Wise COVID-19 risk mitigation action would now include the assumption that the pig population in the USA is asymptomatically infected with SARS-COV-2.
Analysis:
1) Research from 2018 has shown that "Bat-Origin Coronaviruses Expand Their Host Range to Pigs" (link in source documents below)
2) US Pork processing facilities are being massively disproportionally hit with COVID-19 cases, as compared to beef, and poultry processors
3) The pork processing plants are mostly located in States withotherwise very low per capita Coronavirus infections
4) Pigs are known to be susceptible to Coronavirus infections.
5) Due to immense economic pressures there will be great hesitance to inform the public of any risks related to Pigs spreading COVID-19 infections.
6) A knee-jerk public reaction to infected pigs could lead to destruction of the pork industry and potentially increase the world wide risk of starvation.
Conclusion:
Given the correlation preponderance and the high impact of infection, it is a wise risk mitigation decision at the individual level to proceed as if Pigs and raw pig products were a direct source of COVID-19 infections.
Better data from Los Alamos National Laboratory puts the probability that the Japanese tourist acquired his CoranaVirus infection in Hawaii at 99 to 99.9%
Based on a EXTREEMLY CONSERVATIVE uniform data fit of COVID-19 Coronavirus incubation data taken from 1099 infected Chinese patients reported as having a 3 day Median and 0-24 day range
Analysis:
1) There is a 52% probability the Japanese man acquired his infection in Oahu, Hawaii
2) There is a 57% probability that the Japanese man acquired his infection in Maui, Hawaii
3) Overall there is an overall 67% probability that his infection was acquired in Hawaii.
Discussion:
1) Using a uniform distribution of infection on either side of the reported 3 day Median incubation period is an extremely conservative approach.
2) A conservative approach was chosen to establish a minimum boundary condition.
3) A less conservative but more likely accurate approach would have used a left skewed distribution with a high degree of kurtosis around the 3 day mark and a long tail stretched out to 24 days.
4) We expect that more accurate curve fit would indicate a 90+ probability that the Japanese tourist was infected in Hawaii
5) Its terrifying that a SARS-CoV2 aka COVID-19 infection was able to occur in Summer weather, as this indicates that this outbreak will continue and worsen through Summer.
6) Further confirmation of transmission in Hawaii, or in Summer weather locations like Australia and Indonesia would require the highest levels of risk mitigation
7) Confirmation of Summer weather transmission would be a strong indicator that this virus was Weaponized
8) Optimistically weaponzation would have been carried out for the sole purpose of making it easy and cost effective to infect Laboratory animals under humane temperature / humidity conditions.
9) Source Links and Data are at the bottom of this post
Purchases we've made to Risk Mitigate this Outbreak
Links to what we have purchased:
(1) For emergency and portable decontamination we are using PDI Prevantics skin wipes containing 3.15% chlorhexidine gluconate and 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (or similar products)
PDI Prevantics is both rapid and persistent for hours in its viricide capability
(2) We are actively using Hibiclens 4% Chlorhexidine surgical scrub as a full strength lotion applied to the hands as a persistent long duration viricide. The Hibiclens Gallon Jug Refill is more cost effective, but we may also substitute the significantly less expensive and slightly weaker 2% veterinarian chlorhexidine soaps as conditions and shortages unfold. 2% is the minimum strength we would use.
Unlike China, most Americans have to drive to get supplies. Don't expect gas stations to be open, and expect the ones that are open to be crowded. That last thing you want to do is increase your coronavirus exposure chances by making unnecessary gasoline stops.
Unfortunately, most modern American gas cans are now dangerous as all heck thanks to California and their friends in the Federal Government. Metal cans are preferable over plastic, and if it doesn't have a long nozzle (preferably flexible) you wont be able to use it to fill your cars gas tank.
NOTE: Several States require gasoline cans to be red and to say gasoline on them. Where possible the use of 100% gasoline is preferable to 10% Ethanol formulations for storage purposes.
Almost all car parts and maintenance items are made in China, those factories are already closed. With an outbreak in the USA expect car dealerships and local garages to be shutdown for lack of parts and for fear of being infected.
Many of these items may yet still be available at your local stores.
If you buy through any of the Amazon links, we will get a commission.
We did NOT include links to purchase cough medicine based on reports that China was tracking who purchased cough medicine and such tracking might be expected in the USA.
Emergency Action countermeasures are required against the Wuhan Coronavirus as confirmed reports from Germany and Japan have documentedthe asymptomatic spread of the Pandemic Coronavirus. These reports substantiate Chinese governmental warnings on asymptomatic spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus. The nature of this asymptomatic spread is likely fomites such as fecal matter and other bodily fluids contaminating common objects/surfaces.
Protections from incidental physical contamination is paramount.
IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY ACTIONS the POTRBLOG team is now taking:
(1) For emergency and portable decontamination we are using PDI Prevantics skin wipes containing 3.15% chlorhexidine gluconate and 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (or similar products) PDI Prevantics is both rapid and persistent for hours in its viricide capability
(2) We are actively using Hibiclens 4% Chlorhexidine surgical scrub as a full strength lotion applied to the hands as a persistent long duration viricide. The Hibiclens Gallon Jug Refill is more cost effective, but we may also substitute the significantly less expensive and slightly weaker 2% veterinarian chlorhexidine soaps as conditions and shortages unfold. 2% is the minimum strength we would use.
(1) Our actions are focused on risk mitigation, based on available current knowledge of viricides and the potential impacts of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
(2) We do not make recommendations as to what other people should do or buy; we only offer insight to the things we are actually doing and spending money on.
(3) If you use the links above to purchase these item we will receive monetary compensation from Amazon, which in turn will help us buy more of these items.
UPDATE 10/30/17: Based on insider information coming out of the Feinberg School of Medicine from folk(s) directly familiar with Wyndham Lathem and the possibility that this Plague outbreak is his work, we are raising this outbreak to Maximum Alert situation.
The highly unusual outbreak of airborne Pneumonic Plague in Madagascar may be manmade and of higher threat to humanity than might otherwise be expected.
In August the PORTBLOG team warned about the potential for an outbreak of Pneumonic Plague tied to the arrest one of the world's top Pneumonic Plague researcher's as the mastermind behind a truly bizarre gay fetish murder triangle.
Fast forward two months, and a highly unusual Pneumonic Plague outbreak is underway in Madagascar, and it has been declared at risk of spreading internationally via air travel.
Here is what we know about the guy who might be behind this unusual outbreak:
(1) He admitted he recently traveled to Madagascar
(2) He was appointed to lead Pneumonic Plague research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris
(3) French Authorities strangely killed his security clearance to handle BioWeapons
(4) He returned to the USA and apparently masterminded a Fetish Murder Ritual with a stranger to murder multiple people, including himself and his coconspirator.
(5) His apparent profile fits the type of person who would engage in a Bioterror murder.
(6) He researched and engineered virulent forms of airborne Plague bacteria in his lab
(7) The time frame is right for him to have seeded Pneumonic Plague in Madagascar
(8) A highly unusually airborne outbreak of Pneumonic Plague has occurred in Madagascar
(9) Since his arrest Wyndham Lathem admitted that: 'he's not the person people thought he was'.
UPDATED ON 10/26 TO ADD ITEMS (10) and (11)
(10) This is a photo of his LAB door at Northwestern, note he sees himself as the villains JOKER and Lucius Malfoy. We know what Batman's Joker did with BioWeapons, and that Malfoy ancestors had used Plague to murder muggles.
(11) The US ARMY has released a request for experimental drugs to fight Biowarfare versions of Plague.
UPDATED 10/28 to add Item (12)
(12) During the time frame he traveled to Madagascar and was appointed to be the Lead Plague scientist at Institut Pasteur he would have known that this Airborne Outbreak would result in a massive amount of Funding Grants and Television interviews for him. A force multiplier for that money and fame motive is it would also fulfill the Fetish Murder Desires that eventually resulted in his arrest for murder.
UPDATED 10/31 to add Item (13)
(13) Lathem has been working on genetically modifying Pneumonic Plague, his published work on suppressing the expression of Plasminogen-Activating Protease (Pla) could produce a Pneumonic Plague that exhibits unusual disease progression seen in Madagascar, ie lower death rates with increased opportunity for transmission.
None of this proves that Wyndham Lathem is behind the outbreak, but it is coincidence enough that prudent persons might make preparations for a Global outbreak much like the World Bank just did yesterday (10/24).
On December 12 the US Centers for Disease Control reported to the Office Management and Budget [OMB] that CDC expects to interview 3,400 US commercial airline passengers that were seated within 3 feet of an Ebola patient.
"so that CDC can better
assess the risk to individuals who may have been exposed to a
confirmed case of Ebola while traveling to or within the United
States"
Using the conservative estimate that 8 airline passengers are seated within the 3 foot zone set out by the CDC,the CDC is expecting 425 actively infected Ebola patients to fly into the USA next year. We believe the Winter New Year time frame is the high risk period for these entries.
Just as CDC's short sighted Ebola risk assessment and PPE direction lead to the infections of two nurses in the Thomas Duncan Ebola case, the CDC has taken no steps to mitigate the Department of Defense's concern that Winter weather may facilitate a super flu like airborne spread of Ebola. As such, the CDC is counting on Ebola to only spread as it does in warm weather, ie close contact with the VERY sick.
Apparently even the fact that CDC just DOUBLED the number of expected Ebola exposures to US flyers is not enough to raise their concerns. In November the CDC had informed OMB that they expected to interview 1,700 commercial airline passengers, now exactly 1 month later CDC has doubled the number to 3,400 directly exposed airline passengers.
The CDC expects to interview these 3,400 people at 20 minutes each. CDC also informed OMB that CDC expects the 50,000 exposed people who were on these flights but seated further than 3 feet away from the Ebola patient, to call the CDC and be read a "script".
"this script assesses the risk of a plan
passenger who was not in the immediate vicinity of the
Ebola patient but still has concerns about the level of
exposure and risk of contracting the virus."
Multiple "Ebola false alarms are reported in the Guadalajara airport" according to last Saturday's local Jalisco newspaper. So what does it mean when there are multiple reports of Ebola cases at an airport, followed by the Mexican State Ebola training 400 Doctors in the same location for an "eventual case of Ebola", and then to top it off Phoenix Air Group's Ebola Air Ambulance makes a trip to the very same airport and follows a return flight path back to Atlanta indicative of an Ebola patient? IT MEANS EBOLA MAY BE IN MEXICO!
It also means that an Illegal Immigration surge should be expected, and that they might be infected.
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The flight schedule of Phoenix Air Group's 2nd Ebola Ambulance indicates that an Ebola patient is being picked up at the Guadalajara International Airport and being flown to the Fulton County Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. The destination airport indicates that the patient is being taken to Emory Hospital in Atlanta.
The obviously troubling aspect is that the situation indicates that Ebola is loose in Mexico. It also seems strange that Obama would be willing to import a Mexican Ebola patient when the Mexican government refused to assist in transporting an American under observation for Ebola who was on a cruise ship off of the Mexican coast.
A screen capture of the return flight is shown below as these flights are often rapidly "disappeared" from commercial tracking software.
We believe this marks the 3rd international Ebola patient flown to the USA in the last 10 days.
#1 An illegal African Immigrant from Gran Canaria Spain on November 9th
#2 A patient from West Africa on November 13; later confirmed to be Dr Martin Salia
#3 Unknown Mexican patient today 11/17/14
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency [DTRA], in a just released a broad agency announcement seeking rapid assistance against Ebola's weapon of mass destruction [WMD] capability, stated that
"Ebola is aerostable in an enclosed controlled system in the dark and can
survive for long periods in different liquid media"
The short of it is that DTRA's WMD arm sees a massive potential for Ebola to persist in sewage systems in Airborne, Waterborne, and BioFilm form.
The obvious dangers are multifold.
1) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spread in the Amoy Gardens high-rise apartment complex via a similar plumbing related infectious route
2) CDC's current guidance encourages untreated EBOLA waste discharge into sewer systems
3) Dr. Craig Spencer has already potentially infected NYC sewer system despite his 21 day "home quarantine"
4) Sewers may be a reoccurring source on #Ebola infection
5) CDC's assurances that Ebola can not be spread via Air, Water, or Sewer places people at great risk
Specifically, DTRA wants answers in 3 to 6 months regarding environmental conditions that allow to Ebola to persist in an airborne state, and persist on surfaces after precipitating out of the air. DTRA is also looking for genetic weaponization markers that elucidate that persistence.
Interestingly enough, DTRA's solicitation also seeks Africa specific data that will allow them to use a a NATO Biowarfare Ebola simulation to predict the flow Ebola infection in Africa; we'll have more on that in a separate video/analysis.
As we have reported in previous posts, the US Army says that Ebola has an airborne stability similar to Influenza and that winter weather conditions may allow to spread via the airborne route. Apparently what the Army has found is that sewer systems also offer an ideal environment for longer term Ebola persistence.
The National Institutes of Health [NIH] just placed a solicitation to stockpile an entire year's worth of Personal Protective Equipment [PPE] to support eight agencies inside of NIH. They are placing the massive order in case there is a disruption in supply of medical goods like goggles, gloves, gowns, masks, spacesuits.
The NIH's rationale is that the animal testing they are doing is so vitally important that no disruption in supplies can be risked. Apparently the disruption in PPE supply is expect to last at least one full year, and they have an option to carry it on for four more years.
"This Sources Sought Notice has been posted to establish, provide, and maintain a laboratory animal personnel protective equipment (PPE) resource to ensure the accessibility and availability of essential supplies throughout an emergency/disaster, government shutdown, or any other interruption of regular deliveries. These supplies support irreplaceable multidisciplinary animal research, which is critical to the mission of eight institutes at the National Institutes of Health."
"During emergency/disaster events, the normal supply and distribution channels will most likely be unavailable/or protracted due to the impact of the emergency and the rush of immediate orders. Our program's disaster plan takes these factors into account; it is therefore our intention is to establish an offsite source of critical supplies with an established, laboratory animal PPE vendor with a proven track record of providing quality products and services. As outlined in our emergency plan it is the intention of our program to be able to house up to a one year's supply of PPE products with a local vendor within a 90 mile radius of NIH in Bethesda, Maryland."
A few near term risks that potential could make PPE unavailable for an entire year are:
1) EBOLA
2) H7N9 BirdFlu
3) MERS-CoV
The POTRBLOG team believes that this contract clearly indicates that the Government expects a protracted shortage of medical PPE, and that the window of opportunity for individuals to purchase needed PPE at reasonable prices is now at a close.
A Carolina hospital connected to the sister of the Texas Ebola victim is spooling up 19 Ebola Beds
"At Carolinas Medical Center (CMC), they have 19 beds set aside in case they have to treat Ebola patients"
Whats not being reported is that Texas Ebola victim Thomas Duncan's sister worked for Carolina Healthcare Systems in Charlotte as a health care worker. This information according to her LinkedIn page and also by photos from her Facebook page.
What her current connection is to Carolina is not completely understood, in fact it appears she may be currently working for the Texas Hospital where her brother is located. But, the actions of the Carolina Medical Center may indicate that person there did have had some sort of contact with the Texas Ebola patient.
CDC's time line of the Dallas Ebola victim's flight date and symptom onset date indicates a greater than 50% probability that the Dallas Ebola victim ACQUIRED HIS INFECTION DURING HIS FLIGHT.
Per the Center For Disease Control's very own Ebola simulation model, 50% of all Ebola infections develop symptoms five and a half days after infection. Given that the Dallas victim's symptom onset occurred within 6 days of his Liberian departure flight; it is most likely that he/she was infected on that flight by someone else on that flight who was actively shedding Ebola virus.
Since the Dallas victim is most likely a secondary infection, patient zero from that flight is still on the loose and more victims are to follow in the near term. The situation is potentially catastrophic because of the massive number of potential secondary victims who have no African travel history and are likely to not attract attention in any Emergency room until massive hemorrhaging has started.
CDC Ebola Symptom Onset Distribution Days After Infection
DALLAS EBOLA Victim Time Line- HAT/TIP to the NYTIMES
Big hat tip to @StudioInCabot for alerting us to this news out of Joplin Missouri.
Over the weekend in Joplin, Missouri, a nursing student from the Congo died after he was spotted having respiratory symptoms while out on a walk. The local coroner attributes the death to cardiac arrest. The coroner is quoted as saying he "understood the victim had been in the U.S. long enough to have passed the incubation period for the disease"
Unfortunately the Coroner's statement has an aire of uncertainty about it. Moreover we also find Coroner's public Linkedin profile to be concerning as the is seems to indicate zero medical training, and that his prior employment was as county Sheriff.
We believe it would be wise for Public Health officials to start contact tracing on the victim to determine what the true exposure risk. Did he have contact with other International students from Ebola infected areas? As a nursing student was he in any way involved in medical care in Ebola infected areas?
Hopefully the Coroner is correct in his diagnosis, but given the alignment of risk factors and the dangerous impact of a positive Ebola case, further DETAILED investigation is needed to rule out Ebola and potentially even Enterovirus 68.
According to the Center for Aerobiological Sciences, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland:
(1) Ebola has an aerosol stability that is comparable to Influenza-A
(2) Much like Flu, Airborne Ebola transmissions need Winter type conditions to maximize Aerosol infection
"Filoviruses, which are classified as Category A Bioterrorism Agents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA), have stability in aerosol form comparable to other lipid containing viruses such as influenza A virus, a low infectious dose by the aerosol route (less than 10 PFU) in NHPs, and case fatality rates as high as ~90% ."
"The mode of acquisition of viral infection in index cases is usually unknown.
Secondary transmission of filovirus infection is typically thought to occur by direct contact with
infected persons or infected blood or tissues. There is no strong evidence of secondary transmission by
the aerosol route in African filovirus outbreaks. However, aerosol transmission is thought to be
possible and may occur in conditions of lower temperature and humidity which may not have been
factors in outbreaks in warmer climates [13]. At the very least, the potential exists for aerosol
transmission, given that virus is detected in bodily secretions, the pulmonary alveolar interstitial cells,
and within lung spaces"
Analysis:
Its clear that when Ebola is in the air it is at least as hardy as Influenza. Its also clear that coughing and sneezing is what makes Influenza airborne; the same should be expected of Ebola.
Moreover, just as sun, heat, and humidity along the Earths' Equatorial regions serve to 'burn' Influenza out of the air, the same should be expected of Ebola. The difference with Ebola is that physical contact with even the tiniest amounts of infected bodily fluid can cause infection, hence unlike flu it also readily spreads in equatorial regions. When Ebola spreads to the regions of the Earth which experience Fall and Winter Flu seasons, airborne Ebola infectious routes are to be expected in conjunction with direct contact infection.
Ebola has the capability to infect pretty much every cell in the entire human respiratory tract. Similarly, our skin offers little resistance to even the smallest amounts of Ebola. How much airborne transmission will occur will be a function of how well Ebola induces coughing and sneezing in its victims in cold weather climates. Coughing and nasal bleeding are both reported symptoms in Africa, so the worst should be expected. In that regard, co-infections with Flu, Cold, or even seasonal Allergies will readily transform Ebola victims into biowarefare factories.
Unlike Flu, a person need not inhale airborne Ebola to be infected via airborne transmission. Merely walking through an airspace (or touching the objects therein) where an Ebola victim has coughed or sneezed is potentially enough for a cold weather infection to occur. As such, all indicators are that Ebola's potential rate of infectious spread in cold weather climates is EXPLOSIVELY greater than what is occurring in Equatorial Africa
In that regard, the government's Filovirus Animal Nonclinical Group [FANG] is standardizing on a Airborne Ebola Infectious "challenge" of 1000 PFU that all proposed medical countermeasures must defeat in order to gain acceptance.
Mutation:
Given that the experts are keenly aware that most mutations lead to viral dead ends and given the ARMY's public research documents make such a clear case that the Ebola airborne risk is here and now, the question remains: why are the experts pushing a "future mutation"fear on the public?
The primary benefits of the media mutation gambit are:
1) When the public becomes aware Ebola is airborne, the public will default to blaming a mutation rather blaming the experts for having prior knowledge of Ebola's transmissability
2) A scary future fear makes for great immediate fund raising from a public seeking to avoid it.
3) The expert clique comes down hard on experts that do anything which is perceived to immediately raise public fear, an accurate warning to the public can immediately negatively affect a forthright expert's budget and prestige
4) Public knowledge of imminent Public Health threats negatively affects supply chains and the logistics planned responses
The next time some expert pushes the Ebola mutation risk ask them to specify exactly what mutations would be required to do as they claim. When they refuse, ask why experts spelled out the mutation steps of Avian Influenza and why they won't for Ebola. The answer is: Ebola can already infect pretty much every cell in the human respiratory system.
CDC apparently has made a "lesser of evils" choice to direct Doctor's and healthcare workers to risk their lives using only minimal Personal Protective Equipment [PPE] when treating Ebola patients. Prior to the outbreak, Ebola Biosafey Level 4 [BSL-4] regulations limited treatment of Ebola patients to only 22 hospital beds across the country which had the required BSL-4 treatment rooms and 'space suits'.
Those regulations meant that if a non BSL-4 hospital had been exposed to an Ebola patient, the hospital would have to shutdown the affect areas until they could be sterilized. It also meant that Doctors and healthcare workers exposed would be held under quarantine. Obviously, that methodology is not sustainable for a large Ebola outbreak as the medical system would collapse.
Our analysis indicates that the CDC sees a real risk of the medical system collapsing from the adherence to strict Ebola BSL-4 regulations. And as such, it is better to risk the collapse of the medical system from an actual spate of healthcare worker Ebola infections at BSL1 facilities than it is to risk Ebola patients having no access to medical oversight.
In short, CDC's guidance that Ebola Biosafety Level 4 [BSL-4] Space Suits aren't required for non-CDC personnel is because the risk of Ebola's spread is INITIALLY better reduced by getting Ebola victims into BSL-1 facilities as opposed to leaving them with unfettered access to the public.
While it appears that most medical personnel don't have a clue why the CDC would make such a double standard in healthcare worker protection given that the cost of failure is death, it was very obvious on CDC's August 5th teleconference "What U.S. Hospitals Need to Know to Prepare for Ebola Virus Disease" that multiple represented Hospitals and Doctors understand that there is a clear double standard in CDC's Personnel Protective Equipment requirements: see the question below from B. Russell to the CDC.
"Barbara Russell:.... I had that concern about that double standard. It’s very hard to convince emergency room staff and others that we just have to wear a gown, and gloves and mask.
And then we see on TV with them in all their suits head to toe in this room where they say they’re going to burn everything that comes out of it.
So is there anything that can be done to correct what Emory is doing and what is Emory wearing when they go in the rooms?"
In the end we are left with one of two options concerning CDC's PPE guidance:
1) either we must believe that the CDC is willing to risk the lives of medical personnel out of sheer incompetence, or
2) that the CDC must risk the lives of medical personnel because its a lesser of evils which serves to reduce the speed, but likely not the size of the Ebola outbreak.
Q: What is the difference between and Ultrasonic Humidifier and a Weapon of Mass Infection?
A: The addition of Human Ebola infected bodily fluids to the humidifier's tank
Now, if one is to believe the Centers for Disease Control [CDC], the public has nothing to fear from Inhalation Ebola. Unsurprisingly, the CDC tells hospitals and airline crews the exact opposite and warns them about the dangers of aerosolized Ebola.
Unfortunately, we are now in a situation where any terrorist in Africa can expose a person to Ebola and fly them undetected to the western world prior to any illness becoming observable. From that point on wards, it is only a matter of harvesting the right bodily fluids and aerosolizing those fluids with an ultrasonic humidifier in a location suitable for mass dispersal.
Be aware that the potential time frame between the Government's public message changing from "Everything is fine" to "Shut up and do what you are told" may be surprisingly short.
The Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Dispersal Pilot Plant [WIPP] in Carlsbad, New Mexico has a System of Systems design flaw which virtually guarantees that even a moderate underground fire affecting the nuclear waste will cause the facility to lose power, resulting in a massive uncontrolled release of Plutonium and Americium.
This exact catastrophic situation had started to occur during the Valentine's day nuclear fire at the WIPP facility; when by the GRACE OF GOD, elevated wind speeds spun up and reduced the airborne Americium cloud's radioactive density. This act of Divine Providence served to lessen the Americium's ionization interaction with WIPP's electrical substation to the point where the electrical arc flashes were noted but power loss reportedly did not occur.
WIPP's System of System (SOS) design flaw is as follows:
1) WIPP's electrical substation is located directly next to the mine's ventilation exhaust (see map below)
2) In event of nuclear fire, Ionizing Plutonium and Americium are discharged directly into the electrical substation
3) WIPP underground Continuous Air Monitor(s) are not placed to detect radiation in the 6+ foot cavernous air space floating above the underground worker's heads (more detail in the video)
4) As happened on Valentine's day, Item 3 resulted in at least an hour long period of UNDETECTED Plutonium and Americium being discharged into WIPP's electrical substation, resulting in arc flashing.
5) Americium is known for its ability to ionize air and cause electrical discharges (it is used in smoke detectors for exactly this purpose)
6) Americium and Plutonium discharging into the electrical substation will (and did) cause arc flashing, and the result is likely to cause the substation to lose power
7) Power loss at WIPP equates to uncontrolled ventilation of the mine and an inability to evacuate workers
8) Uncontrolled ventilation during a fire means loss of containment, as demonstrated by the February 5th underground fire at WIPP
Aggravating factors:
1) Difficult salt related environmental conditions at WIPP make it nearly impossible to operate real time underground radioactive air monitoring without a high level of perceived false radioactive alarms. It is exactly this condition which caused site employees to disregard the veracity of the radiation alarm until 11 hours after it sounded (when secondary manual readings confirmed the release).
2) WIPP's plan to further increase underground ventilation rates makes real time underground detection even more difficult, and increases the chances of undetected stagnation pooling of radioactive materials at the electrical substation during no wind conditions.
Conclusion:
The MidWest nearly became uninhabitable on Valentine's Day, had wind speeds not picked up at the plant the facility would have lost power. It is possible the nuclear fire would have become naturally ventilated and uncontrolled, much like what happened on February 5th when an underground vehicle caught fire.
In that same light, had the February 5th underground vehicle fire occurred in a nuclear waste storage area, the resulting burning nuclear materials would have released enough Americium to cause the electrical substation to shut down. That loss of power would have made it impossible to evacuate and or ventilate the underground. That loss of control would have resulted in the entire Midwest being contaminated in enough Plutonium and Americium that even the DOE would have a hard time covering it up.
As it stands now, the Department of Energy has not publicly recognized any of these deadly design deficiencies; its unclear if they are acting out of incompetence or some twisted greater good concept rationalizing the risk away for National Security reasons. But one thing is for sure, if DOE does not relocate and / or further risk mitigate WIPP's substation the entire Midwest remains at risk.
UPDATE: 5/1/2014
We've found a Youtube video that shows the Americium electrical discharge effect on a small scale, what you see in the video embedded below is precisely what caused the "GREEN BURST" in WIPP's electrical substation when Americium and Plutonium were exhausted out of the mine into the electrical substation
