Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

17,000,000,000,000 (17 trillion) radioactive shots per second (Bq) of Caesium 137 (Cs-137) is the lower limit of what the UK Environment Agency proposes to allow Sellafield to send out to the Irish Sea per year. The upper limit is 24,000,000,000,000 Bq. Any one of these shots could cause genetic damage leading to life-shortening cancers or other disabilities. This is but one type of radioactive material which Sellafield Nuclear Site is discharging to sea and air, which we are using as an example. The impacts upon fisheries beyond the Irish Sea are made clear by the map, further below. Caesium 137 (Cs-137) discharges to the Irish sea have actually increased by 69% from 2014-2018. Between 2017-2018, alone, they have increased by 33%. The proposed limit would allow an increase in discharge more than five times greater than the current discharge – in violation of the OSPAR convention, as is the increase over the last years. Comment Deadline 1st December: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/sellafield-wants-free-rein-to-discharge-under-the-guise-of-reducing-emissions-to-the-environment/

Compare to a M134 MiniGun at 100 Rounds Per Second.

Shooting randomly into a crowd or stabbing people is called terrorism, but the nuclear industry gets by with the invisible shots which stab and tear genetic material, leading to injury and death. It’s not making the news, unlike today’s attack: “London Police Shoot Suspect Dead After ‘Terrorist’ Stabbings” https://www.voanews.com/europe/london-police-shoot-suspect-dead-after-terrorist-stabbings There are the lucky survivors, and the unlucky, in both types of attacks. So, why is one terrorism and the other not? The nuclear attacks go on for many years. Los Alamos Nuclear Lab (LANL) has used the shooting comparison, even using gun types to compare damage of different types (gamma vs alpha). Caesium 137 remains a radiological hazard for around 400 years. As for the cutting, it is straight from basic university Genetics class – that is exactly what the body must do with nuclear damage – or the cell must auto-destruct (blow itself up), or it must cut out the damage and attempt a repair which is almost always faulty.

The UK Environment Agency is actually removing the limits for Caesium 134 discharges, which will remain radioactive for decades, as well as removing their independent monitoring. Sellafield is on the honour system.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2011/03/16182005/25

For those who remain unfamiliar with trillion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion

Caesium 137 (Cs-137) discharges to the Irish sea may have indeed declined as compared to 2006, as claimed, but have been increasing again between 2014 and 2018. They have actually increased by 69% in this four year period. Between 2017 and 2018, alone, the discharges of Caesium 137 increased by 33%.

The trick is that the current limit is so incredibly high that this 2018 discharge is still 12.9% of the current limit. Thus, when they say that they are going to decrease the Cs-137 limit to between 50% and 71% of the current limit, they still could increase discharges by an enormous amount, i.e. from 4.4 Trillion Becquerels (TBq) to a lower limit of 17 TBq and an upper limit of 24 TBq. Thus, they can legally increase discharges by over five fold – (between x 3.86 and x 5.45)- while pretending to decrease discharges, because they have decreased the limit. Under the OSPAR convention, they should be close to zero discharges by 2020, and yet their discharges have been increasing, and they are leaving a window open to huge increases.

The numbers we are discussing here are absolutely huge. Currently, for Cesium 137 alone, they (Sellafield) are authorized to send 34 TeraBecquerels (34 TBq), i.e. 34 TRILLION radioactive shots per second, out to the Irish Sea. The Environment Agency is allowing this limit to be decreased to between 17 TeraBecquerels (17TBq) and 24 TeraBecquerels (24 TBq). The EA have opted to write their proposal in such a manner that the numbers appear much smaller than they are in reality.

Notice the difference in reporting, on the charts, further below: The limit of 34 TBq is the same as 3.4E+04 GBq. It can readily be seen that 1.7E +04 GBq is half of 3.4E +04 GBq, but less evident for many that this is actually 17 TBq and 34 TBq. Did they opt to report in this way in order to better confuse and deceive? The constant shifts in reporting styles used by the nuclear industry makes it very prone to error, and errors cannot be afforded in the nuclear industry, as they are a question of life and death.

One becquerel is defined as one radioactive disintegration per second. However, what we are really talking about is one radioactive shot per second, any one of which could cause damage leading to cancer or disability. Furthermore, Caesium is a potassium mimic and is a chemical as well as radiological menace. As a Potassium mimic, which is chemically highly reactive, it can bind into a radioactive sea salt, as well. Potassium is required for life. It is required for the function of the nervous system, including the heart. This is one reason that Caesium exposure can cause heart dysfunction, as well. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/PHS/PHS.asp?id=575&tid=107 Caesium 137, half-life of 30 years, will remain radioactive for 400 plus years.

Caesium 134, which they have decided to remove limits on, will remain radioactive for decades. Recall that half-life means that it is half as radioactive, and it is half of a half of a half for many years, until it eventually reaches almost zero, as can be seen with the chart at the bottom of this blog post.

“As its timeframe, the Radioactive Substances Strategy further declares that the OSPAR Commission will implement this Strategy progressively by making every endeavour, through appropriate actions and measures to ensure that by the year 2020 discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances are reduced to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions and losses, are close to zero.” Read more here: https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/rsc/non-nuclear-discharges As explained at the link, the oil industry is also discharging radioactive substances to sea. This may be why Norway and Scotland appear less vocal than in the past. Ireland has an electrical connector line to the UK, as well as to France. Thus, they may all have a mutual suicide pact, so to speak.

Click to access Monitoring_Environmental_Discharges_2018__3_.pdf

Click to access Sellafield%20Ltd%20RSA%20permit%20draft%20decision%20document.pdf

You may wish to tell them that you will no longer eat fish from these waters due to these discharges. Certainly you should tell Norway that you will not eat their salmon until something is done. You cannot replace them with Pacific fish due to Fukushima discharges. This post should make clear to you why we no longer do the tedious posts of this sort. We did them for years, to no avail (look at our earlier posts), and have a high risk of dying soon due to previous love of Nordic salmon and sardines, as well as many other exposures, which we learned about too late. As can be seen, this is very easy arithmetic, but very error-prone due to the large numbers and changes in notation.

Excerpted from: “Environment Agency Draft Decision Document 07/10/2019
Sellafield Ltd Application: EPR/KP3690SX/V009 72 of 145
“Revised caesium-137 (Cs-137) aqueous site limit and quarterly notification level

335. Cs-137 is a metal produced during reactor operations that becomes trapped in the spent fuel. Reprocessing and associated waste treatment operations result in much of the Cs-137 being directed into solid radioactive waste, but a small fraction is discharged into the sea. It has a half-life of about 30 years and concentrates on sediments. Aquatic plants may take in caesium from the water and sediment, and similarly aquatic animals can concentrate caesium from water, sediment and via the food chain.

336. Sellafield Ltd has proposed significant reductions in the site limits. Magnox reprocessing and legacy fuel and waste storage have been the dominant sources of past discharges and have declined in the past when the benefit of Magnox medium active concentrate diversion (from 2006 onwards) to HALES was realised. THORP closing has had only a minor impact on discharges. There is significant uncertainty over future discharges associated with legacy waste retrievals operations, fuel storage, sludge chemistry and SIXEP abatement.

337. Sellafield Ltd’s proposed limits align with the OESM projected discharges, including model and input uncertainty. We consider that these limits provide reasonable headroom for future operations, including the treatment of waste from reprocessing and legacy waste retrievals.

338. We agree with Sellafield Ltd’s proposed upper and lower site limits (table 6.5) and have confirmed that one or more of our limit setting criteria is met. While we accept there is significant uncertainty over future discharges, which supports the difference between proposed upper and lower limits, we expect the lower limit to be applied when the permit is issued given the recent past level of discharge, unless Sellafield Ltd can make a BAT case that we agree with. We have agreed quarterly notification levels based on 25% of these proposed limits (table 6.6).
Environment Agency Draft Decision Document 07/10/2019
Sellafield Ltd Application: EPR/KP3690SX/V009 72 of 145

Click to access Sellafield%20Ltd%20RSA%20permit%20draft%20decision%20document.pdf

A few of the related posts. Please search Sellafield, Irish Sea, etc., for more:
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/03/14/sea-stars-sentinels-for-radionuclides-nuclear-waste/
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/increased-levels-of-americium-241-recently-reported-in-mud-at-st-patrick-birthplace-of-ravenglass/
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/tourism-milk-and-cheese-or-nuclear (Note that Appenzell may be somewhat impacted by discharges from a facility that produces tritium, of which we were unaware in 2015, but certainly not to the extent of Sellafield).

The population of Cumbria, Scotland, and Ireland were mostly deported to the US and then Canada and Australia. There are more indigenous Scots and Irish in the United States, than in Scotland or Ireland. The same is almost certainly true of Cumbria, but it’s counted as English, or even “American”. From this vantage, alone, North Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders, should be angry. Kill and deport the people and then turn their lands and water into a nuclear wasteland. To call these people “immigrants” when their ancestors were forcibly deported, or sometimes the father hung, and the children deported, is a similar level of absurdity to calling slaves “immigrants”. Many were sent to South Carolina, which now has a Sellafield twin site called the Savannah River Nuclear site. People were actually removed from their home to make the Savannah River site. Ditto for Oakridge.

Returning wolves from the continent to the UK has been discussed; immigrants from other lands are welcomed everywhere; but never is there discussion of right of return of the indigenous British and Irish peoples, even if they wished to return to a nuclear wasteland.

The nuclear industry is literally genocidal.

Half-life chart:
Multiply half-life by number to the left to see what percentage left.
Caesium 137, half-life of 30 years, times 15 half-lives is 450 years, and still not zero.