIME a significant radiological release occurs!!!!!! The first time, it might have looked like simply incompetence ... but the second time looks like a deliberate pattern.
Because paying for RADNET does not come out of the wallets of the people at EPA, so why should they care if it works; its only important to the point that its presence continues to draw budget into the agency.
DeleteIts sort of like the public education system, budget comes from kids being in attendance, the only educational vestment the pub ed system has is making sure that the children are functional enough to respond to roll call in the morning.
But do you think that there would be enough of an increase in gamma from the Americium to motivate them to shut down the network to suppress information about the WIPP releases (or that there could have been other gamma and/or beta emitting radioisotopes released by the original incident), or do you just think the shut down was the result of incompetence/negligence, and that the timing (concurrent with the spread of the WIPP plume) was purely coincidental?
DeleteBureaucrats usually don't think too deep, they would want to shut off anything that might record something irrespective if the system was worth a damn or not.
DeleteNo idea what, where, or why, (or even if) there was a RADNET shutdown. But similar things happened during the initial Fukushima release, so I would not give them the benefit of the doubt on it.
Doing what I can -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hyscience.com/archives/2014/02/waste_isolation.php
http://ladyravensaspirincabinet.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/waste-isolation-pilot-plant-wipp-new-mexico-radiation-leak-update-22214/
http://grumpyelder.com/2014/02/waste-isolation-pilot-plant-wipp-new-mexico-radiation-leak-update-22214/
http://callofthepatriot.blogspot.com/2014/02/waste-isolation-pilot-plant-wipp-new.html
And absolutely astounded that this is not being covered 24/7 on every media outlet.
THANK YOU for staying on top of this!
Thanks, the reason we share our information is because we hope that people will share information back; its that concept that has gotten us reliable inside insight into what is going on at WIPP
DeleteA couple more questions: do you think that the stuff from WIPP is still lingering in the air of the mid-west at this point? (and do you think the WIPP is still releasing stuff?)
ReplyDeleteI'm in northern Indiana, by the way.
Deleteits still lingering in the air in the mine, so yes it is still lingering in the air (where ever that first release is now located) The mine is still releasing Plutonium & Americium as of Saturday night the FILTERED air was still measuring around 20 DPM, the max ventilation rate is around 20,000 CMM, meaning the could have been pumping out 400,000 DPM per minute of Plutonium and Americium. The unfiltered air was measuring "a few hundred" DPM.
DeleteThere are LOTS of uncertainties, but we consider 400,000 DPM per minute ( 6,667 Becquerels per minute ) to be the MINIMUM amount of Plutonium and Americium being released on an ONGOING basis from the WIPP site
well there's no way to tell if it's still airborne because of lack of atmospheric and ground testing. this stuff circumnavigates the globe falling at the whims of jet stream and rain and snow. its systemic russian roulette only the bullets take longer to kill us. every time there is an accident the GIVEN is that the doe, aec and nuclear corporations will lie about the release numbers, as well as the risk to the public. these people should be imprisoned because mirder and assault are crimes against all major religions and the rule of law. we must have a worldwide stop to all nuclear products immediately. we will still have to spend trillions of dollars EVERY YEAR until the end of time to store and protect our world from the waste from these murderers. enough is enough. admit it was dumb, learn and go renewable and localized for our energy production and storage!!
ReplyDeleteCheck out our reply to NEMO, in short our trusted source of inside WIPP info tells us test results from Saturday of FILTERED WIPP exhaust are running ~20 DPM, the works out to around 400,000 DPM per minute being exhausted from the site. We consider that MINIMUM value from a risk mitigation perspecitve
Deletei measured 880 cpm in rain in milwaukee on 2-20-2014. highest ever I have seen here
ReplyDeleteFukushima releases are up too from recent earthquakes; retest your sample is a few days to see if it remains radioactive.
ReplyDelete