'Pandora's Promise'

june 23, 2013 | No. 762 June 28, 2013 | No. 764

Editorial Dear readers of the WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor, Monitored this In this issue, we pull together critical commentary about the new ‘Pandora’s Promise’ pro-nuclear propaganda fi lm. John LaForge from Nukewatch contributes issue: two articles about inhuman radiation experiments. Charly Hultén writes about nuclear waste management problems in Sweden. We cover some developments ‘Pandora’s promise’ propaganda 1 in Japan − the UN Special Rapporteur’s report, decontamination and waste disposal issues, and legal claims and compensation payments. The Nuclear News Inhuman radiation experiments section includes items from Russia, the US, the UK and, globally, nuclear power’s John LaForge − Nukewatch 4 biggest ever one-year fall while solar PV and wind power expanded dramatically. Transuranics, mercury and banned Nuclear Monitor is taking a short break while people in the Northern Hemisphere fl uids discovered in Swedish enjoy summer holidays. The next issue will be distributed on August 2. nuclear waste repository Charly Hultén − WISE Sweden 6 Feel free to contact us if there are issues you would like to see covered in the Monitor. US warned Kodak, not us, about radioactive fallout Regards from the Nuclear Monitor editorial team John LaForge − Nukewatch 7 Email: [email protected] Fukushima fallout: updates from Japan ‘Pandora’s promise’ propaganda − UN special rapporteur’s report − Decontamination and waste disposal Pandora’s promise is a pro-nuclear fi lm written and directed by Ro- − Legal claims and compensation bert Stone, with a little help from billionaires Paul Allen and Richard payments Branson (www.pandoraspromise.com). − Fukushima fi lms 8

764.4319 Robert Stone says: “The fi lm They claim the scientifi c high-ground Nuclear News is anchored around the personal nar- even as they repeatedly bastardize − N u c l e a r p o w e r s u f f e r s b i g g e s t e v e r o n e - ratives of a growing number of leading science. year fall former anti-nuclear activists and pio- − Fines and fi re in the UK neering scientists.” The fi lm’s website One critic suggests giving the film a − USA: TVA fi ned for quality assurance also asserts that nuclear power is “now miss and Stone responds by portraying lapses 10 passionately embraced by many of the entire environment movement as those who once led the charge against authoritarian thought-police, saying it.” they “use their positions of influence to determine what can and cannot be In fact, not one of the fi lm’s cast said about our predicament, to claim was ever a “leading former anti-nu- uncompromising ownership of the clear activist”. Stone partnered with issue”. the right-wing, anti-environment Breakthrough Institute to produce the Stone writes glowingly about “people fi lm and the institute’s personnel fea- like me who care about the future” and ture prominently in the fi lm. are “open-minded enough to change their minds like I have done.” In other Robert Kennedy Jr. generously des- words, if you oppose nuclear power, cribes the fi lm as an “elaborate hoax”. you have a closed mind and you don’t It’s not elaborate. The fi lm-makers and care about the future. The film repea- their cast claim objectivity and balance tedly ignores or misrepresents serious which the fi lm clearly fails to deliver. criticisms of nuclear power. Key

Nuclear Monitor 764 problems − such as nuclear power’s may reasonably wonder why it should population of Japan as a result of the negative economic learning curve, accept what they believe now that they accident: a dose that would cause and WMD proliferation − are all but are pro-nuclear. in the range of 1,000-3,000 cancer ignored. deaths. ... My hand got tired trying to jot down Claims that the script has been care- all the less-than-half truths put forth There are also scenes in the film that fully fact-checked are laughable. To by the talking heads in the film, which are downright offensive, such as sho- cite one example − of dozens − a con- could have benefited from some wing impoverished, barefoot children tributor says that Greenpeace claims fact-checking. ... One after another, wandering through slums with the one million deaths from Chernobyl. the film’s interviewees talk about how clear implication that nuclear power is A few minutes research gives the lie shocked they were to read the 2005 all that is needed to raise them out of to that claim − a Greenpeace-com- report of the Chernobyl Forum − a poverty. The biggest failing of the film, missioned scientific study estimates group under of U.N. agencies under however, is the lack of any discussion 93,000 cancer deaths from Chernobyl, the auspices of the International of what the real obstacles to an expan- possibly up to 160,000 deaths from all Atomic Energy Agency and the gover- sion of nuclear energy are and what other causes. nments of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine would need to be done to overcome − and discover that “the health effects them. In fact, nuclear power’s worst Gushing praise for Stone’s propaganda of Chernobyl were nothing like what enemy may not be the anti-nuclear can easily be found on the internet was expected.” The film shows pages movement, as the film suggests, but so here we pull together some critical from that report with certain reassuring rather nuclear power advocates whose commentary. sentences underlined. rose-colored view of the technology helped create the attitude of com- Physicist Dr Ed Lyman, senior But there is no mention of the fact that placency that made accidents like scientist with the Union of Con- the Chernobyl Forum only estimated Fukushima possible. Nuclear power cerned Scientists, writes: the number of cancer deaths expec- will only be successful through the By oversimplifying the issues, ted among the most highly exposed vision of realists who acknowledge its trivializing opposing viewpoints and populations in Ukraine, Belarus and problems and work hard to fix them − mocking those who express them, and Russia and not the many thousands not fawning ideologues like filmmaker selectively presenting information in a more predicted by published studies Robert Stone and the stars of “Pando- misleading way, [Pandora’s Promise] to occur in other parts of Europe that ra’s Promise.” serves more to obfuscate than to illu- received high levels of fallout. Nor is minate. As such, it adds little of value there mention of the actual health con- − Ed Lyman, 12 June 2013, ‘Movie to the substantive debate about the sequences from Chernobyl, including Review: Put “Pandora’s Promise” Back merits of various energy sources in a the more than 6,000 thyroid cancers in the Box’ carbon-constrained world. that had occurred by 2005 in individu- http://allthingsnuclear.org/movie-re- als who were children or adolescents view-put-pandoras-promise-back-in- “Pandora’s Promise,” taking a page at the time of the accident. And the film the-box from late-night infomercials, seeks is silent on the results of more recent to persuade via the testimonials of a published studies that report evidence Nuclear power supporter Seve- number of self-proclaimed environ- of excesses in other cancers, as well rin Borenstein writes: mentalists who used to be opposed to as cardiovascular diseases, are begin- I was surprised at the very narrow bite nuclear power but have now changed ning to emerge (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ of the nuclear power issue that the their minds, including Stewart Brand, pmc/articles/PMC3107017). movie takes. It is basically a movie Michael Shellenberger, Gwyneth about nuclear power’s past safety Cravens, Mark Lynas and Richard Insult is then added to injury when record and waste management. On Rhodes. The documentary tries to Lynas then accuses the anti-nuclear that score it is fairly convincing. ... make its case primarily by impressing movement of “cherry-picking of scien- What left me less than completely the audience with the significance of tific data” to support their claims. Yet persuaded on safety is the fact that the personal journeys of these nuclear the film had just engaged in some there are far more thoughtful critics power converts, not by presenting the pretty deceptive cherry-picking of its and reasoned concerns about nuclear underlying arguments in a coherent way. own. Lynas then goes on to assert that power safety, including access of the Fukushima accident will probably terrorists to plants and to fuels. This is This strategy puts great emphasis on never kill anyone from radiation, also particularly true if we are talking about the credibility of these spokespeople. ignoring studies estimating cancer building plants in countries with less Yet some of them sabotage their own death tolls ranging from several hund- stable governments, as the movie sug- credibility. When Lynas says that in red to several thousand. The Japanese gests we should. The movie says only his previous life as an anti-nuclear newspaper Asahi Shimbun, which a bit about nuclear proliferation among environmentalist he didn’t know that obtained a copy of a draft report by the national governments and essentially there was such a thing as natural United Nations Scientific Committee nothing about terrorism. ... background radiation, or Michael Shel- on the Effects of Atomic Radiation lenberger admitted to once taking on (UNSCEAR), revealed that the report My disappointment with the film is faith the claim that Chernobyl caused estimated a collective whole-body that beyond safety, it has little to say. a million casualties, the audience dose of 3.2 million person-rem to the There are two fleeting references to

2 Nuclear Monitor 764 cost that suggest vaguely that it is cost cant debate about the pros and cons of competitive. It isn’t. In the discussion Joe Romm writes: nuclear energy, the film undermined its after the movie, Michael Shellenberger The five converts featured in Pando- own message. ... agreed with me that nuclear power ra’s Promise speak for themselves can’t beat coal or natural gas today. as individuals; they don’t represent Solutionists lurch in fits and starts The movie briefly beats up solar and large environmental organizations − or from one extreme position to another, wind for being intermittent, but that’s small ones, for that matter. Gwyneth from one answer to the next, failing to probably less than a minute and there Cravens and Richard Rhodes don’t understand that the problems we have is no reference to storage possibilities even appear to have track records as created are as complex as the socie- or demand adjustment to address activists; Cravens is a fiction writer. ties we live in. We are disrupting the intermittency.” Stewart Brand helped found the Whole Earth’s atmosphere through a combi- Earth Catalog, but that was over forty nation of carbon-emitting technologies, − Severin Borenstein, 21 June 2013, years ago; since then, he’s spent much population growth, overconsumption ‘Pandora’s Promises - Kept and of his time as a consultant to corporati- in industrial societies, and settlement Unkept: Examining the Nuclear Docu- ons, including some in the energy sec- patterns that have cleared huge forests mentary’ tor. Shellenberger is a PR man who, that filter carbon dioxide out of the http://theenergycollective.com/severin- as he says in the film, used to consult atmosphere. No single technological borenstein/239851/pandora-s-promi- for environmental groups but no longer fix is likely to “solve” the problem of ses-kept-and-unkept does. ... Shellenberger has dedicated climate change. himself to spreading disinformation Andrew Revkin writes: about Gore, Congressional leaders, A more powerful approach to this com- Serious engagement with critics of Waxman and Markey, leading climate plex threat to humanity would be to film nuclear power − whether on econo- scientists, Al Gore again, the entire a fact-based, passionate debate that mics, industry practices or health and environmental community and anyone explored the alternatives, trade-offs, environmental issues − is absent. The else trying to end our status quo and consequences of various energy film also avoids discussing the high energy policies, including me. Heck options. Such an exploration might costs and logistical and policy hurdles he even went after Rachel Carson! ... move us from the usual politics of to adding substantially to the country’s, The only bona fide activist is Lynas, zealotry to new habits of thought, and or world’s, existing fleets of operating who wrote a fine book about climate perhaps to new forms of action based nuclear plants. The scale and costs change, Six Degrees: Our Future on a on all the facts. required to cut into coal use using any Hotter Planet.” technology − nuclear, wind, solar or − Kennette Benedict, 10 June 2013, otherwise − is incredibly daunting. − Joe Romm, 17 June 2013, ‘Pando- ‘Pandora’s false promise’, ra’s Promise: Nuclear Power’s Trek http://thebulletin.org/pandoras-false- − Andrew Revkin, 13 June 2013, ‘A From Too Cheap To Meter To Too promise Film Presses the Climate, Health and Costly To Matter Much’ Security Case for Nuclear Energy’ http://thinkprogress.org/cli- Manohla Dargis writes in the http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes. mate/2013/06/17/2158951/ New York Times: com/2013/06/13/a-film-presses-the- pandoras-promise-nuclear-po- “Pandora’s Promise” is as stacked as climate-and-security-case-for-nuclear- wers-trek-from-too-cheap-to-meter-to- advocate movies get. ... In brief − or so energy/ too-costly-to-matter-much/ the movie’s one-sided reasoning goes − everything that anti-nuclear energy Mark Hertsgaard writes in The Kennette Benedict writes in the activists and skeptics have thought Nation: Bulletin of the Atomic about the issue is wrong. Decades of The public and the overwhelming Scientists: politically and ideologically driven fear- majority of environmental groups conti- To be sure, there is nothing wrong mongering and misinformation have nue to reject nuclear power. Of the ten with changing your mind. In fact, led to its demonization when it could leading environmental organizations in there is much to admire in those who be our salvation. Drawing on original the US − the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, recognize altered circumstances, inte- interviews, archival materials, compu- The National Wildlife Federation, The grate fresh information, and come to a ter animations and even, d’oh, “The Natural Resources Defense Council, new judgment. What is disingenuous Simpsons,” Mr. Stone builds his case Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental about Pandora’s Promise is the way seamlessly but leaves no room for dis- Defense, The National Audubon Soci- the new judgment is conveyed. The sent, much less a drop of doubt. “To be ety, The Nature Conservancy, The film mocks groups that continue to pro- anti-nuclear,” another of his experts, Wilderness Society, The World Wildlife test nuclear power, treating one-time the journalist Richard Rhodes, says, Fund − not one supports nuclear colleagues as extremists and zealots. “is basically to be in favor of burning power, despite the threat of climate An audience discussion after a pre- fossil fuel.” change. view at the University of Chicago made it clear I was not the only one who Certainly there’s an environmental − Mark Hertsgaard, 10 June 2013, sensed the self-righteous tone of the case to be made for nuclear energy as ‘Pandora’s Myths vs. the Facts’ newly converted in the film’s narrative. an alternative to fossil fuels, which is www.thenation.com/article/174740/ In the end, by dismissing the protestors exactly what some activists and jour- pandoras-myths-vs-facts and failing to engage them in signifi- nalists have been exploring for years.

Nuclear Monitor 764 3 But you need to make an argument. A des (it sounds like the Pandora folks backyard that consumes nuclear waste parade of like-minded nuclear-power were wise enough to leave him out). from past reactors and emits nothing advocates who assure us that every- More recently George Monbiot and but fresh air, clean water, and the thing will be all right just doesn’t cut it. Mark Lynas have been added to the scent of jasmine. There are, of course, list. This handful of converts is always lots of folks who think the promise of − Manohla Dargis, 11 June 2013, ‘Pan- cited with the implication that it’s the new reactors is overblown. dora’s Promise’ Advocates Nuclear leading edge of a vast shift, and yet ... Energy, it’s always the same handful. − David Roberts, 14 June 2013, ‘Some http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/ thoughts on “Pandora’s Promise” and movies/pandoras-promise-advo- Anyway, if environmentalists are as the nuclear debate’, cates-nuclear-energy.html omni-incompetent as Breakthrough http://grist.org/climate-energy/some- has alleged all these years, why the thoughts-on-pandoras-promise-and- David Roberts writes in Grist: eagerness to recruit them? I get the the-nuclear-debate/ There is no budding environmentalist media appeal of “even hippies know movement for nukes. Ever since I the hippies are wrong,” but to me it Meanwhile, Pandora’s Promise has started paying attention to “nuclear smells of flop sweat. bombed at the box office. In its first renaissance” stories about a decade week of release, it ranked 46th of the ago, there’s always been this credu- In the movie, Shellenberger says, top 50 movies, earning only about lous, excitable bit about how enviros “I have a sense that this is a beautiful $32,000--perhaps 3500 paid viewers. are starting to come around. The ros- thing … the beginning of a movement.” And by its second weekend, it no ter of enviros in this purportedly burge- I fear he has once again mistaken the longer even cracked the top 50. A oning movement: Stewart Brand, the contents of his navel for the zeitgeist. deserved fate. Breakthrough Boys, and “Greenpeace ... cofounder Patrick Moore,” who has To hear supporters tell it, within a few been a paid shill for industry for deca- years you’ll have a reactor in your Inhuman radiation experiments

Author: John LaForge works for Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog group in Wisconsin, USA, edits its Quarterly newsletter and is syndicated through PeaceVoice. Web: www.nukewatchinfo.org Email: [email protected]

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the declassiﬁ cation their parents didn’t mention radiation. of top secret studies, done over a period of 60 years, in which the Elsewhere, psychiatric patients and US conducted 2,000 radiation experiments on as many as 20,000 infants were injected with radioactive vulnerable US citizens.[1] iodine.[6]

764.4320 Victims included civilians, knowledge or consent. An April 17, The vast testing program went ahead prison inmates, federal workers, 1947 memo by Col. O.G. Haywood in spite of a warning to use chimpan- hospital patients, pregnant women, of the Army Corps of Engineers zees instead of humans, because, as infants, developmentally disabled explained why the studies were classi- a top radiation biologist wrote at the children and military personnel − most ﬁ ed. “It is desired that no document be time, the experiments might have “a of them powerless, poor, sick, elderly released which refers to experiments little of the Buchenwald touch,” com- or terminally ill. Eileen Welsome’s 1999 with humans and might have adverse paring them to the Nazis’ torture of exposé The Plutonium Files: America’s effect on public opinion or result in concentration camp inmates.[7] Secret Medical Experiments in the legal suits.”[4] Cold War details “the unspeakable A rare public condemnation came from scientiﬁ c trials that reduced thousands In one Vanderbilt U. study, 829 preg- Clinton Administration Energy Sec. of men, women, and even children to nant women were unknowingly fed Hazel O’Leary in 1994, who confessed nameless specimens.”[2] radioactive iron. In another, 188 child- being aghast at the conduct of the ren were given radioactive iron-laced scientists. She told Newsweek: “I said, The program employed industry and lemonade. From 1963 to 1971, 67 ‘Who were these people and why did academic scientists who used their inmates in Oregon and 64 prisoners in this happen?’ The only thing I could hapless patients or wards to see the Washington had their testicles targeted think of was Nazi Germany.”[8] None immediate and short-term effects with X-rays to see what doses made of the victims were provided follow-on of radioactive contamination − with them sterile.[5] At the Fernald State medical care. everything from plutonium to radioac- School in Massachusetts, mentally tive arsenic.[3] The human subjects retarded boys were fed radioactive iron Scientists knew from the beginning were mostly poisoned without their and calcium but consent forms sent to of the twentieth century that radiation

4 Nuclear Monitor 764 can cause genetic and cell damage, spewed radiation across Idaho and are not offi cially listed as radiation cell death, radiation sickness and beyond.[11] The Air Force conducted experiments. Yet between 250,000 and even death. A Presidential Advisory at least eight deliberate meltdowns in 500,000 U.S. military personnel were Committee on Human Radiation the Utah desert, dispersing 14 times contaminated during their compulsory Experiments was established in 1993 the radiation released by the partial participation in the bomb tests and the to investigate charges of unethical or meltdown of Three Mile Island in post-war occupation of Japan.[14] criminal action by the experimenters. Pennsylvania in 1979.[12] Its fi ndings were published by Oxford Documents uncovered by the Advisory U. Press in 1996 as The Human The military even dumped radiation Committee show that the military knew Radiation Experiments. from planes and spread it across there were serious radioactive fallout wide areas around and downwind risks from its Nevada Test Site bomb The abuse of X-radiation “therapy” was of Oak Ridge, Tenn., Los Alamos, blasts. The generals decided not to also conducted throughout the 1940s New Mexico, and Dugway, Utah. This use a safer site in Florida, where fal- and ‘50s. Everything from ringworm “systematic radiation warfare pro- lout would have blown out to sea. “The to tonsillitis was “treated” with X-ra- gram,” conducted between 1944 and offi cials determined it was probably diation because the long-term risks 1961, was kept secret for 40 years. not safe, but went ahead anyway,” said were unknown or considered tolerable. (“Secret U.S. experiments in ‘40s and Pat Fitzgerald a scientist on the com- Children were routinely exposed to ‘50s included dropping radiation from mittee staff.[15] Dr. Gioacchino Failla, alarmingly high doses of radiation from sky,” St. Paul Pioneer, Dec. 16, 1993) a Columbia Univ. scientist who worked devices like “fl uoroscopes” to measure “Radiation bombs” thrown from USAF for the AEC, said at the time, “We foot size in shoe stores.[9] Nasal planes intentionally spread radiation should take some risk ... we are faced radium capsules inserted in nostrils, “unknown distances” endangering with a war in which atomic weapons used to attack hearing loss, are now the young and old alike. One such will undoubtedly be used, and we have thought to be the cause of cancers, experiment doused Utah with 60 times to have some information about these thyroid and dental problems, immune more radiation than escaped the Three things.”[16] dysfunction and more.[10] Mile Island accident, according to Sen. John Glen, D-Ohio who released a With the National Cancer Institute’s Experiments spread cancer report on the program 20 years ago. 1997 fi nding that all 160,000 million risks far and wide [13] US citizens (in the country at the time In large scale experiments as late as The Pentagon’s 235 above-ground of the bomb tests) were contaminated 1985, the Energy Department delibera- nuclear bomb tests, and the atomic with fallout, it’s clear we did face war tely produced reactor meltdowns which bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with atomic weapons − our own.

References: 1. Secret Radioactive Experiments to Bring Compensation by U.S.,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1996 2. Eileen Welsome, The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, Delta Books, 1999, dust jacket 3. Ibid. p. 9 4. “Radiation tests kept deliberately secret,” Washington Post, Dec. 16, 1994; Geoffrey Sea, “The Radiation Story No One Would Touch,” Project Censored, March/April 1994 5. Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power, “American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Radiation Experi- ments on U.S. Citizens,” U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁ ce, Nov. 1986, p. 2; St. Paul Pioneer, via NewYork Times, Jan. 4, 1994 6. “48 more human radiation experiments revealed, Minneapolis StarTribune, June 28, 1994; Milwaukee Journal, June 29, 1994 7. Keith Schneider, “1950 Note Warms About Radiation Test,” New York Times, Dec. 28, 1993 8. Newsweek, Dec. 27, 1994 9. Joseph Mangano, Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment, OR Books, 2012, p. 36 10. “Nasal radium treatments of ’50s linked to cancer,” Milwaukee Journal, Aug. 31, 1994 11. “Reactor core is melted in experiment,” Washington Post service, Milwaukee Journal, July 10, 1985 12. “Tests spewed radiation, paper reports,” AP, Milwaukee Journal, Oct. 11, 1994 13. Katherine Rizzo, Associated Press, “A bombshell: U.S. spread radiation,” Duluth News-Tribune, Dec. 16, 1993 14. Catherine Cauﬁ eld, Multiple Exposures, p. 107; Greg Gordon in “Wellstone: Compensate atomic vets,” Minneapolis StarTribune, Mach 17, 1995; Associated Press, “Panel Told of Exposure to Test Danger,” Tulsa World, Jan. 24, 1995 15. Philip Hilts, “Fallout Risk Near Atom Tests Was Known, Documents Show,” New York Times, March 15, 1995, p. A13; and Pat Ortmeyer, “Let Them Drink Milk,” Institute for Environmental & Energy Research, November 1997, pp. 3 & 11 16. Philip J. Hilts, Ibid

This article appeared earlier in CounterPunch and TruthOut.

Nuclear Monitor 764 5 Transuranics, mercury and banned ﬂ uids discovered in Swedish nuclear waste repository

Author: Charly Hultén − WISE Sweden Web: www.folkkampanjen.se Email: [email protected]

The Spent Fuel Repository (SFR) at Forsmark is the only fi nal of human beings that may come in repository for nuclear waste in operation in Sweden today. harm’s way as the result of the activity Intended to receive short-lived nuclear isotopes, SFR has long been in question. criticised for both its location and its design. Sweden is a big country with a small 764.4321 Opened in 1988, it is a child (an estimated 65 kg), lead, and transu- population (roughly 9 million). Large of 1950s and 1960s thinking. Only 60 ranics, including an estimated 300 g expanses of the country are very metres beneath the sea on Sweden’s plutonium, perhaps twice that amount sparsely populated. Furthermore, it is Baltic coast, the repository was crea- according to nuclear chemist Christian diffi cult to demonstrate how pollution ted to leak its contents into the Baltic, Ekberg from Chalmers Technical Uni- of the Baltic Sea affects human health. which Swedish nuclear regulatory versity. Fluids, no matter what kind, are Thus, SSM may be more generous authorities still regard as an “appropri- banned because they convey radioac- in its estimation of the amount of ate recipient”. tivity so effi ciently. radiation that poses a risk. A case in point: one of the most widely criticised One of the facilities that has deposited These fi nds prompted suspicions design features of the SFR repository waste at SFR is a waste treatment about the 2,844 drums from Studsvik is that it is planned to be fi lled with facility at Studsvik, another coastal that, presumed to contain only short- sea water once the last drum of waste site. Studsvik, too, has been harshly lived isotopes, are already stored in is in place. There is no doubt that the criticised for the effl uents it fl ushes into SFR. In early May it was determined repository will leak – “from Day One” the sea. It is reputed to be the number that all the Studsvik waste, including in the words of Anders Siebert at SSM one source of caesium pollution to Bal- the drums in the SFR repository, will at a recent hearing. Thus “dilute and tic waters. Studsvik AB has also been have to be X-rayed, sorted and/or trea- disperse” – normally a fallback strategy a concern on dry land − time and again ted and then repackaged. Some mate- when the fi rst rule, “concentrate and authorities have urged the company to rials will need to be isolated in blocks contain”, has failed – is standard prac- improve the documentation of its waste of concrete. These various operations tice in Sweden. management. will require a new facility. In an international context, this In February of this year, some 7,000 Retrieval of the waste from SFR, the approach to human health consequen- metal drums of waste stored at new facility, and X-ray processing will ces is also the key to the competitive Studsvik were examined to determine each be costly. In Sweden the pro- advantage a company like Studsvik their contents. The drums in question cessing and management of nuclear enjoys − it can process scrap imported contain waste from the early years of waste is fi nanced via a surcharge on from countries like Germany, where Sweden’s nuclear industry, when the electricity. There is also a specifi c stricter regulations might render the aim was to develop a nuclear deter- surcharge of 0.002 euros/kWh to cover processes more costly or rule them out rent. It is, in other words, waste from the costs of waste from Studsvik. In entirely. weapons research. They are stored on other words, users of electricity will site, pending the creation of SFL − a be footing the bill for decades of non- We should also bear in mind the evolu- special repository for long-lived inter- chalance on the part of the nuclear tion that has taken place in the fi eld of mediate-level waste. industry. radiation protection. Professor Jonas Anshelm of Linköping University has There is no proper record of the con- Swedish Radiation Safety analysed ideas about nuclear waste tents, and the drums are not easily Authority in Sweden in recent decades. Ideas examined. Deep inside several con- The discovery raises a number of about what is to be considered ‘waste’, secutive drums is a concrete block, issues relating to Swedish nuclear the amount of waste involved, and how which isolates whatever needed to be protection philosophy. Both the shallow long it needs to be isolated, Anshelm put away. An examination carried out SFR repository and the very profi table says, have changed over the years. “In in February, which combined gamma reprocessing plant at Studsvik have the 1960s it was encased in concrete radiation readings and X-ray inspection their basis in how the regulatory autho- and dumped into the sea. In the 1970s, of the drums, turned up a number of rity, the Swedish Radiation Safety the industry’s experts assured us that unpleasant surprises: fl uids (roughly Authority (SSM), goes about assessing the waste would fi t into a chamber the fi ve cubic metres distributed over some the environmental consequences of size of a sports hall. In the 1960s, sto- 2000 of the drums, some of which is nuclear facilities. The starting point rage for 100 years was considered suf- presumed to be nitric acid), mercury in SSM’s approach is the number fi cient, but today the consensus among

6 Nuclear Monitor 764 experts is that it needs to remain “I think it was just a case of poor The reporter notes that the most recent isolated for over a hundred-thousand management. I don’t think it was drums in the Studsvik collection were years,” Anshelm points out. Presump- a deliberate act.” packed in 1997. tions have changed radically, and they “You mean, they were just care- will most surely continue to change, he less?” Questions remain: Has the predo- concludes. “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘careless’. minant thinking within the industry’s It was the thinking of the day.” waste management company, SKB, Anshelm is seconded by Sven Odéus, evolved? And, if not, is there a will spokesman for Svafo AB, the company (Sveriges Radio, Klotet, 6 May on the part of the regulator to make it in charge of the Studsvik waste. An 2013.) evolve? investigative journalist for Swedish radio asked Odéus how the debacle could arise:

Power failure at Forsmark May 30 − one of the Forsmark reac- demanded an explanation, and it turns may be the reason why the regula- tors in Sweden was taken off line for out that the emergency back-up power tory agency SSM has classed this a scheduled check-up and repairs. supply kicks in automatically only when recent failure as a “Class 1” incident. Shortly thereafter electrical power the reactor is online. Whether the Permission to restart the reactor supply to the reactor went dead, and system will be automated even during will be granted only after a thorough no emergency back-up power from ofﬂ ine periods has yet to be decided. report from the operator. The power the mains kicked in. Fortunately, the supply to other reactors at the sta- control room staff was able to start The strange thing is that the power tion are now under review, as well. up the diesel generators manually. supply systems were overseen as recently as 2006. Then, power failure Upsala Nya Tidning, 31 May 2013; The operator assured the public that deactivated several safety functions WISE Sweden when ofﬂ ine, a reactor can go without while the reactor in question was cooling several days before the situa- online. Several experts spoke of a “20 tion posses a threat. Still, the incident minutes to meltdown” incident. That

US warned Kodak, not us, about radioactive fallout

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Atomic Energy Commission Nuclear Fallout.” The article began, (AEC) doused the United States with thyroid cancer-causing “(W)hile the government reassured the iodine-131 − and 300 other radioisotopes − by exploding atomic public that there was no health threat and hydrogen bombs above ground in Nevada. To protect the dirty, from atmospheric nuclear tests. ...” The secretive bomb-building industry, the government chose to warn fallout’s radioactive iodine-131 caused the photographic ﬁ lm industry about the radioactive fallout patterns, thyroid doses to virtually all 160 million but not the public. Americans.

764.4322 In 1951, Eastman Kodak Co. lawsuit would have precipitated. The According to the Institute for Energy had threatened a federal lawsuit over settlement kept the deadliness of the and Environmental Research in the nuclear fallout that was fogging fallout hidden from the public, even Takoma Park, Md., which discovered its bulk ﬁ lm shipments. Film was not though the government well knew that the cover-up, children were especially packed in bubble wrap then, but in fallout endangered all the people it was affected and received higher doses corn stalks that were sometimes being supposed to be defending. because they generally consumed fallout-contaminated. By agreeing to more milk than adults and since their warn Kodak, etc., the AEC and the This staggering revelation was thyroids are smaller and growing more bomb program avoided the public heralded on September 30, 1997, in rapidly. The “milk pathway” moves uproar − and the bomb testing pro- the New York Times headline, “U.S. radio-iodine from grass, to cows, to gram’s possible cancellation − that a Warned Film Plants, Not Public, About milk with extreme efﬁ ciency − a fact

Nuclear Monitor 764 7 known to the government as early as yet been diagnosed but would appear detectable increase in the incidence of 1951. Ingested iodine-131 concentrates years or decades later. disease.” IEER’s scientists condemned in the thyroid gland where it can cause this fabulously implausible assurance, cancer. Doses to children averaged 6 Its 14-year study said the 90 bomb writing: “Since thyroid cancers can to 14 rads (0.06−0.14 Gy), with some blasts produced more than 100 times develop many years after radiation as high as 112 rads (1.12 Gy). Before the radioactive iodine-131 than the exposure and are therefore not imme- 1997, the government claimed that government had earlier claimed. The diately detectable, this reassurance thyroid doses to children were 15 to 70 cancer institute estimated that the tests was highly misleading.” times less. dispersed “about 150 million curies of iodine-131, mainly in the years 1952, Thyroid cancers are tip of bomb Radioactive fallout spread to 1953, 1955 and 1957.” The study test cancer iceberg every corner of the US reported that all 160 million people in The cancer institute’s 1997 study said My friend Steve O’Neil of Duluth, the country at the time were exposed about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer Minn., who was born in 1951, has been to iodine-131 (the only isotope it stu- were diagnosed in the U.S. annually, a public-spirited political activist all died out of more than 300 dispersed and that 1,230 would die from the of his adult life, an advocate for the by the blasts.) Children under 15, like disease. It was a gross understate- homeless and a campaigner against Steve O’Neil, were particularly at risk. ment. the causes of homelessness. As a St. Louis County commissioner in his High doses of fallout were spread nati- Today it reports that 60,220 cases of third term, Steve made headlines by onwide. Wind patterns and local rain- thyroid cancer will be diagnosed in the announcing that he has been attacked fall caused “hot spots” from Montana US this year, and that 1,850 of them by an aggressive form of thyroid can- and Idaho to South Dakota, Minnesota, will be fatal. cer. Steve is not alone in his affl iction − and Missouri and beyond. more than 60,000 thyroid cancers will The UN Scientifi c Committee on the be spotted this year in the US. Tens of In 1962, according to IEER, offi cials in Effects of Atomic Radiation says that thousands of them have been caused Utah and Minnesota diverted possibly iodine-131 doses comprise only 2% by our government’s nuclear weapons contaminated milk from the market of the overall radiation dose from establishment. when iodine-131 levels exceeded weapons testing. Ninety-eight percent radiation guidelines set by the Federal of the fallout dose is from 300 other The National Cancer Institute dis- Radiation Council. The council reacted isotopes produced by the bomb. It is closed in 1997 that 75,000 thyroid harshly and declared that it did “not not idle speculation to suggest that the cancer cases can be expected in the recommend such actions.” It also cancer pandemic affl icting the U.S. U.S. from just 90 − out of 235 − abo- announced that its radiation guidelines has been caused by our government’s ve-ground bomb tests and that 10% should not be applied to bomb test deliberately secret and viciously reck- of them will be fatal. That year, the fallout because “any possible health less weapons program. cancer institute said, about 70% of the risk which may be associated with thyroid cancers caused by iodine-131 exposures even many times above This article appeared earlier in the Las fallout from those 90 tests had not the guide levels would not result in a Vegas Review Journal. Fukushima fallout: updates from Japan

UN special rapporteur’s report

In November 2012, the UN Human ● It criticises the government for leukemia.” Currently, Japan allows Rights Council sent Special Rappor- failing to protect children, the elderly, residents to return to their homes when teur Anand Grover to Japan to assess and those with disabilities from the radiation levels reach 20 millisieverts the situation in the aftermath of the disaster, as well as inadequate use of per year. Fukushima disaster. the country’s System for Prediction of TEPCO and the Japanese govern- Environment Emergency Dose Infor- Japanese government ofﬁ cials were ment. For example: mation, which led to some residents more concerned about the economic ● It says that by nationalising TEPCO, being evacuated to areas directly in the implications of a massive evacuation the government “arguably helped path of the radiation plume in the days and the costs of compensating victims TEPCO to effectively avoid accoun- following the March 11 disaster. after the Fukushima disaster than they tability and liability for damages” from were about residents’ safety, the nuclear crisis. The report urges Japan to avoid according to a new exposé by the ● It criticises TEPCO for its “attempts repopulating contaminated areas until Asahi Shimbun. Records from to reduce compensation levels and radiation levels reach one millisievert government meetings conducted delay settlement” through a com- per year. It stresses that epidemiologi- in December 2011, during which plicated and difﬁ cult compensation cal experts “conclude that there is no attendees were trying to decide the process, as well as failure to protect low-threshold limit for excess radiation radiation level at which residents could workers from radiation exposure. risk to non-solid cancers, such as safely return to their homes, show that

8 Nuclear Monitor 764 then Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi June 14th to June 17th, 2013 leaders are threatening to sue, com- Hosono fought to establish the annual www.greenpeace.org/international/en/ plaining that the utility has been unres- radiation level at which residents could news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/ ponsive to their repeated requests for safely return at fi ve millisieverts. Howe- payment. “No matter what we say, we ver, other attendees insisted on a 20 Legal claims and compensation get no reply,” said Takanori Seto, the millisievert per year limit. payments mayor of Fukushima City. “We’ll fi le a TEPCO’s legal troubles continue to lawsuit.” (Japan News, 18 June 2013, UN Special Rapporteur’s report: mount as yet another group fi led suit ‘TEPCO slow to pay Fukushima gover- tinyurl.com/pxwqub4 against it. Family members of hospital nments’ compensation’) patients and elderly nursing home Beyond Nuclear analysis, residents who died in the process of Japan’s Nuclear Damage Claim ‘Can nuclear power ever comply with the evacuation, or because staff were Dispute Resolution Center has made human right to health?’ unavailable to care for them, are two judgments that could have signifi - tinyurl.com/beyondfuku suing the utility for approximately cant impact on TEPCO’s obligations. US$300,000 each. The families say In the fi rst case, the Center ruled Asahi Shimbun, 25 May 2013, ‘Strict that they care less about collecting that TEPCO must pay a group of 180 radiation reference levels shunned to stem damages and more about learning the residents from the Nagadoro District of Fukushima exodus’ root causes of the Fukushima disaster. Iitate 500,000 yen (around US$5,000) However, the case could have far-re- for emotional distress from high Asahi Shimbun, 26 May 2013, ‘U.N. expert aching legal implications for TEPCO if levels of radiation exposure. Pregnant urges help for Japan’s nuclear victims’ it is decided in favour of the plaintiffs. women and children under 18 at the More than 200 people were stuck in time of the accident were awarded one Greenpeace Nuclear Reaction Weblog, hospitals and nursing facilities follo- million yen each. People from that area Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May wing the nuclear accident, and 50 of were not told to evacuate until a month 23rd to May 28th, 2013 those died. (NHK World; Greenpeace after the nuclear crisis fi rst began www.greenpeace.org/international/en/ Nuclear Reaction Weblog, Fukushima to unfold, increasing their radiation news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction Update 7−10 June 2013) exposure. Experts say that the case is sure to encourage other municipali- Decontamination and waste In late May, the Namie municipal ties in similar circumstances to follow disposal government announced that it will suit. (Asahi Shimbun, 3 June 2013, Despite public promises by Prime sue TEPCO on behalf of over 11,000 ‘Consolation money to place additional Minister Shinzo Abe to complete residents for psychological suffering. fi nancial burden on TEPCO’) decontamination work in Fukushima Although TEPCO is already paying Prefecture by March 2014, which victims 1,000 yen per month, Namie In the second case, TEPCO agreed would reduce radiation exposure levels offi cials want to increase that amount to compensate to the family of a far- there to one millisievert per year or to 3,500 yen. (The Mainichi, 3 June mer from Sukagawa, who committed less, Japan’s government recently 2013, ‘Fukushima village residents to suicide after learning that he would be informed municipal offi cials that they receive new compensation over mental forced to stop selling cabbage from will likely not meet their stated deadline damage’) his organic farm. He had worked on as a result of local opposition to hos- the farm for 30 years. TEPCO even- ting nuclear waste storage sites. Offi - The Japanese government is now tually agreed to pay over 10 million cially, the government is still denying considering suing TEPCO. So far, the yen (US$100,000) after the Nuclear any change to the timeline. Japan’s government has paid 16.5 billion yen Damage Claim Dispute Resolution decontamination schedule is already (US$169 million) in decontamination Center intervened. Company offi cials far behind schedule − cleanup efforts costs. Japanese law requires that the continue to refuse to apologise to the have not even begun in fi ve of 11 government pay those costs initially, man’s family. (The Mainichi, 3 June municipalities that have been decla- and then be reimbursed by the utility. 2013, ‘Fukushima family, TEPCO red evacuation zones. Moreover, the More than two and half years after the reach redress deal over farmer’s sui- Environment Ministry has told local nuclear disaster fi rst began, however, cide’) offi cials that areas that have already TEPCO has not paid any of the costs. been decontaminated but where (Kyodo News, 1 June 2013, ‘Gov’t Fukushima fi lms radiation levels remain high will not be eyes suing TEPCO over unpaid decon- A number of independent fi lms have decontaminated again, raising questi- tamination costs’) been produced recounting personal ons about if or when residents will ever TEPCO is again under fi re for failure stories from Japan’s March 2011 be able to safely return. to pay adequate compensation to triple-disaster and its aftermath. These Asahi Shimbun, 16 June 2013, Fukushima prefectural and local gover- websites provide more information: ‘Government secretly backtracks on nments that were forced to cover costs Nuclear Nation: nuclearnation.jp/en Fukushima decontamination goal’ of damage, decontamination, evacua- Surviving Japan: ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/ tion, and other losses. As of April 30, survivingjapanmovie.com fukushima/AJ201306160022 claims total 46.64 billion yen (US$478 Pray for Japan: million), with further claims expected, prayforjapan-fi lm.org Greenpeace Nuclear Reaction Weblog but TEPCO has only paid 5.2 billion Ian Thomas Ash: − Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for yen (US$50 million). Some local www.documetingian.com

Nuclear Monitor 764 9 The Tsunami and the Cherry Himizu: Kalina’s Apple, Forest of Chernobyl: Blossom: thirdwindowﬁ lms.com/ﬁ lms/himizu kalina-movie.com thetsunamiandthecherryblossom.com Fukushima: Memories of the Lost The Land of Hope (trailer): Landscape: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPv- www.somakanka.com/eng.html 3BX39dPk

Nuclear News

Nuclear power suffers biggest ever one-year fall Nuclear power generation suffered this in Spain. Wind power soared in and in the coming days the bags were its biggest ever one-year fall in 2012. 2012 with a new record for installations recovered from the Lillyhall landfi ll site International Atomic Energy Agency − 44 GW of new capacity worldwide. and dispatched to the Drigg radioactive data shows that nuclear power plants Total capacity exceeds 280 GW, with waste dump. [1,2] around the world produced a total of plants operating in more than 80 2,346 TWh in 2012 − 7% less than in countries. China leads the world with An investigation has been launched 2011, and the lowest fi gure since 1999. 75 GW of wind power capacity. into an incident at Sellafi eld’s THORP Compared to the last full year before reprocessing plant which occurred on the Fukushima accident, 2010, the World Nuclear News, 20 June 2013, May 14. The incident involved mista- nuclear industry produced 11% less ‘Nuclear power down in 2012’ king two chemicals, formaldehyde and electricity in 2012. www.world-nuclear-news.org/ hydroxylamine. Cumbrians Against a NN_Nuclear_power_down_ Radioactive Environment spokesman The main reasons were that almost all in_2012_2006131.html Martin Forwood said that had the error reactors in Japan were off-line for the not been spotted, “the consequences full calendar year, and the permanent Ana Komnenic, 12 June 2013, ‘Ura- of introducing formaldehyde into the shut-down of eight reactors in Ger- nium hits seven-year low’ fi rst stages of fuel dissolution could many. Other issues included problems www.mining.com/uranium-hits-seven- have been catastrophic for THORP’s for Crystal River, Fort Calhoun and year-low-30875 internal workings − and had the poten- the two San Onofre units in the USA tial to initiate a site accident.” The which meant they produced no power, REN21 Renewables Global Status Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) and Belgium’s Doel 3 and Tihange 2 Report, 2013 secretariat said it was “alarming” reactors which were out of action for www.ren21.net that Sellafi eld Ltd had classifi ed the half of the year. incident as a “non-radiological event.” J. Matthew Roney, 2 April 2013, ‘Wind NFLA group chairman Mark Hackett Three new reactors started up during Power’ said the incident “could have led to a 2012 − two in South Korea and one in www.earth-policy.org/indicators/C49/ major accident at the Sellafi eld Thorp China. In Canada, two older reactors wind_power_2013 plant.” [3] came back into operation after refur- bishment. This new capacity totalled Fines and fi re in the UK Nuclear waste clean-up operations 4,501 MWe, outweighing the retire- The nuclear company Sellafi eld Ltd at Sellafi eld could be taken back into ments of the UK’s Oldbury 1 and Wylfa has been fi ned 700,000 pounds and state hands after a series of failings 2, and Canada’s Gentilly 2, which ordered to pay more than 72,635 by private companies managing the between them generated 1,342 MWe. pounds costs for sending bags of site, as their 22 billion pound contract Across the rest of the global fl eet, radioactive waste to a landfi ll site. The comes up for review. A consortium cal- uprates added about 990 MWe in new bags, which contained contaminated led Nuclear Management Partners was capacity. So total increased capacity waste such as plastic, tissues and selected in 2008 to run the Cumbrian was 4,501 + 990 − 1,342 = 4,149 MWe, clothing, should have been sent to site for up to 17 years. But the National a little over 1%. a specialist facility that treats and Audit Offi ce and the Public Accounts stores low-level radioactive waste, but Committee have both criticised delays The uranium spot price fell to “signifi cant management and opera- and cost over-runs. The Nuclear US$39.75 / lb U3O8 on June 11, falling tional failings” led to them being sent Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is below $40.00 for the fi rst time since to Lillyhall landfi ll site in Workington, now reviewing whether to renew the March 2006. Cumbria. This breached the conditions contract with the consortium ahead of the company’s environmental permit of a “break” point in March 2014. The At the end of 2012, world total capa- and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods NDA said it was considering three opti- city of solar photovoltaic generation and Use of Transportable Pressure ons, including stripping the consortium reached 100 GWe, with 30.5 GWe Equipment Regulations. The mistake of the contract and taking Sellafi eld installed in 2012 alone. There is about was only discovered by chance follo- back into the NDA’s hands, a move 2.55 GWe of concentrating solar power wing a training exercise on the faulty that would require ministerial approval. capacity worldwide, three quarters of monitoring equipment on April 20, It is understood to be drawing up plans

10 Nuclear Monitor 764 for how the site would be run if it opted AWE staff with burns to his face and [4] Emily Gosden, 20 June 2013, to do so. Decommissioning operations arm and required the evacuation of a ‘Sellafi eld clean-up could be taken into at Sellafi eld are expected to cost more number of local residents and closure state hands as £22bn contract up for than 67 billion pounds over the next of roads around the site as safety pre- review’, The Telegraph century. [4] cautions. [5] www.telegraph.co.uk/fi nance/news- bysector/energy/10133528/Sellafi eld- Meanwhile, the company which ope- [1] CORE, 14 June 2013, ‘Sellafi eld clean-up-could-be-taken-into-state- rates the factories where the UK’s Ltd fi ned £700,000 for sending LLW to hands-as-22bn-contract-up-for-review. nuclear weapons are manufactured local landfi ll − largest ever fi ne for site’ html has been fi ned for breaches of safety www.corecumbria.co.uk/newsapp/ laws following a fi re in which a mem- pressreleases/pressmain.asp?StrNew- [5] Nuclear Information Service, 28 ber of staff was injured. AWE plc, sID=319 May 2013, ‘Nuclear weapons factory which operates the Atomic Weapons operators fi ned £200,000 for safety Establishment (AWE), pleaded guilty [2] The Guardian, 15 June 2013, breaches’ to failing to ensure the health, safety ‘Sellafi eld fi ned £700,000 for sending http://nuclearinfo.org/article/awe-alder- and welfare at work of its employees. radioactive waste to landfi ll’ maston/nuclear-weapons-factory-ope- On May 28 the company was fi ned www.guardian.co.uk/environ- rators-fi ned-%C2%A3200000-safe- 200,000 pounds and ordered to pay ment/2013/jun/14/sellafi eld-fi ned-was- ty-breaches £80,258 in legal costs and 2,500 te-landfi ll pounds in compensation to an employee who was injured during the [3] Peter Lazenby, 2 June 2013, fi re. The charge followed a fi re which ‘Sellafi eld bosses play down near broke out in an explosives handling catastrophe’ facility at the AWE Aldermaston site in www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/ Berkshire on the evening of 3 August content/view/full/134123 2010. The incident left a member of

WISE / NIRS Nuclear Monitor

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