Page 9 - the NOISE January 2014

“The Canyon Mine threatens irreversible damage to the Havasupai people and Grand Canyon’s water, wildlife, and tourism economy, so this closure is very good news,” said Roger Clark with the Grand Canyon Trust. “The closure is temporary. Under current policy, federal agencies will permit this mine — like other ‘zombie mines’ across the region — to reopen next year, or 10 or 20 years from now without any new environmental analysis or reclamation. That needs to change.”
“It is time to halt this mine — permanently,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “It was a bad idea 27 years ago when the now-dated environmental impact statement was issued, it is a bad idea today, and it will certainly be a bad idea tomorrow. Now we know even more about how much Canyon Mine threatens the water, wildlife and cultural resources of Grand Canyon.”
So, uranium mining alone pretty much negates the idea that nuclear power is sustainable by the standard definition. While uranium is currently prevalent around the world, it is rarely found in deposits that are significant to warrant extrac- tion. So that would make it a resource, just like oil, that will eventually be in danger of being depleted. And the fact that uranium mining can easily contaminate surrounding resourc- es, one would certainly have to question the negative effects this has for future generations.
As if these concerns aren’t enough, nuclear power plants themselves have inherent risks and dangers they present to human beings and to the environment. In a 2008 report en- titled “Nuclear Nonsense: Why Nuclear Power is No Answer to Climate Change and the World’s Post-Kyoto Energy Chal- lenges,” researchers Benjamin K. Sovacool and Christopher Cooper state that “Nuclear power plants are a poor choice for addressing energy challenges in a carbon-constrained, post- Kyoto world. Nuclear generators are prone to insolvable in- frastructural, economic, social, and environmental problems. They face immense capital costs, rising uranium fuel prices, significant lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, and irresolv- able problems with reactor safety, waste storage, weapons proliferation, and vulnerability to attack.” (Note: post-Kyoto refers to the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted in 1997 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and sets binding international greenhouse gas emis- sion reduction targets.)
Three Mile Island (TMI) was the first and most costly nucle- ar disaster to occur in the US. Two reactors were constructed in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania the second of which was brought online in February 1978. On March 28, 1979, just 13 months later, a partial meltdown occurred in this reactor. It was the result of a series of events that began in a non-nucle- ar part of the plant and spread through a combination of de- sign problems, system failures, and human errors. There were no injuries or deaths during the accident. But, in the following days, residents in the surrounding areas were terrified by the threat of radiation leakage.
As a result of the meltdown, xenon and iodine radioiso- topes were released into the environment. Epidemiological and anecdotal evidence show mixed results as to the health effects of the TMI meltdown on both the human and wildlife populations in the area. Researchers studied the people liv- ing in areas surrounding TMI in the years following the acci- dent. In a 2013 study called “Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in Residents Surrounding the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facil- ity,” they concluded that “Thyroid cancer incidence has not increased in Dauphin County, the county in which TMI is lo- cated. York County demonstrated a trend toward increasing thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1995, approximately
15 years after the TMI accident. Lancaster County showed a significant increase in thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1990. These findings, however, do not provide a causal link to the TMI accident.”
On April 26, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors exploded at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Socialist Republic at that time. The explosion and subsequent fires release large amounts of ra- dioactive particles into the surrounding Soviet and Europe- an regions. The Chernobyl disaster released more than 400 times the amount of radiation into the environment than the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Because of the fact that Ukraine was then behind the Iron Curtain, news of the radiation leakage was slow to reach the outside world. Not so for the radiation itself. On April 28, workers at a nuclear plant in Sweden detected high radiation levels that could not be traced to their own reactors. It was only then that the disaster
became known outside the Soviet Union.
Following the Chernobyl explosion, at least 237 people
contracted acute radiation sickness. Statistics vary but around 30 of those people died within the first three months following exposure. A report published by the Chernobyl Forum in 2005 estimated that around 4,000 cancer deaths could be directly attributed to the incident. However, the report cautions that determining the actual number of fatal cancers caused by Chernobyl is impossible.
Until recently, Chernobyl was considered to be the worst nuclear accident to ever take place anywhere in the world. But now we have Fukushima to add to this list.
On March 11, 2011 a catastrophic failure occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan following an earthquake-triggered tsunami that hit the coastal plant. The next day, substantial amounts of radioactive material began to leak from the site. A plume of radioactive particles blew northwest from the site almost immediately spreading out over a 20-mile area. Subsequent hydrogen explosions complicated efforts to contain the leaks and cool the reactors.
Though it was long suspected by local fisherman and other investigators, in July 2013, the Tokyo Electric Power Compa- ny (TEPCO) finally admitted that Daiichi is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Experts estimate that 300 tons of contaminated water is being released every day. That’s enough to fill half an Olympic size swimming pool. What adds insult to injury is that the majority of this contamination has been blamed on human error, not technical failures. So far, there is no clear plan for decommissioning the plant and site clean-up and fortification may take 40 years or more.
Trace amounts of radiation, including iodine-131, cesi- um-134 and cesium-137, have been found around the world. In the western US, increased radiation levels have been de- tected in California, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii, particularly in coastal areas. A rash of illnesses and strange phenomena affecting Pacific wildlife has also been reported.
Since the summer of 2011, scores of dead seals began washing up on the shores of Western Alaska. Their bodies had open wounds, internal ulcers, and unusual patterns of hair loss. By the time the seal carcasses are tested, any radia- tion they may have ingested has likely already been expelled. While proof is lacking that the Fukushima disaster is the cause, scientists have not ruled out radiation as a possible factor.
In California, Sea Lions have been dying off in large quanti- ties. In March 2013, the Associated Press reported the crisis. “At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 per-
cent of the pups born in June [2012] have died,” said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.
Kelp along the California coast has been found to contain radioactive iodine, cesium, xenon, and other particles. Con- tamination can therefore pass to any animals that consume the radioactive kelp including lobsters, crabs, plankton and other invertebrates. These animals are then consumed by others higher up on the food chain such as fish, seals, sea li- ons, and humans, continuing the chain of contamination.
Radioactive fish are being found in coastal waters off the US and Canada. Tuna, herring, sardines, anchovies and salmon are among the species that have tested positive for cesium-137.
Radiation is also suspected in a mysterious new disease that has spread to at least 10 species of sea stars found in the Pacific Ocean. Sea Star Wasting Syndrome is causing sea stars to die off in record numbers. Some have been observed to simply fall apart and dissolve leaving behind nothing but a pile of goo. None of the star fish have tested positive for radiation but scientists haven’t ruled it out as a cause.
While it may be years before we know the full effects of the Fukushima disaster in the US and around the world, decisions are being made every day that affect the road we will travel as a species into the future. The inherent risks in the develop- ment and use of nuclear power may already be more than we bargained for.
| Cindy Cole writes at home in Sedona donning her custom fit aluminum foil hat for protection. Her book, red rock ripoff is available at
tinyurl.com/buyredrockripoff. cindycole@live.com
NEWSfeature
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• january 2014 • 9