Showing posts with label uranium. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Fracking Creates Massive Radioactive Waste Problem

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) openly acknowledges that fracking fluid contains “thousands of chemicals”, but nowhere is there mention of radioactivity in its risk assessments. Now, a new study reveals the “natural gas” industry may be hiding a secret as dark and deadly as the one the nuclear industry has been trying to conceal for decades.

Following recent news that California’s fracking industry will be “repurposing” its toxic wastewater to meet the needs of an agricultural industry driven desperate by the drought, a timely new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that fracking wastewater is not just a source of dangerous petrochemicals but also a highly toxic form of radioactive waste.

Titled “What’s NORMal for Fracking? Estimating Total Radioactivity of Produced Fluids“, the new study tested the hypothesis that fracking wastewater contains the same naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) found in the shale deposits that it is produced from as a drilling byproduct. The primary radionuclides of interest include ²²⁶radium, ²¹⁰polonium, and ²¹⁰lead, which are decay products of ²³⁸uranium and ²²⁸thorium, and which are normally safely locked away deep within millions of years old geological formations.

The study focused on the heavily drilled Marcellus Shale, a vast swath of marine sedimentary rock found in eastern North America, and which is known to have about 20 times higher levels of radioactivity from high uranium content compared to most other shales.[1]

In 2010, the uranium deposits within the Marcellus Shale were identified by University of Buffalo researchers as being susceptible to being solubilized and made mobile by fracking fluids. The researchers determined that when these fluids inevitably come back to the surface in the form of millions of gallons of wastewater they can pollute streams and the ecosystem with hazardous waste.

Fracking Releases Radioactivity Normally Locked Away Deep Within the Earth

The new study confirms the above mentioned concerns. Researchers at the University of Iowa obtained a 200-liter drum of fracking wastewater obtained from the Marcellus Shale region in 2012. The sample was measured for existing levels of radioisotopes, and then estimates were made for the total radioactivity that would be produced within the fluids in the future if left within a closed space. They confirmed the presence of radioactive radium, polonium, and lead. They also measured an increase in the decay products ²¹⁰lead and ²²⁸thorium. Finally, they determined that the radioactivity would continue to increase for more than 100 years due to the formation of the decay products of ²¹⁰lead and ²¹⁰polonium.

This is not the first time that a radioactivity problem with fracking wastewater has been cited in the published literature. For instance, a report published in Environmental Science and Technologyin 2013 found that fracking wastewater discharge by the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility in Pennsylvania lead to ²²⁶radium concentrations that were approximately 200 times higher than normally expected in stream sediments near the facility.[2]

Fracking’s Radioactivity Could Be As Dangerous As Nuclear Power’s Releases

Clearly, the “natural gas” industry has a new PR nightmare on its hands. Already there is a growing public awareness that fracking is an extremely destructive and non-sustainable method to extract energy from the earth, uses and contaminates billions of gallons of water annually, and may even contribute to increase seismic events like earthquakes. But until now few if any realized that the fracking/natural gas and the nuclear industry share the same dark secret that they both routinely release significant quantities of radioactive waste into the environment whose toxicological implications last for centuries, if not for thousands of years (e.g. ²²²radium’s half-life is 1600 years).

The releases are not just the byproduct of accidents. The nuclear power industry actually releases highly carcinogenic plumes of radioisotopes into the environment during the course of normal operations. For instance, they routinely schedule government approved releases of up to 500 times higher than normal levels when they refuel their reactors. Even the coal-powered power plants produce millions of tons of radioactive waste, which we recently touched upon in our exposé on the possible use of coal fly ash for covert geoengineering progams in the U.S. and abroad.

In many ways, as evidenced by the Fukushima multi-core meltdown, the problem with radioactive waste contamination is so profound and widespread that for the most part the media won’t even touch the issue. To the contrary, nuclear power is often described in the mainstream media as a “cleaner” form of energy because it does not produce the same carbon emissions as fossil fuel-based forms. This suffices to distract from its true harms to human and environmental health.

Given the widespread problem of denial, it is not surprising that present day fracking regulations do not account for radioactivity at all. The EPA, in fact, focuses on drinking water and groundwater contamination by the admittedly “thousands of chemicals contained in fracking fluid” as the most salient issue, and determined in its 2015 fracking risk assessment that while it did find evidence that fracking has caused contamination and does pose a risk to drinking water resources, “the number of identified cases where drinking water resources were impacted are small relative to the number of hydraulically fractured wells.”[3]

The truth is that low-dose radioisotope exposure no matter what the specific source of contamination has been proven to be several orders of magnitude more dangerous to health than present day radiological risk assessment standards presently specify. This is because health risk evaluations are based on gamma-radiation associated effects, based mainly on outdated observations of atomic bomb blast survivors from WWII, long before DNA and low-dose radioisotope mediated DNA damage was even discovered. Uranium, however, being an alpha particle and not a gamma radiation emitter, can have up to 1 million fold increased toxicity to DNA than would be expected by its radiolytic decay alone. The implications of this are astounding, and speak to just how dangerous releases of radioisotopes are when looked at through the lens of a more nuanced, modernized, and evidence-based risk assessment lens.

The truth about low-dose radioisotope exposure’s true risks have been hidden for quite some time, including by the tobacco industry, who knew as far back as the 1950’s that the contamination of tobacco with polonium was driving high lung cancer incidence in smokers but refused to admit it because addressing the problem by removing ²¹⁰polonium would have reduced their product’s nicotine content, addictiveness, and therefore profitability.

This new study should help to bring to the awareness of the public that there is absolutely nothing natural about the “natural gas” industry, and that fracking may combine the worst outcomes of both the fossil fuel (petrochemical) and nuclear power industries, as far as the ultimate forms of damage wrought upon human and environmental health. Now that the wastewater from fracking is being used to grow food, it is all the more pressing that we become engaged and active on the issue — that is, unless we don’t mind being force-fed fracking chemicals and radioactive material in our produce in the near future (although conventional produce may already be blasted with nuclear waste to “cold pasteurize it.”)

The time has come to take a stand and withdrawal all support from energy and agricultural production models that result in the atrocious toxic fallout of this kind.

To get more involved on the issue, please check out Americans Against Fracking.

References:

[1] http ://energy.wilkes.edu/pages/184.asp
[2] Warner NR, et al. Impacts of shale gas wastewater disposal on water quality in western Pennsylvania. Environ Sci Technol472011849–11857.11857; 10.1021/es402165b [PubMed]
[3] http://www.eesi.org/articles/view/epa-releases-fracking-risk-assessment

From Wake Up World @ http://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/16/fracking-creates-massive-radioactive-waste-problem/

INVESTIGATION: Secrecy surrounds new CSG chemical

by Daniel Burdon

THE vast majority of the ingredients in a chemical used in coal seam gas drilling operations have been kept secret from the public since its importation into Australia was approved in late 2014.

Manufactured in the United States by chemical giant Halliburton, the "Chemical in Duratone HT" was approved ahead of an assessment of its potential health and environmental effects in July last year.

But assessment documents show the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme gave Halliburton extensive concessions under commercial-in-confidence rules to keep information from being made public.

Those exemptions, which protect companies' commercially sensitive information, allowed the chemicals giant to keep secret about 95% of the chemical's ingredients.

While the results of human health toxicology and environmental toxicology studies were provided, the actual studies of the chemical's potential effects were also deemed "exempt information".

Environmental group National Toxics Network's senior adviser, Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, said the information that had been publicly released was "to put it bluntly, bugger all".

"Even Halliburton's own documents about this chemical show that certain local environmental regulations do not allow it to be used," she said.

"They themselves acknowledge there may be a problem with this chemical, so how dare they (the regulator) give them confidentiality over 95% of its ingredients and then give us a document that tells us virtually nothing?"

The company has also produced a more environmentally friendly product that does a similar job as Duratone HT, called Duratone E, but has not applied to import it to Australia.

"How come we have a chemical where even the producers know that some environmental regulators say they can't use it, the company has even gone about producing something less harmful, but the government allows them broad confidentiality?" Dr Lloyd-Smith said.

EXPLAINER: WHAT IS FRACKING?

HYDRAULIC fracturing involves the injection of a "fracking fluid" into a coal seam via a well in order to crack the coal seams below ground to release gas.

It usually involves a mixture of about 97-99% sand and water, which is mixed with chemicals that help open up the fracture, keep it open, and keep it free of debris.

A 2014 report said only about 6% of all wells drilled in Australia in 2013 involved the process, but in Queensland, the practice is tipped to grow up to 40% as the industry expands.

Documents show Duratone HT, a "filtration control agent", comes in 25kg bags of powder that contain between 60% and 100% of an unknown "notified chemical", making up about 95% of the active ingredients.

The only known ingredient in the powder was crystalline silica, or powdered quartz, which was reported as an "impurity" that comprises up to 5% of the "notified chemical".

That substance is found in bricks, cement and other building materials.

It can cause lung cancer and is listed as a "hazardous chemical requiring health monitoring" by Safe Work Australia.

A "typical application" of Duratone HT in a single well would include between 1620kg and 5400kg of the powder mixed with "other ingredients" to create the injection fluid.

The chemical can be used in offshore and onshore drilling operations, but it is unclear where, when or how much of it has been used in Australia's CSG industry, as such information is not publicly reported.

A Halliburton spokeswoman did not respond to ARM Newsdesk's questions.

But a recent submission to the regulator said the company regards "the protection of confidential information from public disclosure" as of "critical importance", and such disclosures could erode the firm's "overall reputation and market position".

From The Queensland Times @ http://www.qt.com.au/news/investigation-secrecy-surrounds-new-CSG-chemical/2988972/

For more information about csg fracking see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/csg

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Tuesday, 3 November 2015

The Nuclear War You Didn’t Know About

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3549/3850713621_cbf7e7d64a_b.jpg

(Know Your Enemy) Corporate Warfare - Tactical Nuclear Weapon Bunker Busters

By Graham Vanbergen

A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT.^‪ A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major focus of international relations policy since their debut.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

Five states have signed up to the NPT: the US, UK, Russia, France and China. Between them they have declared 22,000 nuclear weapons in stock. These five Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) have made undertakings not to use their nuclear weapons against a non-NWS party except in response to a nuclear attack. India, Pakistan and N.Korea have also declared stocks of nuclear weapons. Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not declare it.

As of 2009, only the US is known to have provided nuclear weapons for sharing. Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Turkey are still hosting U.S. nuclear weapons as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing policy. Canada and Greece withdrew and no longer participate.

However, the USA sticks to the old policy that goes back to 1945 – to monopolise the right to use nuclear weapons by making their non-proliferation part of international law in combination with new restrictive measures against others.

In his book Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War, Michel Chossudovsky tells us about the interconnection between the Pentagon and US corporations. The book says the US Congress okay’d the use of tactical nuclear weapons in non-conventional wars in 2003. According to congressmen it was quite “safe for civilians”.

In intensive warfare conditions, up-to-date tactical nuclear weapons can create an illusion of their absence on the battlefield when used together with conventional weapons. For instance, according to Russian military experts nuclear munitions of a new generation were used in Lebanon in 2006 during the operation against Hezbollah. The soil samples taken from craters had traces of enriched uranium. At the same time there was no gamma radiation and isotope of cesium 137 resulting from radioactive decay. The radiation level was high inside the craters but went down approximately by half at the distance of just a few meters away.
According to U.S. military sources, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon against another country since 1945 took place approximately 11 miles east of Basra, Iraq sometime between February 2 and February 5, 1991.

By then, Iraq’s former capital had been declared a “free fire on zone” – open to carpet-bombing by high-flying formations of eight-engine B-52s. “Basra is a military town in the true sense,” military spokesman General Richard Neal told the press. “The infrastructure, military infrastructure, is closely interwoven within the city of Basra itself.”

Though the soon-to-be fired General Neal claimed there were no civilians left in Basra, the city was actually sheltering some 800,000 terrified residents. In direct violation of Article 51 of the Geneva Protocols, which prohibits area bombing, the B-52s commenced saturation grid-bombing of the city. Mixing fuel-air bombs with shrapnel-spraying cluster bombs, the bombers leveled entire city blocks, the Los Angeles Times reported, leaving “bomb craters the size of football fields, and an untold number of casualties.” [Washington Post Feb 2/91; Los Angeles Times Feb 5/91]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Nuclear_artillery_test_Grable_Event_-_Part_of_Operation_Upshot-Knothole.jpg

With the city of Basra resounding to gigantic explosions, and engulfed in “a hellish nighttime of fires and smoke so dense that witnesses say the sun hasn’t been clearly visible for several days at a time,” a 5-kiloton GB-400 nuclear bomb exploding 11 miles away under the desert attracted no notice.

Under the cover of massive Depleted Uranium tipped bombs that raised dirty mushroom clouds in thunderous explosions that rained radioactive dust over Jalalabad and nearby villages, the first nuclear bombs dropped since Basra in 1991 were detonated by American forces in Afghanistan beginning in March 2002.

Before their field tests were concluded, United States forces would explode four 5-kiloton GBU-400 nuclear bombs in Tora Bora and other mountainous regions of Afghanistan and was so powerful that it actually created an earthquake there.

The use of such lethal weapons by US military, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, has been sanctioned by both US presidents Bush and Obama; thus they should be prosecuted for war crimes, as it is a nuclear war.

The classification of DU munitions as weapons of indiscriminate effect is defined in the 1st Protocol addition to the Geneva Conventions. Their use is a war crime.

The US military contends that “mini-nukes” are “humanitarian bombs” which minimize “collateral damage”. According to scientific opinion on contract to the Pentagon, they are “harmless to the surrounding civilian population because the explosion is underground.”

The B61-11 is a bona fide thermonuclear bomb, a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the real sense of the word.

Military documents distinguish between the Nuclear Earth Penetrator (NEP) and the “mini-nuke”, which are nuclear weapons with a yield of less than 10 kilotons (two-thirds of a Hiroshima bomb). The NEP can have a yield of up to a 1000 kilotons, or seventy times a Hiroshima bomb.

This distinction between mini-nukes and the NEP is in many regards misleading. In practice there is no dividing line. We are broadly dealing with the same type of weaponry: the B61-11 has several “available yields”, ranging from “low yields” of less than one kiloton, to mid-range, and up to the 1000-kiloton bomb.

In all cases, the radioactive fallout is devastating. Moreover, the B61 series of thermonuclear weapons includes several models with distinct specifications: the B61-11, the B61-3, B61- 4, B61-7 and B61-10. Each of these bombs has several “available yields”.

The latest in the series, the B61-12 is classed by many as the most dangerous nuclear weapon ever due to it being the first guided missile with dial-in yields making proliferation a real threat.

What is contemplated for theatre of war use is the “low yield” 10 kt bomb, two-thirds of a Hiroshima bomb. What allows it to happen is the disinformation and propaganda issued that these weapons are somehow not really nuclear weapons – they are.

Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years and has thus earned the title “The silent killer that will never stop killing”.

These weapons are called ‘micro-nukes’ as if somehow that makes it better or legal. We know that tactical nuclear weapons or mini-nukes are part of the US-NATO arsenal and that they were cleared for use in the conventional war theatre by the US Senate in 2002. Rather bizarrely, these weapons can be used without the approval of the Commander in Chief.

As prof. Chossudovsky from Global Research asserts, “the “evidence” of a nuclear attack against Yemen (see video) remains unconfirmed, the use of mini-nukes against countries in the Middle East has been on the Pentagon’s drawing board for almost 20 years. In 1996 under the Clinton administration, the B61-11 tactical nuclear weapon was slated to be used by the US in an attack against Libya.”

Nuclear weapons will now proliferate as a direct result of American use. It is known that Israel enjoys the luxury of around 80 nuclear weapons, deliverable with great precision to any spot in Iran from land, air or sea. It is not a signatory of the Non Proliferation Treaty.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/M900.jpg

As the conflict in Syria rages on, concerns emerge as a result of the use of depleted uranium shells (DU) in Iraq. This from bandepleteduranium.org – 1/2/2015 – Citizens of Raqqa in Northern Syria, are concerned over the long-term impact of the growing number of strikes by Coalition forces on their city and nearby villages.

In a report to the United Nations on DU, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that: “in a post-conflict environment, the presence of depleted-uranium residues further increases the anxiety of local populations”. The collective experience of communities grappling with the public health and environmental legacy of conflict, and the known or suspected presence of radioactive materials, is a contagious cocktail that can have a lasting psychological impact on the memory of people. These concerns have now spread to Syria.

It appears that Israel has used DU rounds as widely reported in Jamraya, Syria. It is just a matter of time before we find out which other country has been contaminating Syria. So awful are these weapons the international community is heading towards an outright ban of their future use.

The collapse of Russia’s relationship with the West in the last five years has ended hopes of further progress of non-proliferation as the super-powers intend on upgrading and increasing their weapons systems and nuclear arsenals.

Pakistan is now deploying short-range battlefield nuclear weapons designed to deter Indian tank columns. Only four months ago, General Khalid Kidwai, the former director of Pakistan’s powerful Strategic Plans Division, the country’s main nuclear planning body, declared that Pakistan’s nukes “are not seen as separate weapons”, but are “very much integrated” with conventional forces.

To recap – nuclear weapons, whether under the guise of ‘depleted uranium munitions’, ‘mini nukes’, ‘bunker busters’ are quite simply nuclear weapons that leave a legacy of long-term death and destruction.

The UN used nuclear weapons in Libya HERE
Nuclear weapons use and its deadly effects HERE
Nuclear weapons use in Iraq is already devastating families experiencing profound congenital birth defects HERE and HERE
NATO refuses to cooperate with investigations of war crimes and indiscriminate use of illegal weapons systems HERE and HERE
Type “congenital birth defects nuclear weapons iraq” into Google images for a truly horrific gallery of misery

You can read more from Graham Vanbergen at his site http://truepublica.org.uk

From Activist Post @ http://www.activistpost.com/2015/10/the-nuclear-war-you-didnt-know-about.html

Impact of tactical and strategic nuclear blasts

For more information about nuclear weapons see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/nuclear%20weapons

For more information about all things nuclear see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/nuclear