Ok, let me get this straight. You’ve got Iran building a nuclear bomb with Israel chomping at the bit to attack the development facilities, knocking out the centrifuges. You’ve got Pakistan fighting the Taliban just a hundred miles from their capital. And, now we see North Korea has just detonated their second nuclear device.
And you haven’t built your underground survival cave, haven’t bought the Geiger counter, iodine tabs, and full body lead-lined jump suit? Better get busy!. This global meltdown is getting even worse than I could have imagined.
You think these new bad boys are going to cave just because we ask them politely? Not a chance! So now it will take just one misunderstanding, one blunder, one trigger happy moment and we’ll have a radioactive cloud spreading cancer-causing radiation over the entire planet.
Yes, I would definitely suggest buying a radiation detector to tuck into the pocket of your “jump suit”.
A recent study just released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington has described the possible results of a preemptive strike on the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. In the report, the authors detail how such an attack would create ”an ecological disaster” resulting in “mass deaths”. They go on to describe a nightmare scenario where radionuclides would disperse over a wide area, killing many thousands of Iranians in relatively short order.
Furthermore, as Hiroshima taught us, the predictable results of longer term exposure and its residual effects could kill possibly hundreds of thousands from cancer and other related complications. And the effects wouldn’t be limited simply to Iran. Even more alarming is that the northerly winds which blow toward the Gulf through most of the year, will heavily affect Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE.
And now for the bad news. It seems that we are uncomfortably close to a decision. By 2010 Iran would have enough nuclear weapons to deter a first strike. This along with enhanced air defenses might prove to be the critical mass required to push Israel over the edge toward a costly attack with perilously uncertain consequences. Maybe this is the reason that many countries from the region are laying in a supply of Geiger counters in case the day arrives when the clouds overhead may contain more that just water vapor.
The ends justify the means. Not only are our strongest and bravest asked to fight, bleed, and die in far away battlefields, but if they survive, they may face a future full of mysterious illnesses or cancer. What’s it matter so long as the industrial fat cats are fed and democracy spread? Our fighting men and women are, after all, expendable youth sworn to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; youth who signed away their civil rights for a future they believe in, and sadly, a future that might find them in pain and dying slow, painful deaths from radiation or heavy metal contamination.]
While we flex our technological and industrial muscles to dominate an unconventional battlefield scattered with the machines of yesterday’s wars, our precious youth and innocent civilians inhale the poison dust of “depleted” uranium. Just as troops from another generation were unknowingly exposed to deadly radiation at the birth of the nuclear age, today’s troops are baptized in radioactive dust from what they are told is “depleted” uranium, but which, if you were to measure with a radiation detector, retains 60% of its radioactivity. “Depleted” is just more “spin” from a military industrial complex that thinks killing the enemy and winning more lucrative government contracts is more important than protecting our trusting soldiers’ future.
But why uranium? Uranium has unique properties that make it an ideal armor penetrator. Nearly twice as heavy as lead, almost as hard as tungsten, and more ductile than steel, DU is unmatched in its ability to penetrate the thickest armor or reinforced concrete at greater distances than its closest competitor, tungsten. Depleted uranium will grind down as it enters its target, effectively sharpening the projectile, unlike penetrators made from tungsten which tend to deform or shatter.
Another desirable feature, from a weapons manufacturer’s perspective, is that DU will ignite at 500 degrees centigrade and burn at 2000 degrees. This allows it to perform as an incendiary device once it enters its target. Unfortunately, it is this property that creates extremely fine uranium ash and dust particles that are easily inhaled or dispersed by the wind, and constitute the greatest threat to human health.
Because DU can not be confined to battlefields, continues causing harm after hostilities cease, kills by causing diseases and genetic defects, and causes undue harm to the environment, it violates humanitarian law and should be banned. The DOD claims that DU’s effectiveness has saved many American lives on the battlefield. Maybe so, but it’s costing thousands of Americans and Iraqi citizens their long term health and the health of their children and future generations. We can’t give everyone a Geiger counter to check their intake of depleted uranium, but we can try to contain and minimize its use and dispersal.
The DOD is a rich, powerful corporation completely committed to deploying DU munitions. Only equally powerful entities can affect a change in its script. We now have an open minded president who can comprehend complex issues and is sensitive to this country’s responsibilities to the global community. Support organizations who support DU research and assist victims, and who lobby politicians to release information or change policies regarding DU. And of course, please be sensitive to veterans whose lives depended on DU rounds killing the enemy before the enemy could kill them.
A recent series or articles which purport to shed light on the reasons behind the sudden increase in piracy, has revealed that nuclear waste contamination is a lot more pervasive than we imagine.
Apparently there are accusations that Italian mafia is also dumping European radioactive waste off the coast of Somalia and that this, along with over fishing are the main reasons the pirates are hijacking vessels for their lucrative 7 figure ransoms. The story is reminiscent of a recent film, Gomorra, which depicts a member of the Neapolitan mafia arranging (at a discount) the disposal of toxic waste.
A lot of us in the radiation safety industry have long suspected there’s an enormous amount of unseen undersea radioactive contamination, that’s slowly finding its way into the food chain. Take a Geiger counter up and down the aisles of a major grocery store and I’m not sure what you’ll find.
Sure it’s not as shocking and spectacular as a Chernobyl, but even in slow motion this kind of unmonitored pollution can wreak havoc on nearby populations. It can even find its way onto supermarket shelves in the “civilized” world. In this case, it’s the Somali fishing villages that are bearing the brunt and inflaming anti-Western anger and criminal activity.
I’ve written before about the dangerous consequences of an Israeli raid on Iran’s nascent nuclear program. That danger just got a bit more clear and present now that it was reported that Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel. It seems they’ve opened of a new facility to produce uranium fuel pellets.
Officially the development is presented as simply producing uranium oxide pellets for a planned 40-megawatt heavy-water nuclear reactor near the town of Arak, in central Iran.
Since Israel is convinced Iranian production of nuclear fuel pellets masks a nuclear weapons program they are now even more likely to launch a first strike against the facilities in order to slow or derail the program.
But bad as that might seem, this is not the problem. The real problem is the huge amount of radioactive dust and debris that such a strike would throw up into the atmosphere and high altitude wind currents which can carry this dangerous material around the world.
If you haven’t already bought a Geiger counter, now might be a good time. Radioactive particulate that enters the jet stream, can circumnavigate the globe in less than 48 hours and if ingested, can lead to life threatening illness and disability.
Could we see Obama’s first true international crisis as early as July? With the world as it is nowadays and a young inexperienced President, anything can happen!
05 Apr
Posted by admin as General Comments
Experts in the anti-terrorism field are beginning to coalesce behind theory that the next large scale terrorist event, or “man-made disaster”, as our double-speak political class now wish to refer to such events, will arrive via sea. That seems the only logical explanation to explain the sudden surge of new radiation detection acquisitions by Coast Guard and marine transport inspection agencies around the world.
Since airplanes, however tempting and effective they may be as tool for mass panic, have been effectively smothered in variously annoying security protocols, it is marine transport which offers the most porous entry point for weapons of mass destruction.
With typical cargo ships the length of a football field or more, there are limitless opportunities for weapons smuggling. This slow motion threat is not lost on the people responsible for national safety. Now when security personnel board ships entering harbors or interdicted at sea, they will carry hand held Geiger counters as they inspect the vessel and cargo.
It takes just one uninspected container or one hidden suitcase bomb to disrupt international trade and throw the entire shipping world into chaos for months on end.
The ongoing disaster of contaminated metal from India shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Governments all over Europe and beyond continue to sound the alarm as metal processors, foundries, machine and metal parts makers alike are finding their raw and finished metal stocks radioactive. Levels are not insignificant, in some cases exceeding 70 microSieverts per hour.
The problem is consistent with long held opinion about the weakness of Indian controls over raw material recycling stocks. Indeed, local waste disposal firms have more often than not, neglected to implement strict controls, rather preferring to look the other way. This lax oversight is coming home to roost in the form of tainted reputation and lost business.
In a way it’s unfair for Indian firms to suffer since the contaminated source material usually did not originate in India. Indeed, western industrialized nations have been indiscriminately dumping their polluted metal waste material to the emerging world because in-country disposal is both hazardous and expensive.
Now the major importers of finished metals are scrambling to filter inventory and install screening devices like proximity Geiger counters that can measure radiation levels in trucks and other bulk carriers. Handheld radiation detectors are also being ordered en masse to allow scrap metal testing of even small scrap bins.
Recently we read some disturbing reports out of Canada describing elevated levels of tritium being discharged from Canadian nuclear reactors. CANDU reactors release a lot more tritium than American reactors (by factor of 20) and do not operate under stricter NRC standards
The result is a dangerous discharge into the environment of tritium, a highly poisonous radioactive contaminate, similar in toxicity to radon. But unlike radon, not much is known about tritium. Apparently, this is really some bad stuff; a low energy level beta emitter, which means that if it’s ingested, you’re in a world of hurt.
When tritium decays it releases a beta particle, a high-speed electron, measured at one negative electron volt. Doesn’t sound like much but this little bullet can really screw up your cellular structure, scramble important proteins, and generally make your body’s biochemistry an unpredictable life-or-death crap shoot.
What can be done? Keeping a Geiger counter around can help, but once tritiated water is in your body, often it is too late to detect since beta particles are relatively slow and can be shielded even by human skin.
Experts suggest a tight control on all drinking water including the periodic measurement of tap water and so-called “pure” bottled water by a sensitive radiation detector.
As a an anti-tritium activist blogger recently expressed it “releasing tritium into the environment IS murder.”
There are some in the right wing talk show media, Michael Savage to name one, who are convinced there’s a “Reichstag Fire” event coming. The theory goes that Obama and his advisors believe (like Hitler did in the 30’s) that they need to create a mood of fear and danger within the country in order to achieve a maximum level of state control. Very soon, reasons the pundits, there will be a cataclysmic event similar in symbolic importance to the Reichstag Fire, which propelled the Nazis to power in prewar Germany.
Such an event as suggested will sow panic and cause the public to throw caution to the wind, embracing any government policy regardless of how draconian, onerous or oppressive.
I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that there are only 2 types of events which would trigger such panic. One would be a biological attack in a major city or region, and the other is some kind of nuclear or radiological attack. Sure it sounds crazy, but just think about it for a second! Suppose such an event occurred? Borders would be sealed immediately. Geiger counters, if available, would be issued to the public by the thousands, if not millions. And presumably, the country would be put on a war footing similar to World War II.
Of course, it’s only a theory, and a rather extreme one at that. However, I can’t help thinking that if the economy gets much worse, the American public might be primed for the kind of “event” that changes nations and history.
Over the past several decades, the scrap metal industry has been working hard to screen out radioactive contaminated material. Much of that came from decommissioned nuclear reactors that were sold into the recycled metals pipeline. Radiation detection protocols were implemented in most of the industrialized world. Everything from proximity scanners to hand held Geiger counters were used to block anything above ca. 80 uSv/hr.
That’s why it’s so troubling that in just the past months alarms have gone off all over India as significant amount of radioactive metals have found their way into the supply chain. Hot metal is showing up not only at scrap dealers, but at foundries that process the materials, and as well as downstream metal processors. Indeed, at Gamma-Scout we’ve seen a significant spike in Geiger counter purchases from the Indian market as well as increased interest in radiation measurement applications from customer as far away as Argentina.
This is just another example of some of the hazards that exist in the global metals trade where oversight is inconsistent and effective screening does not always reach back to source stocks. It’s not so easy in the recycling business these days - with a global recession already slashing demand for metal, this is an industry that doesn’t need any more bad news.
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