Radioactive Boar Shot in Sweden

Boar and reindeer radioactive 31 years after Chernobyl disaster

A wild boar with radiation levels exceeding ten times the “safe limit” has been shot in central Sweden, a report said.

“One boar shot in August had a radiation of 13,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg), whereas the limit set by Sweden’s Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) for safe consumption is 1,500 Bq/kg.”

Another boar shot in Tärnsjö (eastern coast of Sweden) earlier and kept in a freezer showed radiation level of 16,000 Bg/kg, or ten times the safe limit.

Read the report HERE.

Related Links:

• “Radioaktiva” vildsvin har fällts utanför Gävle [in Swedish]
• Why Sweden’s reindeer are still radioactive after 30 years 

FEWW:

• Chernobyl legacy to linger long after most humans have gone

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – Sept. 6, 2013

Drought 2013: Agricultural Disaster Declared in 1,336 Counties Across the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of 1,336 counties across 29 states as agricultural disaster areas, so far this year.

The designations include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

Map of the U.S. Drought Disaster areas as of September 4, 2013. At least 1,336 counties, or 42.5% of all U.S. counties¹, were designated as agricultural disaster areas² due to the ongoing drought. [The figure includes both primary and contiguous disaster designations.] Source: USDA. Map enhanced by FIRE-EARTH.

1. [U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.]
2. Agriculture officials declare disaster when crop damage has exceeded 30 percent.

Related Links

• Agricultural Disasters Declared for 180 U.S. Counties August 29, 2013
• US: Drought Disaster 2013 [Index Page]
• Agricultural Disasters Index

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The Disaster President Signs Arkansas Disaster Declaration

The Disaster President has declared a major disaster exists in the State of Arkansas due to severe storms and flooding during the period of August 8-14, 2013.

Most of the losses and damage caused by the severe storms and flooding occurred in the counties of Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison, Marion and Newton.

Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments, FEMA has said.

-oOo-

S. Korea bans seafood from eastern Japan

The South Korean government has banned imports of seafood products from 8 prefectures in eastern Japan due to the threat of radioactive contamination from toxic water leaks at Fukushima nuclear plant.

The ban, announced on Friday, will take effect on Monday, September 9, 2013, and will apply to ALL seafood imports from fisheries in 8 prefectures: Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma.

“The measures are due to the sharply increased concern in the public about the flow of hundreds of metric tons of contaminated water into the ocean at the site of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan,” a spokesman for the South Korean Prime Minister’s office said.

“The officials also say the country will ask for test certificates if even a trace of radioactivity is found in fish, dairy products and other foods from anywhere in Japan,” said a report.

China banned imports of seafood products, dairy and vegetable from at least 5 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, immediately after the triple meltdown at Fukushima nuclear plant on March 11, 2011.

-oOo-

Chernobyl: The Day After

Chernobyl Happened Yesterday!

City of Chernobyl had managed to live for 793 years…

Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on April 26, 1986 at about 1:00am local time.  The explosion killed at least  four plant employees instantly.

By the time  residents of Pripyat, a town located near the plant, were ordered to evacuate, about two days after the Chernobyl core meltdown had occurred, many had already been exposed to varying doses of radiation poisoning.

Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a core meltdown [center] in 1986 with disastrous consequences. This image was taken by authorities in the former Soviet Union

The Incident: A meltdown of the reactor’s core in the Chernobyl power plant killed thirty people in 1986. About 135,000 people were evacuated. It is believed that about one hundred times more radiation was released in the accident than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Legacy: More than 4000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children and adolescents between 1992 to 2002 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Victims under 14 years were most severely affected by the elevated concentrations of radioiodine found in milk.

Incidents of skin lesions, respiratory ailments, infertility and birth defects were readily found among the more than five million people who inhabit the affected areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine for many years following the accident.

Disputed Facts: The above facts, however, have been disputed by a number of individuals including the author of a recent WHO report, and the retired “nukophile” British academic, James Lovelack. Local and international experts, however, have dismissed the WHO report findings. A UN report released in 2005 estimated the number of victims at just 4,000. Their figure is hotly disputed  by NGOs and independent experts.

“A report by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko which appeared in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science showed that by 2004, there were 985,000 additional deaths worldwide caused by the nuclear disaster, including 212,000 of them within Western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.”

The Poisoned land. Up to 5 million people continue to live on radioactive contaminated land. About 85% of the children who live in contaminated areas of Belarus today are ill, a near 6-fold increase compared to the time before the explosion (15%), according to The Belarusian National Academy of Sciences.

Chernobyl and Other Nuclear Stats

• More than 95% of the radioactive material (180 metric tons with a radioactivity of about 18 million curies) still remains inside the Chernobyl reactor.
• Immediately after the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, and 31 died within the first 90 days of the disaster.
• About 135,000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the plant, including 50,000 from the town of Pripyat.
• The Academy’s  estimate for the number of casualties  are more than 90,000 deaths and more than a quarter of a million cancer cases.
• The Ukrainian National Commission for Radiation Protection calculates the number of radiation casualties at half a million  deaths so far.
• Some 436 commercial nuclear power reactors are  operating in 30 countries ( total capacity of 372,000 MWe) each of which is potentially as dangerous as Chernobyl, if not worse.
• An estimated 56 countries operate more than 250 research reactors.
• At least 220 nuclear reactors power military ships and submarines.

Related Links:

• Chernobyl: A Night to Remember!
• All is NOT Well at Chernobyl
• Indian Power Workers Drink Radioactive Water
• Obama Goes Nuclear!
• World’s Worst Polluted Places
• Three Mile Island Cats Have 9 Lives, Too?
• French Nuke Waste Plagues Siberia

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Smoke Detected at Japanese Nuke Plant

Japan’s Nuclear Cowboys

Sensors detected smoke at Tokaimura nuclear complex about 120km northeast of Tokyo on Friday. Smoke was detected at a solid waste facility where metal waste is incinerated. The operator claimed there was no release of radioactivity.

The fuel reprocessing center in Tokaimura was the scene of an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction in September 1999 which killed two employees and contaminated about 700 people with radiation.

“Japan’s nuclear power program has a history of accidents and lax oversight. In August, liquid containing uranium splashed out of a container at a nuclear fuel plant southwest of Tokyo, exposing two people to radiation.” AP reported.

Engineers at Tokaimura plant triggered the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Credit: New Scientist. Image may be subject to copyright.

Emergency response personnel at the site of the Tokaimura criticality accident, Japan, September 30, 1999. Source: The Encyclopedia of Earth.