Wildlife contaminated by Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catastrophe

Before the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, Japan did not have limits for radioactive contamination in food. "Provisional" standards were rushed into place, which are still on the books. The Japanese federal government's limit for Cesium-134/Cesium-137 contamination in food is 500 bequerels per kilogram (the Canadian and U.S. standards are weaker by the way -- 1,000 bq/kg and 1,200 bq/kg, respectively!). It should be borne in mind that just because the Japanese federal government has "provisionally" declared 500 bq/kg of Cs-134 and/or Cs-137 in food to be "acceptable" or "permissible," this does not mean it's "safe."

The following 18 different types of food products sampled in Japan in December and January violated those limits: log-grown Shitake mushrooms (up to 2,390 bq/kg); greenling fish (up to 1,540 bq/kg); goldeye rockfish (up to 1,630 bq/kg); common skate (up to 640 bq/kg); rockfish (up to 2,130 bq/kg); bitter melon tea (up to 1,020 bq/kg); boar meat (up to 13,300 bq/kg); dehydrated taro stalk (up to 750 bq/kg); righteye flounder (up to 1,380 bq/kg); Yuzu citrus fruit (930 bq/kg); Japanese smelt (591 bq/kg); dried Japanese radish (800 bq/kg); Asian black bear meat (1,110 bq/kg); sika deer meat (573 bq/kg); dried yacon leaf (570 bq/kg); lefteye flounder (540 bq/kg); fox jacopever fish (1,310 bq/kg); dried oyamabokuchi (570 bq/kg).

See the IAEA Fukushima update dated Jan. 27, 2012, pages 7 to 9, for more information.

While the data above was collected in the context of the human food chain, it nonetheless shows that both wild plants and wild animals (various species of fish, and even mammals such as bear, boar, and deer) have been radioactively contaminated by Fukushima fallout.

Radioactive tritium released to environment in latest incident at Byron Unit 2 in Illinois

NRC file photo of Byron nuclear plant; although Unit 2's cooling tower is not currently releasing steam, its turbine hall is -- steam contaminated with radioactive tritiumAs reported by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) media release, Exelon Nuclear's Byron Unit 2 atomic reactor near Rockford, IL, primary electrical grid power was lost and safety and cooling systems had to run from emergency backup diesel generators when smoke was seen coming from a switchyard transformer. However, when the plant's fire brigade responded, they could not find the fire. The NRC activated its incident response center in Region III headquarters in Lisle, IL to monitor the situation.

As revealed by Exelon's "Event Report," offsite firefighters were called in, Unit 1 is still at full power, and Unit 2's cool down "steam [is] leaving via atmospheric relief valves."

An initial AP report on the incident stated: "The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public...[NRC] officials also said the release of tritium was expected...[NRC spokeswoman Viktoria] Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said...Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side...Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants."

But the linear no threshold theory, endorsed by the U.S. National Academies of Science for decades, holds that any exposure to radioactvity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk, and such risks are cumulative over a lifetime. It would be more honest for NRC officials to states that the tritium releases from Byron are "acceptably risky," in their judgment, but not "safe." After all, tritium is a potent radionuclide, a clinincally proven cause of cancer, mutations, and birth defects, and if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin, can integrate anywhere in the human body, right down to the DNA level.

A follow up article by AP quoted NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mytling as assuring that the reactor would not be re-started until a root cause of the incident was determined, and the problem fixed. However, such a promise by NRC at Davis-Besse, near Toledo, was recently broken by NRC: widespread cracking in the reactor's concrete shield building, a secondary radiological containment structure, did not stop NRC from rubberstamping the reactor's re-start on December 6th, even though the root cause, extent, and fix for the cracking have still not been determined.

The most recent update from AP reports that Exelon has announced a cause for the incident: a failed electrical insulator, which fell off.

Resistance continues against environmental impacts, as to endangered species, threatened by "Fermi 3" new reactor proposal

An environmental coalition issued a media release on January 12, 2012, announcing numerous filings in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Fermi 3. The environmental coalition has opposed Detroit Edison's proposal to build a General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR) since the nuclear utility's combined Construction and Operations License Application (COLA) to NRC in 2008. In 2009, the coalition, comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, intervened and won standing, as well as the admission of several contentions, before an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB).

One of those contentions concerns thermal and toxic chemical discharges from Fermi 3 which would worsen harmful algae blooms already running rampant in Lake Erie's shallow, fragile, and biologically productive Western Basin (see photo above left). Lake Erie is home to a world famous walleye fishery. The coalition is also contending that Fermi 3 would threaten numerous endangered and threatened species, such as the Eastern Fox Snake, due to its large-scale impacts on wetlands, as from new transmission line construction.

The January 11th filings included: the environmental coalition's comments and contentions; comments by CACC; comments by the Council of the Three Fires, representing the Walpole Island First Nation; comments by Lake Erie Waterkeeper; comments by Beyond Nuclear Launch Partner Keith Gunter; comments by the Environmental Law and Policy Center and Michigan Environmental Council; and comments by expert witness Joe Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

(A comprehenisive, running list of comments, media coverage, and nuclear utility and NRC responses is now posted on Beyond Nuclear's website.)

Is sea mammal morbidity and mortality in Alaska related to Fukushima's radioactive contamination of the ocean?

A blog named "Rachels-Carson of Today" poses this question, as a number of species of sea mammals in Alaska and Russia are experiencing "abnormal mortality events" and morbidity such as skin lesions. An environmental cause is suspected. Is it radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe? In her environmental classic Silent Spring -- the title referring to the potential loss of song birds due to the pesticide DDT's severe weakening of song bird eggshells to the point of species extinction -- nearly 50 years ago, Rachel Carson warned about the synergistic effects of hazardous radioactivity and toxic chemicals in the environment.

Fish in Japan contaminated with radiation

As much as 40 US gallons of highly radioactive waste water from a crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has leaked to the Pacific, including highly harmful strontium, linked with bone cancers, that has spread to the open ocean. The water leaked to the sea is believed to contain 26 billion becquerels of radioactive materials, according to plant owner, TEPCO. The Fukushima nuclear disaster is responsible for the world's worst nuclear sea contamination. Ocean contamination has been measured at 100,000 becquerels per cubic liter. Al Jazeera looked into the effect on fish and fishermen.