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Governments Have Been Covering Up Nuclear Meltdowns for Fifty Years to Protect the Nuclear Power Industry

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Washington’s Blog

 

 

Santa Susana

As a History Chanel special notes, a nuclear meltdown occurred at the world's first commercial reactor only 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles, and only 7 miles from the community of Canoga Park and the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.

Specifically, in 1959, there was a meltdown of one-third of the nuclear reactors at the Santa Susana field laboratory operated by Rocketdyne, releasing - according to some scientists' estimates - 240 times as much radiation as Three Mile Island.

But the Atomic Energy Commission lied and said only there was only 1 partially damaged rod, and no real problems. In fact, the AEC kept the meltdown a state secret for 20 years.

There were other major accidents at that reactor facility, which the AEC and Nuclear Regulatory Commission covered up as well. See this.

Kyshtm

Two years earlier, a Russian government reactor at Kyshtm melted down in an accident which some claim was even worse than Chernobyl.

The Soviet government hid the accident, pretending that it was creating a new "nature reserve" to keep people out of the huge swath of contaminated land.

Journalist Anna Gyorgy alleges that the results of a freedom of information act request show that the CIA knew about the accident at the time, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling American nuclear industry.


1980s Studies and Hearings

In 1982, the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs received a secret report received from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission called "Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences 2".


In that report and other reports by the NRC in the 1980s, it was estimated that there was a 50% chance of a nuclear meltdown within the next 20 years which would be so large that it would contaminate an area the size of the State of Pennsylvania, which would result in huge numbers of a fatalities, and which would cause damage in the hundreds of billions of dollars (in 1980s dollars).

Those reports were kept secret for decades.


Other Evidence

Well-known writer Alvin Toffler pointed out in Powershift (page 156):

At least thirty times between 1957 and 1985—more than once a year—the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant near Aiken, South Carolina, experienced what a scientist subsequently termed "reactor incidents of greatest significance." These included widespread leakage of radioactivity and a meltdown of nuclear fuel. But not one of these was reported to local residents or to the public generally. Nor was action taken when the scientist submitted an internal memorandum about these "incidents." The story did not come to light until exposed in a Congressional hearing in 1988. The plant was operated by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company for the U.S. government, and Du Pont was accused of covering up the facts. The company immediately issued a denial, pointing out that it had routinely reported the accidents to the Department of Energy.

At this point, the DoE, as it is known, accepted the blame for keeping the news secret.

And former soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on camera for a Discovery Network special ("The Battle of Chernobyl") that the Soviets and Americans have each hidden a number of nuclear accidents from the public.


(17:02 into video.)


Ongoing?

In light of the foregoing, the following quote from the San Jose Mercury News may not seem so far-fetched:


EPA officials, however, refused to answer questions or make staff members available to explain the exact location and number of monitors, or the levels of radiation, if any, being recorded at existing monitors in California. Margot Perez-Sullivan, a spokeswoman at the EPA's regional headquarters in San Francisco, said the agency's written statement would stand on its own.

Critics said the public needs more information.

"It's disappointing," said Bill Magavern, director of Sierra Club California. "I have a strong suspicion that EPA is being silenced by those in the federal government who don't want anything to stand in the way of a nuclear power expansion in this country, heavily subsidized by taxpayer money."

And see this and this.

 

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Sun, 03/20/2011 - 18:28 | 1079690 Hacked Economy
Hacked Economy's picture

Hmmm.  I'm an engineer by trade, and I've been tested multiple times over my academic career, and have repeatedly scored at the sub-genius (145-150 IQ) level.  It's not an end-all, be-all marker of course, but it shows that I'm smarter than the average bear, and well able to arrive at a "logical, rational conclusion".

So...I believe in God as our Creator...but I agree with you that only a dummy would jump off a building and ask Him for a mulligan on the gravity rule.

'Nuff said.  Let's get back to trashing Helicopter Ben.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 18:35 | 1079712 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

Not to question your faith, but what was your reaction when a Oklahoma Senator said, and I paraphrase:

"Global Warming is not real, God told Noah that he would never subject us to another deluge"

 

Faith has its place and setting public policy with regards to scientific matters is not one of them..

 

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 11:54 | 1078828 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

At the risk of gross generalization, the only non-athiests that I trust on certain matters are the Jesuits...

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 02:48 | 1078059 Escapeclaws
Escapeclaws's picture

+1

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:06 | 1077536 Money Squid
Money Squid's picture

Don't foreget the secret testing -- I did a short stint at Hanford Nuclear Reservation as a consultant and while there the regulars told me about the "Green Run." The Green Run was a test by the US Air Force whereby they allowed newly irradiated fuel to vent to the atmosphere, releasing a massive amount of radioactivity downwind. I was not really sure I believed it at the time, but about 5 years later 60 Minutes did a story on it.

Also, when the Hanford reactors were first operating they treated water from the adjacent Columbia River, passed it through the reactor cores then put right back in the river, the radiation was detected where the Colubia discharges to the ocean. While there I helped write a report about the history of intentional and accidental releases at one of the processing areas - the workers their paid a terrible price, but their sacrifice is still mostly a secret. I laughed, in a sad way, when I was told to watch where I stepped (when out in the open) as the coyote turds, rabbit turds, ants and bushes were radioactive. Massive amounts of waste were intentionally discharged to the soil with out treatment and the local burrowing wildlife became contaminated and the contamination made its way up the food chain.

There was also the S Tank farm, where one of the 500,000+ gallon underground storage tanks continuously boiled due the etreme radioactivity of the spent nuclear fuel dumped there. The operators had to pump in water to keep it cool, discharge the hydrogen and other gases to keep the tank from exploding and releasing Chernobyl-like amounts of radioactivity. I doubt this tank has been addressed. I did not mind leaving there.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 11:24 | 1078726 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

"An abnormally high incidence of malignant melanoma has been found in children around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory..."

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-10-15/news/mn-57135_1_malignant-melanoma

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:16 | 1077560 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

I remember some of these stories from when they came out. Makes one wonder what other horrors we are subjected to without our knowing.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 01:04 | 1077838 Dugald
Dugald's picture

Och, noo ah ken whits meant by the term 'the American way!!

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:20 | 1077559 Hacked Economy
Hacked Economy's picture

And there you have it, folks...enough personal-experience information vomited up for the men in black who troll this site to cross-check employment histories, triangulate his position, and meet him in his driveway when he comes home from work on Monday.  Nice.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:27 | 1077580 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

You haven't been paying attention, brother.

They don't even give a fuck who knows anymore. Their power has been fuly consolidated, and they are basically telling us, right to our faces, to suck their dicks.

It wouldn't surprise to hear those exact words directed toward American taxpayers in the near future.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 02:37 | 1078051 Lord Koos
Lord Koos's picture

I live in WA and grew up about 60 miles from Hanford (not downwind, fortunately). All this stuff is pretty well known around here.  The cancer rate downwind is extremely high among people who were living around that time.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:56 | 1077648 Hacked Economy
Hacked Economy's picture

Wouldn't that be something...

[Real Wives of the OC ends at the top of the hour]
"Stayed tuned for a peek at next week's episode.  But first,"

[Helicopter Ben's face appears, a la the black-and-white Big Brother face in the famous 1984 Apple commercial]
"Attention, comrades.  I break into your normal programming for this official service announcement from the United States Federal Reserve."

[Ben's face leans closer, and he glowers through the screen into your living room/iPad/iPhone/WalMart checkout monitor]
"You now belong to us.  You will be visited shortly by staff members of the Consolidation Corps.  Please do not resist.  They will assist you in conforming to your new debt slave assignments.  Resistance is futile."

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 12:37 | 1078937 Rhodin
Rhodin's picture

George Carlin said it best, long ago:

"You think you have rights, think again, you have no rights, you have owners".

 

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:30 | 1077484 KickIce
KickIce's picture

Re movie, gotta love experiments in densely populated areas.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:22 | 1077572 knukles
knukles's picture

Yeah,

Like the CDC Level 5 labs in Atlanta.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:23 | 1077474 snowball777
snowball777's picture

My family moved to Simi Valley (north of the hills in which RocketDyne was located) in 1985. I always blamed the freaks there on in-breeding in the Mormon settler population; perhaps I should revisit that theory. The accident there was common knowledge around the town when I was in high school in the early 90s.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 10:35 | 1078542 New_Meat
New_Meat's picture

So a rad survey, even today, would be objective evidence, n'est ce pas?

My least hypothesis was: "so that explains LA!"

- Ned

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 02:42 | 1078053 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

Santa Su, is the toxic gift that keeps on giving.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:04 | 1077427 Convolved Man
Convolved Man's picture

We have bitten into the bitter fruit of technology, and have chosen to swallow the morsel instead of spitting it out to search for a more palatable sustenance.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 03:14 | 1078082 Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager's picture

'bitter fruit of technology?'

Tech is like an innocent virgin at a frat paty...she might hook up with an asshole, or a nice guy..but she is basically defenseless.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 11:49 | 1078752 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

"Tech is like an innocent virgin at a frat paty...she might hook up with an asshole, or a nice guy..but she is basically defenseless."

If I constrain my view to your metaphor though, I am forced to conclude that you are wrong about this girl.

She is not an innocent virgin. She is a gold digging bitch who plans to go home with whichever guy has the most money, and she doesn't care whether he's a nice guy or not.

I still love my laptop though. ; )

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 07:49 | 1078227 CPL
CPL's picture

I was about to say.  Blaming the technology instead of the common denominator of lowest bidder and cutting corners.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 10:56 | 1078622 Seer
Seer's picture

Technology is a process, a process whereby TPTB control us.  Technology is the enabler, on steroids, of Jevons Paradox.

I don't know how to take the parabole of The Garden of Eden, but I think that there's a tie-in there somewhere...

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 11:52 | 1078817 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

All knowledge is fraught with peril... wisdom is not the handmaiden of technology...

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:09 | 1077550 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

Well, it was kind of like an olive. Bitter, but in a good way until we cracked our eye teeth on the pit.

Kalamata, ftw.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:56 | 1077403 max2205
max2205's picture

Secret gag orders on the press will be the end of us / US.

sorry if it sounds like a cookie fortune

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:02 | 1077413 Hook Line and S...
Hook Line and Sphincter's picture

hu flung pu says 'you forget human nature'

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:02 | 1077425 Hook Line and S...
Hook Line and Sphincter's picture

no, hook line and sphincter... you forget; citizens of governments that go to bed with itchy butt wake up with nuclear finger

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:55 | 1077401 FeralSerf
FeralSerf's picture

All this pales in comparison to the problems associated with the nuclear weapons programs.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:56 | 1077654 shano
shano's picture

I wonder how many tons of nuclear waste we are dumping on Libya right now.  Depleted Uranium is going to be a gift from America that keeps on giving.  Everywhere we bomb...

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:49 | 1077378 VyseLegendaire
VyseLegendaire's picture

Nuclear power is not a sane source of energy.  Its always been and always will be a government subsidized industry.  Flame on. 

http://i.imgur.com/DKYvh.png

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 02:35 | 1078046 Lord Koos
Lord Koos's picture

As is oil...

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:48 | 1077375 Zer0head
Zer0head's picture

suffice to say Geroge, that since the beginning of time

Governments Have Been Covering Up
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 17:19 | 1092328 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Not me...

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 08:46 | 1078307 Paul E. Math
Paul E. Math's picture

This is the real issue.  It's not that nuclear power is that bad, it's that our government, regulatory agencies, industry organizations and business organizations lie to us as a routine matter.

The other side of that coin, however, is that most people "can't handle the truth".  This latest crisis at Fukushima is an example - people are talking about closing down all nuclear plants and stopping any new projects despite the fact that, when you look at the empirical data, even the ugly data that has been concealed from us for years, nuclear is the safest, cleanest and cheapest form of energy out there.

Yes, our government and the nuclear industry should not lie to us.  But we should also not be flying off the handle, posting sensational and alarmist articles and comments online that foment hysteria among the weak-minded.

Disclosure: long CCJ and DNN

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:48 | 1077374 Mr. Mandelbrot
Mr. Mandelbrot's picture

In the Discovery Network's "The Battle of Chernobyl," Mikhail Gorbechev casually states that the Soviets and Americans have each hidden a number of nuclear accidents from the public . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiCXb1Nhd1o

 

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:10 | 1077438 DeweyLeon
DeweyLeon's picture

I caught that too and thought "what the hell is he referring to."  Love how Gordy expunged of any self recrimination.  Never heard of such a supreme leader so clueless to what was going on around him and so impotent to impose his will.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:47 | 1077497 Mr. Mandelbrot
Mr. Mandelbrot's picture

Other parts I found particularly interesting were the claims the Soviet government raised the safe radiation threshold by 5 times after the public was radiated (1:18:02) as well as the denial by the French that the radiation cloud passed over them (1:20:20), which is why I'm suspicious of Obama's assurances to Americans on the Pacific coast that no "harmful" levels of radiation are expected.  History shows us the American government has two outs here: change the meaning of harmful radiation or manipulate the weather data.  Presto!  Crisis and panic averted . . . 

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:20 | 1077565 knukles
knukles's picture

You want Propaganda?  Here's Propaganda!
Right Front and Center!

Note all of the MSM and governmental discussions suggest that the risk is, as you've noted above, to the residents of North America, more specifically generally shortened ad hominem to California....

Like the radiation is only gonna drift over California and stop at the Nevada border.
Wake up!

So, by inference, the problem is thereby contained to California, and subtly microencapsulated along the Pacific shores. 

Nice, in fact Brilliant Perception Management. 
It's contained!
Nothing to see.
Move along.
Back to Jersey Shore. 

Get your new t-shirt:
"Illuminate America's Youth, Irradiate Snooki" 

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 10:22 | 1078510 dearth vader
dearth vader's picture

It's safe to suppose that what's 'leaked out' about nuclear accidents into the open, is somewhere between the 20-80% rule and the tip of the iceberg, which is 10-90%.

The suppressors of accidents had some great advantages over the population:

- radiation is invisible, you can't smell it, neither feel it

- effects are long term

- political power, interests and infinite mileage of red tape, created on demand

- the 'responsibility' of MSM editors to avoid panics, self-restraint, self-censorship

- sheeple have a tendency to ignore bad news, until there are claims to be filed

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 11:25 | 1078729 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

And don't forget that shit stops at the Nevada border too! Lets get our facts straght. /kidding

; )

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 23:39 | 1077605 Matte_Black
Matte_Black's picture

Yes, well, everyone knows you guys love fags and therefore since god hates fags...lol

Grew up in the bay area by the way. The msm is a brain-sucking reptile. fuck em.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 14:30 | 1079211 srelf
srelf's picture

Ooh. You have a scary avatar.

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:49 | 1077381 George Washington
George Washington's picture

I'd be grateful if you specify the minutes into the vid he says that ... then I'll add it to the main post. Thanks!

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 22:25 | 1077479 Mr. Mandelbrot
Mr. Mandelbrot's picture

17:02

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 00:46 | 1077796 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Thanks!  Added ...

Sat, 03/19/2011 - 21:40 | 1077359 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Lots of people being silenced these days...

Even the Japanese workers risking their lives. This is a sad story, especially now that they have the situation stabilized and all...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8393018/Japan-nucle...

 

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 05:18 | 1078154 bonddude
bonddude's picture

Think this is frightening? Take a geiger counter down the produce aisle at Safeway.

Ignore the noise and keep shopping with a smile.

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 04:29 | 1078128 d_senti
d_senti's picture

I have no doubt that the Japanese have been intentionally lying about the situation on many occasions. Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the "official" readings from the Japanese government on radiation levels and do a brief check for fraud, ala Benford's Law.

With a sample size of 273 readings over 4 days from some 40 sites, my conclusion is that the numbers are genuine based on first-digit distribution. I have the raw data I can show anyone if they'd like to see it.

That's not to say, again, that fraud isn't taking place - there are other methods they could be using, and I'm quite certain they have - but I believe these numbers are not made up at least. From what I can recall about Chernobyl, however, the highly-irradiated areas were splotchy and random, not evenly coated across areas. You can have one spot with nothing, but 500 feet away it's too dangerous to live.

Anyways, thought people might find that interesting.

 

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 07:15 | 1078206 Broomer
Broomer's picture

If you divided the actual number by, say, 20, Benford's law wouldn't be able to detect a fraud.

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