Plutonium detected half-mile outside New Mexico nuclear waste facility

[bananas]

Source: Al Jazeera

Disclosure comes four days after leak at same underground storage repository; officials say no threat to human health

Four days after a radiation alert shut the nation’s only underground nuclear waste facility, an independent monitoring center said Wednesday it found radioactive isotopes in an air sensor about a half mile from the southeastern New Mexico plant.

A filter from a monitor northwest of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad had trace amounts of plutonium and americium, said Russell Hardy, director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center.

“It’s still below what EPA considers actionable levels, but it’s important to know that some material did get out of the facility,” Hardy told the Albuquerque Journal.

<snip>

Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/20/plutonium-detectedoutsidenewmexiconuclearwastefacility.html

[debunkthis]

1. Anyone else getting tired of

being told the same BS after every release of radioactive material into our environment?

"officials say no threat to human health"

Please, inhaling even a single hot particle has the potential to cause cancer down the road. How stupid do they think we are?

[FiveGoodMen]

5. "How stupid do they think we are?"

We haven't run them out of town on a rail, so they probably rightly think we're pretty stupid.

[FBaggins]

6. Nope... but I long ago tired of people not understanding it

.0006 Bq per cubic meter is not conceivably a health concern. For instance, the recommended action level for radon contamination is about 150,000 times higher.

The relevance of the news is not that there could be a health impact... it's that anything got out when there should be no releases at all.

Please, inhaling even a single hot particle has the potential to cause cancer down the road.

A single "hot particle" (a frequently misused term) would be many many times more active... and, of course, even that "potential" is awfully close to zero.

[debunkthis]

8. awfully close to and equal to are not the same thing

so a risk still remains

[bananas]

2. Trace of plutonium is detected outside WIPP

http://www.abqjournal.com/355900/news/nm-news/trace-of-plutonium-is-detected-outside-wipp.html

Trace of plutonium is detected outside WIPP
By Lauren Villagran / Journal Staff Writer - Las Cruces Bureau
PUBLISHED: Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 12:05 am

An independent analysis has uncovered trace amounts of plutonium in an air sensor a half mile from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico — the first time plutonium is believed to have leaked outside from within the facility.

<snip>

“There is a lot more that needs to be known,” said Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque. “The big problem is, does anybody really know what happened in the underground and how much was released or is continuing to be released? And therefore how much is being captured by the filters and how much is getting into the environment?”

WIPP said Wednesday that it is developing a plan to safely re-enter the underground facility. Radiological professionals from other Energy Department locations and national laboratories are also assisting in the recovery, WIPP said.

The radiation alert comes in the wake of a different emergency that shut down the facility earlier this month, in which a truck used to haul salt caught fire underground. No workers were hurt, and the fire did not occur near the waste container storage areas.

<snip>

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. One of the deadliest substances known to exist

has been found outside containment? That is a big frickin' deal.

[FBaggins]

7. You do know that we blew TONS of the stuff into the atmosphere, right?

It's found everywhere... all around the world.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Just don't breathe it in... n/t