Radioactive uranium has leaked through the floor of the Westinghouse South Carolina nuclear fuel plant and contaminated the soil. The Westinghouse fuel factory on Bluff Road, located in Richland County, also has a nearly 35-year history of groundwater pollution from the plant.

The most conflicting part of the entire uranium leak is that officials with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said they have no reason to believe the uranium has trickled off the site or that public water supplies are threatened. But, the agency also said it does not have the results of recent groundwater tests on the Westinghouse property either, meaning they actually don’t really know what the extent of contamination could be. Those test results will show whether pollution in the soil washed into the area’s shallow groundwater, which seeps into creeks in the Congaree River floodplain.

However, the plant does have a 35-year history of polluting the groundwater. According to The State, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the uranium, a toxic substance used to make nuclear fuel rods, seeped through a 3-inch hole in a concrete floor in part of the factory where an acid is used. The hole extends 6 feet into the ground, according to the NRC, which learned of the leak back on July 12.

Much like the Fukushima radiation issues, we likely won’t know the extent of the dangers to human health until its too late. It seems like for some reason there isn’t a lot of information available, and the information readily obtainable is contradictory. Most of the mainstream media and government agencies were silent on the extent of radiation contamination in the wake of the Fukushima plant’s damage.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Don’t Call It an Explosion: Gaseous Ignition Events with Radioactive Waste

May 18, 2018

Don’t Call It an Explosion: Gaseous Ignition Events with Radioactive Waste

Photo by Iwan Gabovitch | CC BY 2.0

Last month’s explosive news from the safe, reliable nuclear deterrence folks is that at least four barrels of military radioactive waste either burst or exploded somewhere inside the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), near Idaho Falls, April 11. INL officials said the “ruptured” barrels reportedly contained a sludge of fluids and solvents sent from the long-shuttered Rocky Flats plutonium weapons machining site near Denver. The officials did not describe which radioactive materials were in the sludge.

The accident was reported by ABC News, the Associated Press, the Seattle Times, the Japan Times, Industrial Equipment News, and Fox Radio among others. Laboratory spokespersons said a 55-gallon drum, or two, holding radioactive sludge “ruptured.” Energy Department (DOE) spokesperson Danielle Miller wrote April 12 that, “Later, there were indications that a third drum may have been involved.” On April 25 Erik Simpson, a spokesman for DOE contractor Fluor Idaho, told the AP that four barrels had burst. Simpson said the “ruptures” (i.e. explosions) were heard outside the building where they took place.

The DOE’s Miller called the prompt deconstruction of the rad waste barrel(s) an “exothermal event” — a pseudonym for “bomb” that means “a chemical reaction accompanied by a burst of heat.” The phrase harks back to the officially described “gaseous ignition event” involving hydrogen gas in a loaded high-level rad waste cask at Wisconsin’s Point Beach reactor site in May 1996. The cask contained 14 tons of highly radioactive used reactor fuel, and the explosion (a word avoided only by agency public relations linguistic gymnastics) blew the high-level waste cask’s 4,000-pound lid right off.

One theory about the cause of the accident is that “radioactive decay made the barrel[s] heat up and ignite particles of uranium,” the AP reported. Unfortunately for the first responders, “When the firefighters left the building emergency workers detected a small amount of radioactive material on their skin,” the AP reported April 12.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The ERoEI of Mining Uranium

February 21, 2018

The ERoEI of Mining Uranium

In 2009, in the comments to this post on The Oil Drum we stumbled upon a mine of information on the operation of the Rossing uranium mine in Namibia. The data table provided numbers for the amount of energy used on site together with the amount of uranium mined. This provided an opportunity to calculate the energy return of the mining operation. Simply put ERoEI = energy contained in the U / the energy used to mine and refine it. There are some complexities but back then I calculated an ERoEI of 1200:1 The data has been updated and fresh calculations are presented below.

First a few words about Rossing. The mine is operated by Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies. Discovered in 1928, operations began in 1976. According to Wikipedia Rossing is the 5th largest U mine in the world. The uranium ore is mined, milled and refined at Rossing and the energy numbers here reflect energy used to go from rock to yellow cake (U3O8 inset image up top).

Figure 1 Rossing mine.

Figure 2 Location map from Rio Tinto. Rossing is by Arandis (red dot)

The performance table provides data over 5 years:

Figure 3 Performance table from Rio Tinto.

My calculations are based on 2016.

The first important number to pick out is the energy use on site: 2,528,000 GJ [1]

The second is the uranium oxide produced: 1,850,000 kg [2]

The atomic mass of U = 238 and O = 16. U3O8 = 842 amu. U/U3O8 = 714/842 = 0.848

The third important number is uranium metal produced = 1,850,000 * 0.848 = 1,568,880 kg [3]

We can now calculate the fourth important number which is energy used to mine 1 kg = 2,528,000 GJ / 1,568,880 kg = 1,611 MJ/kg [4]

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Looming Environmental Disaster In Missouri That Nobody Is Talking About

January 3, 2016

The Looming Environmental Disaster In Missouri That Nobody Is Talking About

Since we first highlighted the potential for a “catastrophic event” in Missouri three months ago, there has been little mainstream media coverage. However, as Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org notes, residents near the smoldering fill have expressed increasing frustration with the quarreling agencies offering few answers for an increasing number of health issues, like asthma. For now, it’s startlingly apparent no one knows exactly what’s happening with the West Lake and Bridgeton Landfills – though the smoldering below the surface doesn’t cease and floodwaters continue to rise.

What happens when radioactive byproduct from the Manhattan Project comes into contact with an “underground fire” at a landfill? Surprisingly, no one actually knows for sure; but residents of Bridgeton, Missouri, near the West Lake and Bridgeton Landfills — just northwest of the St. Louis International Airport — may find out sooner than they’d like.

And that conundrum isn’t the only issue for the area. Contradicting reports from both the government and the landfill’s responsible parties, radioactive contamination is actively leaching into the surrounding populated area from the West Lake site — and likely has been for the past 42 years.

In order to grasp this startling confluence of circumstances, it’s important to understand the history of these sites. Pertinent information either hasn’t been forthcoming or is muddied by disputes among the various government agencies and companies that should be held accountable for keeping area residents safe.

* * *

West Lake Landfill was placed on the National Priorities List in 1990, giving the Environmental Protection Agency regulatory authority through its designation as a Superfund site. However, the area wasn’t a planned radioactive waste storage site. Uranium processing residue leftover from the World War II-era Manhattan Project was originally dumped there, illegally, by a contractor for former uranium processing company and General Atomics affiliate, Cotter Corporation in 1973.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

World Powers Reach Landmark Nuclear Deal With Iran, Oil Slides – Full Deal Text

July 14, 2015

World Powers Reach Landmark Nuclear Deal With Iran, Oil Slides – Full Deal Text

It is only fitting that almost exactly 24 hours after the Greek “pre-deal”, which may and will end up crashing and burning in very short notice, another long expected “deal”, one which has been about a decade in the making, was reached, when Iran reached a landmark nuclear agreement with the U.S. and five other world powers, a long-sought foreign policy goal of the Obama administration. However, just like with the Greek deal celebrations, these too will likely be short lived as the outcome sets the White House on course for months of political strife with dissenters in Congress and in allied Middle Eastern nations.

In the end, however, the reality is that with little oversight both Iran and the West will maintain the status quo, even if the chances of a middle-east “preemptive” war involving Israel and/or Saudi Arabia increase substantially.

Here are some of the deal highlight bullets from Reuters and Bloomberg:

Iran ballistic missile embargo seen in place for 8 years
Conventional weapon embargo seen in place for 5 years
Iran to cut 98% of enriched uranium stockpile under deal
Iran will eliminate two-thirds of centrifuges under deal
EU to lift sanctions on Iran as it meets nuclear obligations
Iran deal implementation will take months, officials say
Iran won’t receive sanctions relief until it complies with terms of agreement

In terms of the next steps timeline, Bloomberg adds that oil sanctions on Iran unlikely to be lifted before December 2015, according to most optimistic assessment of steps involved in draft of nuclear agreement obtained by Bloomberg. Most analysts expect this to happen sometime in 2016.

Key steps as follows: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, will be adopted 90 days after endorsement by UN Security Council resolution, or sooner by unanimous consent of all parties.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Uranium Mine Sludge Discharge Permit Threatens Lake Malawi | Environment News Service

November 28, 2014

Uranium Mine Sludge Discharge Permit Threatens Lake Malawi | Environment News Service.

KARONGA, Malawi, November 25, 2014 (ENS) – Paladin Africa Ltd, which mines uranium ore in Malawi’s northern district of Karonga, has come under fire from a coalition of Malawian civil society groups and chiefs over its proposal to discharge mining sludge into the Sere and North Rukuru rivers.

The toxic substances that would flow from the tailings pond at the Kayelekera Uranium Mine into Lake Malawi 50 kilometers (30 miles) downstream include waste uranium rock, acids, arsenic and other chemicals used in processing the uranium ore, the coalition fears.

Lake Malawi in eastern Africa is the world’s ninth largest lake, some 580 kilometers (360 miles) long, and 75 kilometers (47 miles) wide at its widest point. It extends into Malawi’s neighbors Tanzania and Mozambique.

The lake provides water for drinking and domestic use to millions of Malawians. Part of the lake is protected as a national park, and it is inhabited by more than 850 cichlid fish species found nowhere else on Earth.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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