Analyzing Impact Of Heat From Western Wildfires On Air Pollution In The Eastern US
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/analyzing-impact-heat-from-western-wildfires-air-us-eisenstadt-fzk1e/ <-- shared LinkedIn technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads1957 <-- shared paper
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https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aea7430 <-- shared technical article / perspective
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https://scitechdaily.com/see-how-californias-intense-wildfires-are-making-their-own-weather/ <-- shared technical article
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#fire #wildfire #climatemodels #heat #fireheat #release #atmosphere #convection #weather #weatherpatterns #airquality #publicsafety #risk #hazard #publichealth #USA #USWest #spatialanalysis #smoke #model #modeling #factors #pollution #emissions #updraught #particulates #downwind #regional #firemanagement #mitigation #extremeweather #cost #economics #damage #planning #policy #rainfall #pluvial
#downwind
#RadioactiveWaste leakage would be threat to area: critic
By Doug Diaczuk The Chronicle-Journal Apr 22, 2025
"A radioactive waste specialist from the United States says #NuclearWaste disposal sites place a giant bullseye on an area, as well as all communities along the transportation route, and residents of Northern #Ontario should take notice.
"#KevinKamps, a radioactive waste specialist with #BeyondNuclear, a non-profit advocacy group in the United States, will be speaking in Thunder Bay at Environment North's annual meeting on Wednesday [April 23].
"Kamps has opposed several nuclear waste sites across North America, including a site in the #YuccaMountains in #Nevada and a site at #Kincardine in #Ontario at the #BruceNuclear Generating Station.
" 'That was a 20-year campaign all told, but we prevailed in the end,' Kamps said of the Kincardine site in an interview with The Chronicle-Journal.
"The Nuclear Waste Management Organization [#NWM] identified a site between #Ignace and #Wabigoon Lake as the location for a proposed deep geological repository [#DGR] for #SpentFuel from #Canadian #NuclearPower plants.
"Last summer, the #TownshipOfIgnace expressed a willingness to be the host community for the repository following a survey showing the majority of residents supported the site.
"But several #FirstNation communities have spoken out in opposition to the site, citing #environmental concerns and the safety of transporting spent fuel through the region.
"Kamps said if anything was to go wrong at the deep geological repository site it would be catastrophic: 'for all points #downstream, #downwind, up the #FoodChain, down the generations.'
" 'In your neck of the woods, what I find ironic is the current target in your area is just outside of the #GreatLakes basin and I think it is a raw political calculation to try to silence what has been more than a decade of U.S. congressional opposition to the #LakeHuronDump,' he said.
" 'Now magically a site has been chosen outside of the Great Lakes basin.'
"There are many safety concerns to take into consideration when it comes to nuclear waste, Kamps said, beginning with the transportation of nuclear material to the site itself.
" 'One of the most controversial aspects is the transportation component, because it makes it everyone's problem along those routes,' he said. 'So that is another part of our challenge, to educate communities that would be along the most likely transportation route, be it road, rail, or waterway.'
"Then there is the site itself, which Kamps said could be vulnerable to #ExtremeWeather, #NaturalDisasters, or even potential attacks.
" 'You had better know your geology really well because if and when this starts leaking from its containers into the geology, then it's a question of how long will it take to mix with underground waterflows and perhaps even surface waterflows,' he said. 'And then the risk flows with the water, and with the air.'
"For those opposed to such sites, Kamps said the best way to fight back is through the democratic process and engaging with government representatives at all levels.
"He cited the opposition to the #Kincardine site that was a 20-year fight and the role First Nations communities played.
" 'An important part of that was the #SaugeenOjibwayNation who asked good questions and in the end voted 86 per cent no to that dump coming into their community,' he said.
"In terms of what to do with nuclear waste from generating stations, Kamps said it should stay at the site of origin."
#EnvironmentalRacism #GreatLakesBasin #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #NuclearDumping #ClimateChange #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukesForAI #NoDumpingWithoutConsent
At the finish of today's surfski race.
#Wildfire risks high at #US #NuclearPlants
Posted on January 19, 2025 by beyondnuclearinternational
The GAO identifies a number of US nuclear power plant sites that are vulnerable to the possible outbreak of #wildfires where they are located.
"'According to our analysis of U.S. Forest Service and NRC data, about 20 percent of nuclear power plants (16 of 75) are located in areas with a high or very high potential for wildfire,' the GAO report states. 'More specifically, more than one-third of nuclear power plants in the South (nine of 25) and West (three of eight) are located in areas with a high or very high potential for wildfire.' The GAO goes on to identify 'Of the 16 plants with high or very high potential for wildfire, 12 are operating and four are shut down.'
"To analyze exposure to the wildfire hazard potential, the GAO used 2023 data from the U.S. Forest Service’s Wildfire Hazard Potential Map. 'High / very high refers to plants in areas with high or very high wildfire hazard potential. Those nuclear power stations described by GAO as 'high / very high' exposure to wildfires and their locations are excerpted from GAO Appendix III: Nuclear Power Plant Exposure to Selected Natural Hazards.
Table 1: Potential High Exposure to 'Wildfires' at Operating Nuclear Power Plants
–AZ / #SAFER, one of two mobile nuclear emergency equipment supply units in the nation, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–CA / #DiabloCanyon Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–FL / #TurkeyPoint Units 3 & 4 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–GA / #EdwinIHatch Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–GA / #Vogtle Units Units 1, 2, 3 & 4, nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–NC / #BrunswickNC Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–NC / #McGuireNC Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–NC / #ShearonHarris Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH /VERY HIGH”
–NB / #CooperNuclearPowerStation, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–SC / #Catawba Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–SC / #HBRobinson Units 1 & 2 nuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–WA / #ColumbiaNuclear power station, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
Table 2: Potential High Exposure to “Wildfires” at Shutdown Nuclear Power Plants
–CA / #SanOnofre Units 1 & 2, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–FL / #CrystalRiver, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–NJ / #OysterCreek, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
–NY / #IndianPoint Units 1, 2 & 3, “HIGH / VERY HIGH”
"Wildfires can transport #radioactive contamination from nuclear facilities
"A historical review of wildfires that occur around nuclear facilities (research, military and commercial power) identifies that these events are also a very effective transport mechanism of radioactivity previously generated at these sites and subsequently released into the environment by accident, spills and leaks, and careless dumping. The radioactivity is #resuspended by wildfires that occur years, even decades later.
"The fires carry the radioactivity on smoke particles #downwind, thus expanding the zone of #contamination further and further with each succeeding fire. The dispersed #radionuclides can have very long half-lives meaning they remain biologically hazardous in the environment for decades, centuries and longer."
Read more:
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/01/19/wildfire-risks-high-at-nuclear-plants/
#Downwinders #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukesForAI #NuclearSafety #ClimateCrisis
The Silent Killers in #IndianCountry: #Copper, #Lithium, #Uranium and #Plutonium
Judge finds plutonium plants in #NewMexico and #SouthCarolina violated environmental laws
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Oct. 10, 2024
"The U.S. government's plan for increased plutonium production at #LosAlamos National Laboratory, in the heart of Pueblo lands in northern New Mexico, has been delayed by a federal judge.
"Continuing the U.S. legacy of poisoning Indian country with #radiation, this comes as the U.S. government is granting leases to foreign #mining companies targeting Native #sacred lands and communities.
"#CopperMining is targeting San CarlosApache's sacred #OakFlat; #Hualapai are suing the US Department of Interior to halt lithium mining at their sacred spring Ha'Kamwe'; and the U.S. government is promoting the ongoing digging into the #Paiute Massacre Site in northern Nevada for #lithium, in violation of all federal laws that protect Native religious and historic sites, the environment and endangered species.
"Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens #Havasupai's aquifer, the haul route endangers everyone in the Four Corners region, and the uranium mill at White Mesa Ute in #Utah is poisoning #Utes.
"Interior Sec. #DebHaaland said in Farmington, N.M., that Los Alamos Labs would be the leader in the so-called '#GreenEnergy transition' in the #FourCorners region.
"More than 500 radioactive #UraniumMill sites remain on the #NavajoNation that have not been cleaned up by the U.S. #EPA, which deceives the public by announcing plans and promises to clean up the #ColdWar sites.
"In the current federal lawsuit, a federal judge in South Carolina ruled that U.S. energy officials illegally neglected to study impacts to the #environment in efforts to increase plutonium production for nuclear weapons in New Mexico and South Carolina.
"'South Carolina District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sided with environmental, #AntiNuclear proliferation and community groups last week who sued the National Nuclear Security Administration (#NNSA), which oversees the nuclear weapons stockpile as part of the U.S. Department of Energy [#DOE],' reports Source New Mexico.
"The U.S. is investing billions into restarting the manufacture of #PlutoniumPits, the grapefruit-sized spheres developed for #nuclear weapons. The plutonium is produced from uranium.
"'The federal government halted its manufacturing program at the #RockyFlatsPlant in #Colorado in 1989 after an FBI raid due to safety concerns and #EnvironmentalCrimes,' Source New Mexico reports.
"The U.S. government's #AtomicBombTesting in #Nevada left a trail of cancer and death for #WesternShoshone. The documentary 'Downwind' reveals the truth.
"'This is a very serious issue and that's why I can't let it go. I can't move on. People say, 'oh, why don't you just let it go?' Because it's killing my family. It's killing my land. It's killing my people. And that will not stand. It's being done in secret. And killing Indians in secret will not stand,' said Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the #ShoshoneNation of Indians. Zabarte is featured in '#Downwind' about radiation poisoning from U.S. #NuclearTests.
"Currently, foreign companies -- which receive the profits and find it easy to avoid clean up and responsibility for #environmental crimes and deaths from #cancer -- are receiving the mining leases from the U.S. government. The leases are granted by the U.S. Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and in the case of #UraniumMining in the #GrandCanyon, it is the USDA's Forestry Service. #Biden's attorneys have joined the lawsuit with #RioTinto to devastate #OakFlat.
"Australian and Canadian mining corporations are devastating Native lands and communities, poisoning the water and causing widespread cancer.
Rio Tinto, targeting Apaches #OakFlat, is an Australian company which destroyed 46,000 years of #Aboriginal sacred history in caves in #Australia.
"Another Australian mining company is targeting #Hualapai's sacred site. It is #Hawstone / #ArizonaLithium, in Perth, Australia.
"#EnergyFuels, now uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and operating the uranium mill at #WhiteMesaUte, is a Canadian company. Another Canadian company is digging into the #Paiute Massacre Site. It is #LithiumAmericas.
#Hopi judge #DianeHumetewa granted a temporary restraining order to halt the lithium mining at #Hualapai's sacred spring."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-silent-killers-in-indian-country.html
#NoUraniumMining #CopperMining #LithiumMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #EnvironmentalRacism #NoWar #NoNukes #NuclearWeapons #RecycleCopper #RecycleLithium #WaterIsLife #NuclearWaste #DefendTheSacred #WhiteMesaMill #Ute #AtomicBomb #CulturalGenocide #Genocide #FirstNations #NativeAmericanNews #SuperfundSites #ToxicWaste #SaveOakFlat #OpenPitMining #Pollution #ReaderSupportedNews
So, apparently, aging #NuclearPowerPlants and #NuclearWeapons programs get TONS of cash, while people who lived #Downwind of #NuclearWeaponsTests and #UraniumMines (and #UraniumMills) get NOTHING?!! Wow...!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/world/europe/reca-nuclear-radiation-congress.html
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/26/the-advance-act-a-bipartisan-surrender-to-the-nuclear-lobby/
#Downwinders #NoNukes
#NoWar #BanTheBomb
#NoUraniumMining #RECA #NuclearWar #AdvanceAct #NuclearWeapons
#ICANN #Oppenheimer
#HaulNo #InformedConsent
#EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife
#Navajo #uranium miners, people #downwind of atom bomb tests demand justice as Congress lets aid program lapse
by Keetra Bippus / Cronkite News
July 5, 2024
WASHINGTON – "A federal program to compensate people exposed to fallout from U.S. nuclear testing expired June 10.
"The #Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has paid out $2.6 billion to over 41,000 people since 1992. In March, the U.S. Justice Department projected that another 1,070 claims would be approved by the end of September.
“'Why do we have to beg to pass #RECA?' said #MaggieBilliman, whose father, a #NavajoCodeTalker during World War II, died of stomach cancer she attributes to exposure to #fallout that affected their hometown in #Arizona. 'You don’t put a price tag on human life.'
"Starting with the #ManhattanProject’s Trinity test on July 16, 1945, weeks before bombs destroyed #Hiroshima and #Nagasaki, the U.S. government conducted 94 tests that produced radioactive mushroom clouds in remote areas of the West. Most were over #Nevada. One was over #NewMexico.
"People #downwind – including many in #Arizona – were exposed to dangerous #fallout, typically without warning.
"The Billimans’ hometown, #SawmillArizona, on #NavajoLand, is part of the large affected area where Congress made residents eligible for compensation.
"#Radioactive particles fell throughout Arizona, according to research from Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. The state’s population grew from about half a million just before World War II to over 1.3 million in the early 1960s.
"Congress adopted RECA in 1992 to address claims from downwinders and uranium miners.
"The program offers an apology, and lump sum compensation ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 to those who developed certain illnesses linked with radiation exposure, and who either lived in the #FalloutZones or worked at #UraniumMines and #UraniumMills.
"The law came in response to lawsuits from uranium workers who accused the government of failing to warn them about radiation hazards.
From 1944 to 1986, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore was extracted from Navajo lands. The Manhattan Project itself, led by physicist #RobertOppenheimer, was disbanded in 1947, two years after Japan surrendered to end World War II.
"An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Navajo people worked in the mines. They and their families lived nearby.
“'The closer you live to mine waste, the higher your risk of chronic #metabolic disease,' said Chris Shuey, director of the Uranium Impact Assessment Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. 'People who live in these communities next to these wastes, they’re exposed through all of the pathways: air, water, land.'
"Claims from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and #Colorado account for $1.8 billion of the payouts under RECA.
"Most of the #NavajoNation was covered due to potential fallout. About one in seven approved claims – 5,480 through the end of 2023 – have come from #NativeAmericans, 86% of them Navajo, totalling $372.6 million.
"The Environmental Protection Agency counts 523 abandoned uranium mines on or near the Navajo reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, an area bigger than Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
"The Senate voted 69-31 in March to extend the RECA filing period for five more years, with 46 Democrats and 20 Republicans in favor, along with Sen. #KrystenSinema of Arizona and two other independents. Sen. #MarkKelly, D-Ariz., also supported the bill.
The bill has stalled in the House, with no explanation from Speaker Mike Johnson or Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Republicans from Louisiana.
"Their aides did not respond to multiple requests for comment."
#Downwinders #NoNukes #NoWar #BanTheBomb #NoUraniumMining #NuclearWar #NuclearWeapons #ICANN #Oppenheimer #HaulNo #InformedConsent #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife
Supreme court issues three major decisions surrounding Purdue Pharma, the EPA and abortion
-- but I'd quiet on Trump immunity hours before debate
The supreme court on Thursday issued three major decisions on cases involving OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, an air pollution rule by the Environmental Protection Agency and abortion access in Idaho.
⭐️In a 5-4 decision, the conservative-majority court rejected #Purdue Pharma’s multi-billion dollar settlement that would have shielded the wealthy #Sackler family from future lawsuits over the country’s deadly #opioid epidemic, but would have also provided compensation and rehabilitation funds to victims.
In his opinion, conservative justice Neil Gorsuch wrote:
“The Sacklers seek greater relief than a bankruptcy discharge normally affords, for they hope to extinguish even claims for wrongful death and fraud, and they seek to do so without putting anything close to all their assets on the table.”
⭐️In a separate 5-4 decision, the court put on hold an attempt by the #EPA to reduce air pollution from power plants in “upwind” states that would affect air quality in “#downwind” states. Along with industry allies, Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana have been challenging the EPA’s rule.
Conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court’s three liberal justices, in dissent, wrote that the court “justifies this decision based on an alleged procedural error that likely had no impact on the plan.”
⭐️Meanwhile, in a victory for reproductive rights activists, the court dismissed a case over whether #emergency room doctors can perform #abortions to so save a pregnant woman’s life.
The court’s 6-3 decision marks a win for the Joe Bidenadministration, for now, as the case is returned to a lower court and potentially delays a final decision until after the election. Idaho had tried to have the procedure exempted from the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
Really excited to make it to the finish line of my first race with some actual sea chop. Had to remount twice, finished dead last, but learned a lot and had a great time. More images may follow later.
The toxic consequences following 928 #nuclear detonations on American soil
New film ‘#Downwind’ explores the long shadow of #NuclearFallout in #Utah and beyond
Criticizes #USGovernment’s neglect of people suffering from #radiation
Review:
https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2023/01/19/new-film-downwind-explores-long/
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkoVPZnLlUY
#Downwinders #UraniumFilmFestival #InternationalUraniumFilmFestival #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #NoWar
Sitting in the #garden after work this evening and there are several #birds around, including #sparrows and #pigeons. I even spotted a #EuropeanGoldfinch once I heard its distinctive tweeting and observed it with my binoculars.
Mind you the peace was punctuated as a military transport #aeroplane performed three #circuits and my house is on the turn between the #downwind and #baseleg of the #runway. Quite impressive nevertheless.