CONNECTICUT COALITION AGAINST MILLSTONE
Japan Admits Nuclear Plant Still Poses Dangers The plant is still in a precarious state 3/29/2012
Katie the Goat Takes Her Farewell Tour to White House 3/11: Mission Accomplished
Katie the Goat, the celebrated nuclear radiation monitor from Connecticut, took her Farewell Tour to the White House on March 11, the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. Katie's granddaughter, Dana Blue-Eyes, appealed to the First Family to adopt her as its official White House monitor for strontium-90.
Come back to this site for a full story of the exciting day!
Katie the Goat Takes Her Farewell Tour to the White House; Will Appeal to First Family to Adopt Her Granddaughter As a Pet and as a Radiation Monitor
Katie and Dana Blue Eyes Dana Blue Eyes
Katie the Goat will take her Farewell Tour to the White House on Sunday, March 11 at 12 noon, and appeal to the First Family to adopt her granddaughter, 3-month-old Dana Blue-Eyes, as a pet and a future radiation monitor.
In a letter delivered to First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Family on March 8, Katie’s caretaker, Nancy Burton, co-director of the Mothers Milk Project, asked the First Lady to help draw attention to the Project’s findings of radioactive contamination of human, cow and goat milk near the Indian Point and Millstone Nuclear Power Plants.
“Mothers are unknowingly feeding their children milk which is contaminated with nuclear materials which are potent carcinogens,” Burton says. “There are no federal standards for strontium-90 or strontium-89 in milk, even though these dangerous radioisotopes are known to mimic calcium in their chemical properties and find their way into our milk supply. They are routinely released by nuclear power plants”
“By adopting Dana Blue-Eyes, the First Family will have a devoted and playful pet who will double as a radiation monitor when she begins producing milk,” Burton says. “They will signal to the country their commitment to ensuring the purity and safety of the food we provide to our children.”
Strontium-90 and strontium-89 disperse in the air after their release from nuclear power plants and fall to earth during weather events. Cows, goats and humans can ingest them through breathing, drinking water and eating vegetation.
Read the Letter to First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Family here:March 8, 2012:
Honorable First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Family
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC
Dear First Lady Obama and the First Family,
As Co-Director of the Mothers Milk Project, I applaud First Lady Obama for her outstanding work and commitment to improving the nutritional health of our nation’s children. Her legacy will be lasting.
In 2008, I co-founded the Mothers Milk Project to call attention to an issue which also has profound nutritional and health implications for our nation’s children – and indeed all Americans. That is the presence of radioactivity in our milk.
The Mothers Milk Project has sampled milk from lactating mothers – humans, cows and goats included – in the area surrounding the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station in Buchanan, New York.
The results, presented by an independent, certified laboratory, show the presence of strontium-90 and strontium-89, manmade radioisotopes released in nuclear fission. Both radionuclides are potent bone-seeking carcinogens medically associated with bone cancer, leukemia and soft tissue cancers.
Children are most vulnerable to the health effects of ingesting radioactive strontium because their teeth and bones are growing at an accelerated rate.
Epidemiological studies have found elevated cancer rates among children with strontium-90 in their discarded baby teeth, in contrast with those without strontium-90 in their teeth, in the vicinity of Indian Point.
Goat milk is considered the best and most sensitive indicator of airborne radiation releases, even superior to onsite mechanical radiation detectors at nuclear power plants. In fact, the owner of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station disabled its onsite strontium-90 detectors in 2001, citing the superiority of goat milk as an environmental indicator.
To help call attention to this serious issue, we ask you to accept our gift of a 3-month-old baby goat named Dana Blue-Eyes to be your pet and to serve as a radiation monitor at the White House grounds. She is not quite old enough to have babies and produce milk, but she will give the First Family great pleasure as you watch her grow up. (We are reminded of the fact that President Abraham Lincoln accepted a gift of Nanko and Nanny, kid goats, while he and his family of young boys were White House residents, and the family grew devoted to them.)
Dana Blue-Eyes is the granddaughter of Katie the Goat, who lived five miles from Millstone in 2000-2003. Millstone’s owner, Dominion, collected her milk every month for sampling and reported excessively high levels of strontium-90 in her milk.
Katie presently resides with me in Redding, Connecticut, 25 miles downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station. She was recently diagnosed at Tufts Veterinary Hospital in Massachusetts with terminal cancer presented in a visible shoulder protrusion and a large tumor buried in her chest. The soft-tissue cancer is medically associated with radiation exposure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which cites strontium-90 exposure as a risk factor in bone cancer, leukemia and soft-tissue cancer. http://epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html. Still, Katie continues her public service as a radiation monitor even in her illness.
Last March 25 and April 26, days after nuclear reactors exploded at Fukushima, one after another, unleashing vast amounts of radiation to the air and the sea, Katie’s milk showed spikes in radioactivity. In fact, her milk concentrations of strontium-89 were the highest ever seen during Katie’s 12-year career as a radiation monitor (4 and 5.49 picocuries/liter, respectively).
The nuclear power plant closest upwind to the White House - Calvert Cliffs in Lusby, MD, 50 miles away – does not monitor milk for radioactivity. There are no federal standards for strontium-90 or strontium-89 levels in milk.
This Sunday, March 11, at 12 noon, we will appear at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with Katie and Dana Blue-Eyes on hand. May we hope that you will accept our (and Katie’s) generous offer to install Dana Blue-Eyes at the White House as its personal radiation monitor?
Please do contact us at your earliest opportunity. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Nancy Burton
Katie the Goat, Millstone Radiation Whistleblower, Stricken by Nuclear Fallout
Begins ‘Farewell Tour’ to Alert Public to Deadly Hazards of Nuclear Power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pibMpWbneCk
Katie the Goat, whose milk contained excessive levels of radioactive strontium-90 when she lived five miles from the Millstone Nuclear Power Station from 2000 and 2003, has been diagnosed with untreatable terminal cancer medically linked to radiation exposure.
Connecticut’s well-known radiation monitor and nuclear whistleblower has been fatally stricken with nuclear fallout.
“Katie’s message is for the whole world to hear: that radiation from nuclear power plants is deadly,” said Nancy Burton, director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone (www.MothballMillstone.org) and Katie’s caretaker.
Katie’s dire diagnosis provides unprecedented proof linking exposure to Millstone and Indian Point radioactive emissions with deadly cancer. Even during routine operation, nuclear power plants are designed to vent radiation into the air. They are dispersed by wind and weather conditions. They can be ingested by a goat – or a human – through breathing, drinking water and eating vegetation, including garden produce.
“In Connecticut, nature’s purest and best nutrient - mother’s milk – can harbor insidious poisons from Millstone and Indian Point and we are being lied to by those who produce and profit from these deadly nuclear byproducts,” she said.
“The implications for child welfare and public health are enormous,” Burton said. “We are all at risk.”
Katie was adopted by the Coalition when it discovered her high strontium-90 milk levels in little-noticed reports filed with the state and federal governments and, appearing at numerous rallies and events across the state, Katie made headlines and became a “poster goat” alerting mothers and others to the hazards of nuclear power.
She appeared with Ralph Nader and on public-access television. She appeared at a rally at Millstone to support Sham Mehta, the Millstone whistleblower fired by Dominion after he reported to the NRC that Dominion was routinely deliberately disabling its perimeter security system.
Most famously, Katie appeared at the State Capitol in June 2006 with her baby kids, Cindy-Lu and Joe-Joe, for a press conference and with hopes to meet with then-Governor M. Jodie Rell to share the laboratory results of her contaminated milk. Health physicist Dr. Ernest Sternglass appeared alongside Katie to explain that the excessive levels of strontium-90 found in her milk – higher, he said, than in milk produced during the peak of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1960s – derived from Millstone releases and appeared to represent an exceedence of federal radiation standards. The Governor declined to meet with Katie.
Katie returned to the State Capitol today for a press conference to inaugurate her ‘Farewell Tour’ and to present a letter to Governor Dannel Malloy sharing laboratory results analyzing her milk, both when she lived at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford and, since 2008, when she has resided in Redding, Connecticut. Redding is located approximately 25 miles downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station.
Katie’s results show high levels of strontium-90 as well as the presence of strontium-89 at both locations. Both radioisotopes are manmade byproducts of nuclear fission and both are potent carcinogens. In their chemical composition, they mimic calcium and, once ingested from the air, water or food, they concentrate in the bones and teeth, causing bone cancer, leukemia and soft-tissue cancer.[1] Katie has been diagnosed with a soft-tissue sarcoma in her shoulder above her foreleg by the Tufts Veterinary Hospital in Massachusetts.
Strontium-90 has a half-life of 30 years, meaning that it loses half its radioactivity after 30 years. Strontium-89 has a half-life of only 50 days. If it can be detected, it means it was freshly produced, probably not far away. Of the two, strontium-89 is the more significant indicator that a nearby nuclear power plant is responsible for the presence of the carcinogen.
Katie was joined at the press conference by her now grown-up daughter, Cindy-Lu, and granddaughter Dana Blue-Eyes.
Since she first gave birth in Redding in 2008, Cindy-Lu’s milk has also tested positively for strontium-90 and strontium-89. The goats’ caretaker, Nancy Burton, is also co-director of the Mothers Milk Project (www.MothersMilkProject.org), which collects milk samples from cows, goats and humans living near Indian Point and sends the samples to a certified private laboratory for analysis.
When Katie lived near Millstone in Waterford, agents of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc. collected her milk and tested it every three months. The long lag time enabled what strontium-89 might have been present to decay to undetectable levels. Nevertheless, some samples showed the presence of strontium-89.
In reports it filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc., Millstone’s owner, reported the following levels of strontium-90 and strontium-89 (all in picocuries/liter) at 120 Dayton Road in Waterford (“Location 22”):
2000
June 28: Sr-90 11.0
September 26: Sr-89 2.2, Sr-90 44.4
2001
June 29: Sr-89 2.5, Sr-90 13.2
September 19: Sr-89 3.2, Sr-90 55.5
2002
[Unavailable]
2003
June 24: Sr-90 9.2
August 19: Sr-89 6, Sr-90 14.5
By way of comparison, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last issued a report in 1993 of levels of strontium-90 in milk sold commercially in 37 U.S. cities. The highest level reported was 2.8 picocuries/liter in Little Rock AK, with 12 of the samples less than one.[2]
Dominion also reported that Katie’s milk contained concentrations of other radioisotopes, including Iodine-131, Cesium-134, Cesium-137 and others.
In its 2001 annual report, Dominion stated that its own monitoring of strontium-90 and strontium-89 in air particulate filters at the Millstone radiation stack was inferior to testing milk samples for these radioisotopes in the environment.[3]
Dominion acknowledges that “Over the many years of station operation, Sr-89 has often been released in comparable quantity to Sr-90,” yet the Virginia-based company has consistently denied that Millstone was responsible for the radioactivity in Katie’s milk.[4]
The operators of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station never sampled goat milk and limited their testing to one dairy farm located five miles northeast of the facility. Sampling of milk at that location by New York State between 1982 and 1992 found levels of strontium-90 in cow’s milk to generally be in the 1-3 picocurie/liter range, with a spike of 14 in 1983 and another spike in 1991 of 7.25. When the dairy farm closed in 1992, Indian Point discontinued milk sampling. Customarily, the plant’s owners report annually to the NRC, as they did in their 2010 report, that its operations “did not result in exposure to the public greater than background levels.” In other words, the plant’s routine radiation releases to the air stopped at the plant’s perimeter and did not disperse into the environment.
Nevertheless, both Katie and Cindy-Lu – and other participants in the Mothers Milk Project – have been producing milk with significant detectable levels of both strontium-90 and strontium-89 during their residency in Redding.
Among the highlights of their milk sampling are these results:
June 29, 2008 Cindy-Lu Sr-90 3.5
June 30, 2008 Cindy-Lu Sr-90 1.8
July 11, 2008 Cindy-Lu Sr-89 3.7, Sr-90 3.4
July 16, 2008 Cindy-Lu Sr-90 2.3
July 19, 2008 Cindy-Lu Sr-90 5.1
July 24, 2008 Katie Sr-90 1.0
August 28, 2008 Katie Sr-89 3.8, Sr-90 2.1
June 5, 2010 Katie Sr-89 1.1
March 8, 2011: Katie Sr-89 2., Sr-90, 1.1
May 13, 2011: Katie Sr-89 2.03 March 25, 2011 Katie Sr-89 .4 , Sr-90 1.2
April 26, 2011 Katie Sr-89 5.49
May 13, 2011: Cindy-Lu Sr-89 5.74, Sr-90 1.75
Katie and her caretaker planned to present these results to Governor Malloy and to ask him to meet with them for a full discussion of the issue.
Neither the State of Connecticut nor the federal government independently monitors milk produced in the state.
Katie and Cindy-Lu – and other goats at two locations near Millstone – carry out this public service.
There is one and only one way to eliminate the risk of contaminating mother’s milk with nuclear radisotopes and that is to achieve a nuclear-free world, Burton said.
The first best step is to close the Millstone and Indian Point reactors.
“We need only look to Japan, which has functioned without blackouts since Fukushima one year ago, even though it has shut all but two of its 58 nuclear power plants,” Burton said.
“The best energy generation is energy conservation,” she said. “The Japanese have learned to conserve and do with less and so can we. The health of all biological species depends on it.”
- 30 -
[1] “Internal exposure to strontium-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone and leukemia. Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to strontium-90. The risk depends on the concentration of strontium-90 in the environment and on the exposure conditions.” http://epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
[2] http://www.epa.gov/narel/radnet/erd75.pdf (page 31)
[3] “The most sensitive indicator of fission product existence in the terrestrial environment is usually milk samples. Goat milk samples can be a more sensitive indicator of fission products in the terrestrial environment than cow milk samples. . . . The fact that milk samples are a much more sensitive indicator of fission product existence in the environment prompted [Dominion’s decision in 2001 to discontinue the use of air particulate filters to monitor strontium-90 and strontium-89 releases].” Millstone 2001 Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Report, ADAMS Accession Number ML021300024, pages 4-5 – 4-6.
[4] See, e.g., Millstone 2001 Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Report at pages 4-6 – 4-7, 6-1 – 6-3.NIRS REACTORWATCH - To read the petition and for information in depth go to:
http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/emergency/emergencyhome.htm
Mischief in the Air
Dominion is developing plans to burn new uranium fuel assemblies - supplied by French-owned Areva – at Millstone Unit 2.
That’s what they told the NRC at a little-noticed meeting on February 15, 2012.
Publicly available details are sketchy, but it appears that the Areva CE14X14 HTP fuel assemblies, with their greater pellet density and “higher uranium loading,” will generate higher levels of radioactivity, including nuclear fission wasteproducts such as plutonium. And a higher heat load.
That translates to more heat being released in the thermal plume exiting to the Long Island Sound, and higher airborne doses to the unsuspecting public living in the shadow of Millstone.
Dominion should not act as though this is a done deal. Their business plan assumes NRC approval in 2012, fuel reshuffling within the Unit 2 spent fuel pool in spring 2012 and receipt of the new fuel assembles in summer 2012.
A Union of Concerned Scientists expose published in 2008 found the NRC had allowed dozens of Areva uranium fuel assembles at U.S. nuclear power plants despite a serious common flaw: the fuel assemblies grew abnormally long once in the reactor, potentially deforming and damaging the fuel.
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone Joins
National Petition to Expand Nuclear Evacuation Zones
The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone joined 37 national clean-energy groups in petitioning the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for rulemaking on February 15, 2012 to adopt new rules to expand emergency evacuation zones and improve emergency response planning around U.S. nuclear reactors.
“It’s past time to plan realistically for the aftermath of a major nuclear disaster at Millstone,” said Nancy Burton, CCAM director. “In a real nuclear emergency, we need to be prepared to protect all within the 50-mile zone of danger, and that means Hartford, New Haven, Providence, and the eastern end of Long Island.”
The formal legal petition calls on the NRC to incorporate the real-world lessons of the Fukushima nuclear disaster by expanding current 10-mile evacuation zones to 25 miles around nuclear reactors.
The expanded emergency evacuation zone would bring the eastern end of Long Island, with its heavy seasonal population, into mandatory planning and drills and it would extend into the state of Rhode Island.
The petition also calls on the federal regulator to establish a new zone of up to 50 miles around each reactor site in which nuclear licensees would have to identify and publicize potential evacuation routes.
The 50-mile zone would stretch to include Providence RI, Hartford, New Haven, New Britain and Waterbury in Connecticut and both North and South Forks of eastern Long Island.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) is lead petitioner.
In addition, the petition would expand the “ingestion pathway zone,” which monitors food, milk and water, from 50 miles to 100 miles around reactors.
Finally, utilities and state and local governments would be required to practice emergency drills hat include a natural disaster that either initiates or occurs concurrently with a nuclear meltdown. Currently, utilities need not demonstrate the capability to conduct an evacuation during a natural disaster even though - as happened at Fukushima – natural disasters can lead to nuclear meltdowns.
Shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster began to unfold on March 11, 2011, the U.S. Government directed U.S. citizens to evacuate beyond a 50-mile radius of the site where three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants suffered meltdowns.
Prior to the disaster, Japan had established evacuation zones extending for 6 miles beyond nuclear reactor sites. The zone is now being expanded to 18 miles, although thousands of people were evacuated more than 25 miles away.
December 9, 2011: Congressman Ed Markey Exposes NRC Conpiracy to Delay and Weaken U.S. Nuclear Safety in the Wake of Fukushima - Cites a 'Regulatory Meltdown That Has Left America's Nuclear Fleet and the General Public at Risk"
'Hazardous Radiation Dusts All of Japan"
(courtesy Beyond Nuclear)Earthquake in Virginia:
Dominion's North Anna Reactors Lose Offsite Power in Earthquake;
Dominion's Surry Reactors Declare Level 1 Emergency ("Unusual Event")Fukushima Radiation Alarms Doctors
Estimated 45 Per cent of Children in Fukushima Prefecture
Have Suffered Radiation Exposure to Their Thyroids from the Nuclear Calamity
Trace Amounts of Fukushima Fallout Found in Fukushima Children's Urine
These Terrible Findings Suggest Internal Organs Exposed to Radioactivity in the Most Vulnerable
Three Months On (June 11): The Fukushima Cover-Up Continues
Swiss Council Votes to Phase Out Nukes 08 June 2011
Switzerland's National Council has voted in support of the phase out of nuclear energy in the country following a decision by the Swiss cabinet not to replace its existing nuclear plants. 101 members of the 200-seat lower house of the Swiss parliament voted in favour of phasing out nuclear energy by 2034, with 54 against. The proposal must also be approved by the upper house, the 46-member Council of States. Switzerland currently relies on five nuclear plants to gen erate 40% of its electricity, and up until the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant triggered by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami had been planning to replace its reactors with new units as they reached the end of their operating lives.
Media Silent About Plutonium Contamination of Japanese Rice
Gov't crisis center kept in dark over data on radiation dispersal
Millstone 2 Lost Operability of Its 2 Diesel Generators on October 7, 2009
Read the full expose: "Fukushima Fallout: Regulatory Loopholes at U.S. Nuclear Plants" by Congressman Ed Markey
NRC Inspectors: Millstone Vulnerabilities to Fires, Flooding, Seismic Events
Fukushima parents dish the dirt in protest over radiation levels
Furious Fukushima parents dump school playground earth that may have radiation levels well above the old safety level
Parents in Fukushima are angry over rule changes which mean that school children can be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously permissible.
Earthquake at Haddam CT - Site of Thousands of Tons of Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods
An earthquake measuring 1.3 on the Richter Scale occurred on March 23 in Haddam, Connecticut, where thousands of tons of high-level radioactive waste is "temporarily" stored in above-ground upright casks.
Custodians of the casks containing the waste generated by the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant were unaware of the earthquake until they were notifed by the state's department of emergency mnagement in Hartford, according to an email discovered by the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone on April 28.
The state's department of emergency management notified the state Department of Environmental Protection's Edward Wilds of its concerns about the spent nuclear fuel.
"There are no issues with the spent nuclear fuel," Wilds, who is not a seismologist, wrote in an email on March 24.
The Coalition is demanding an investigation by the State of Connecticut, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Departtment of Energy.
April, 2011
Citizens arm themselves with umbrellas, raincoats, boots, Korea Times, April 7, 2011:
… The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) said radioactive iodine and cesium were found in rainwater collected in the early morning at a checkpoint on the island. The concentration level of iodine-131 was 2.02 becquerels per liter (Bq/l), that of cesium-137, 0.538 Bq/l, and that of cesium-134, 0.333 Bq/l. …
Following the news that minuscule radioactive substances were detected on Jeju, people in all parts of the country carried umbrellas to work or school even though the rainfall was light.
Parents h ad their children not only use umbrellas but also wear raincoats, rubber boots and even masks. Some of them gave their children a ride to school, with streets near schools congested.
In Gyeonggi Province, about 130 pre-, elementary and middle schools were closed after the regional educational office allowed school heads to close them if they deemed it necessary. More than 40 others shortened school hours. …
Read the report here.
UCB Rain Water Sampling Results, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Nuclear Engineering:
Iodine-131 level in rainwater sample taken on the roof of Etcheverry Hall on UC Berkeley campus, March 23, 2011 from 9:06-18:00 PDT
20.1 Becquerel per liter (Bq/L)
Read the report here: Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sample near San Francisco 18,100% above federal drinking water standardRead more:
“Yellow rain” around Tokyo caused by pollen officials say – Rain may have contained radioactivity
“Yellow rain” recently reported in Tokyo also happened after Chernobyl — Government assured residents it was pollen
Rain stimulating “reagents” used during Chernobyl to protect Moscow from fallout — Expert recommends same over Pacific for Fukushima
NY Times contributor confirms California rainwater 181 times above drinking water standards for radioactive iodine-131
Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampl e near San Francisco 18,100% above federal drinking water standard.
German minister: Human Costs of Nuclear Energy Too High
Radioactive iodine found in breast milk of Japanese mothers
Tornado Shuts Down Offsite Power to Dominion's 2 Surry Reactors in Virginia
Long Island Pushes for 50-Mile Millstone Evacuation Zone
Strontium-90 Detected in Fukushima Fallout More Than 30 Kilometers Offsite
Fukushima Fallout French Radiation Experts:
Lactating & Pregnant Women & Children: Avoid 'Risky' Behavior Including Drinking Milk and Rainwater and Eating Leafy Vegetables"Evacuating L.I. -- a Nuclear Dead End."
"NRC's Pro-Nuke Spin on Evacuation Zones"
Union of Concerned Scientists:
Internal NRC Documents Reveal Doubts About Measures to Ensure U.S. Plants Survive Fukushima-Type EventsState of Virginia Warns Residents to Avoid Drinking Rainwater
Children of Fukushima Being Denied Refuge and Medical Treatment Over Radiation Fears
Analysis of Goat Milk collected in September 2010
25 Miles Downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station
Has Detectable Levels of Strontium-90 and Strontium-89Strontium-89, a carcinogen produced in nuclear fission, has been found in goat milk 25 miles downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station. The milk was collected in September 2010. Strontium-89 has a half-life of 50 days. When strontium-89 is detected in a milk sample, its source is a recent fission event, not resdue from nuclear weapons fallout or Chernobyl. Strontium-90, also a carcinogen which, when ingested, can cause bone cancer, disease of the immune system and other illness, was also found in the goat milk. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28 years. Radiation bioaccumulates in the human body.
The pathways for radioactivity released by a nuclear power plant to concentrate in goat milk include inhalation of airborne radiation and ingestion of radionuclides from drinking water and pasture grass.
The detection of strontium-89 in the goat milk is further evidence that Indian Point is poisoning our environment and endangering our children.
The risk of releases of strontium-89 and other carcinogens from Indian Point can be significantly decreased by shutting down these dangerous nuclear reactors.
For more updates on the Nuclear crisis in Japan go to:
March 24
Radiation and Public Health Project: Fukushima Fallout May Harm U.S. Babies
March 23
From Our Archives: Class 1 Emergency at Millstone Unit 2 in 2008 After Power Loss
Millstone Unit 1 Spent Fuel Pool: Empty It!
Governor Dannel Malloy: WHERE WERE YOU?
On March 22, 2011, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo scheduled a meeting between his staff and officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review earthquake hazards of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant which the NRC has placed at highest risk of earthquake consequences of any nuclear power plant in the nation.
WHERE WERE YOU?
Nearly 20 million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point.
That includes nearly all the residents of Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Greenwich is only 15 miles downwind from Indian Point.
The time for Connecticut to bury its head when it comes to Indian Point is over. The Fukushima disaster has made that clear.
It's time for Connecticut to join the demand to shut Indian Point.Parents cautioned not to feed their babies Tokyo tap water
High radiation levels contaminate fish off Japanese coast
Radiation levels '1600 times above normal" in Fukushima
www.beyondnuclear.org'I could have been the father of a Japanese Chernobyl':
Remorseful admissions of an engineer who covered up a defect in Fukushima 4:
March 21
Fukushima 3 Nuclear Reactor 3/21/2011 Courtesy: Tokyo Electric Power Company via AP
The Child of Chernobyl Thinking about the Children of Fukushima
Amory Lovins: 'Learning from Japan's Nuclear Disaster
European Committee on Radiation Risk Predicts 120,000 cancers worldwide from Fukushima based on current known releases:
World Health Organization's Toxic Link to IAEA
French Laboratory Finds High Levels of Radioactive Contamination in Food in Japan
New Gallup Poll Shows Waning Support in U.S. for Nuclear Power
March 19
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone Tells Press Conference:
'Fukushima Can Happen Here'March 18
Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Seen Crying
After Telling Press ReportersFukushima's Escaping Radiation Will Kill People
Fukushima Reactor 4's spent fuel pool has run dry, exposing rods' radiation to the environment
Fukushima: There is no "safe" dose of radiation.
Union of Concerned Scientists Study Exposes NRC's Lax Regulation of U.S. Nuclear Power Industry Read the report
The Windmills Didn't Melt Down
March 16, 2011:
Millstone and Indian Point Among Worst in Safety Rankings
China Suspends Plans for 28 New Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear Meltdown Crisis Worsens at Fukushima
MOX(plutonium-based)-fuelled Nuclear Reactor 3 Feared Ruptured
'Japan Says Second Reactor May Have Ruptured with Radioactive Release'
Experts Say Nuclear Emergency Nearing 'Point of No Return
March 15, 2011:
Fukushima at Millstone?
It CAN Happen Here
The New London CT Day is reporting that the Millstone Nuclear Power Station "has equipment in place to prevent power loss and meltdowns like those occurring at reactors in Japan."http://theday.com/article/20110315/NWS01/303159902/1018
It represents Dominion's public relations move to reassure the public that the radiological catastrophe now unfolding in Japan can't happen here.
Unfortunately, it CAN happen here and it almost has, more than once.
At least once, Millstone has lost power from the grid and the "equipment it had in place" - back-up diesel generators - failed.
This is exactly what happened at Fukushima.
And it can happen again.
Other events at Millstone have been close calls.
And they can happen again.
We will be posting further details.
Will all the world now focused on the folly and horrors of nuclear power, we must shut down the nuclear reactors wherever they are.
RADIOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE LOOMS AT FUKUSHIMA
'Japan Braces for Potential Radiation Catastrophe' (Reuters)
Radiation levels around Fukushima declared harmful to human health; nuclear workers evacuated; fire in spent fuel pool feared.
www.BeyondNuclear.org
'Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise' (The New York Times)
Radiation levels in Tokyo 20 times above "normal"; region south of Fukushima reports radiation levels 100 times above "normal"; radiation spikes outside Fukushima nuclear power station at lethal levels (exposure for 75 minutes will lead to acute radiation sickness)
What will spark the next Fukushima?
America on nuclear alert: Could fallout from Japan explosion reach U.S. West Coast?
Japan Bracing for Nuclear Meltdown'We're Told Not to Breathe the Air'
Dramatic footage of explosion at Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 3 on March 14, 2011
Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 fuel core meltdown reported underway7:39AM EST March 14---We have received a report from our Japanese colleagues that Tokyo Power Electric Company is reporting that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 has lost all cooling water and the fuel core is completed exposed. The fuel rods are very likely melting. There is no word on efforts to flood Unit 2 to avert an uncontrolled meltdown.
Two hydrogen gas explosions have already rocked Unit 1 and Unit 3. A third explosion is now likely in Unit 2 potentially releasing significant amounts of radiation into the atmosphere if the vessel fails followed by containment failure as the result of a possible full scale meltdown. Courtesy of Beyond Nuclear
Fukushima Update: March 13, 2011 Nuclear Madness Visited Upon Japan's Youngest
(Photo credit: Reuters)
Multiple nuclear emergencies in Japan have forced the evacuation of 200,000 people from their homes near the disabled Fukushima nuclear reactors on Japan's northeast coast. The threat of an explosion at Fukushima No. 3 nuclear reactor - which uses plutonium-based MOX (mixed oxide fuel) - looms, according to Japan authorities. Plutonium is the deadliest substance produced in nuclear fission and it remains deadly for hundreds of thousands of years.
The young children in this photograph are being examined for possible radiation exposure. Children are most vulnerable to radiation exposure because their cells are rapidly dividing as they grow.
For the sake of the children, the use of nuclear power must end.
Fukushima instructs that it's time to mothball all the nuclear reactors of the world.
Fukushima Fallout (updated March 13, 2011)
Former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nils J. Diaz, Responds to Japanese Nuclear Crisis
Sixth Nuclear Reactor at Fukushima Loses Core Cooling System From KYODO News TOKYO,3.13, Kyodo
Meltdown Caused Nuke Plant Explosion: Safety Body
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.
Nuclear Power Plant Explodes on Japan Coast: Meltdown Feared 3/12/11
AP
Go to www.beyondnuclear.org for updates, videos, truth-telling
Statement from the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) 3/12/11:
re: the Nuclear and Earthquake Disaster Unfolding in Japan
The Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) is deeply concerned
for the health and safety of the people affected by the earthquakes
and tsunamis that have struck Japan over the last two days. We are
particularly concerned for the people in the vicinity of nuclear power
plants, including workers who are trying to minimize the scope of the
disaster.Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is in a state of
meltdown. A nuclear disaster which the promoters of nuclear power in
Japan said wouldn't happen is in progress. It is occurring as a result
of an earthquake that they said would not happen.This could and should have been predicted. It was predicted by
scientists and NGOs such as CNIC. We warned that Japan's nuclear power
plants could be subjected to much stronger earthquakes and much bigger
tsunamis than they were designed to withstand.Besides the question about how this accident will unfold, the big
question now is, will the government and the nuclear industry
acknowledge its mistakes and change track?
Tell President Obama Nuclear Energy is Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive
(Courtesy of Harvey Wasserman and Beyond Nuclear) Harvey Wasserman: "$7 Billion New Nuke Attack" » Wednesday Jan 26 2011
