slant
NUCLEAR
WORRIES
CONTINUE
Japan’s tragic earthquake and tsunami
brought damaging high water to the
Oregon Coast last week, but the disaster
continues to hit close to home as
Oregonians wonder if the aftereffects of
the earthquake will also include nuclear
contamination.
There is very little danger of radiation
from the plants in Japan reaching the U.S.
at harmful levels, according a White House
update by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission March 14. But studies have
shown that mercury and other toxic and
particulate emissions from coal-fired
power plants in China ride on winds to
Oregon. So despite reassurances from the
NRC, concerns remain that radiation will
also be carried on winds to the U.S.
Local and national media are reporting
on consumers buying up supplies of
potassium iodide, a common salt that is
believed to prevent thyroid cancer from
radiation poisoning. Potassium iodide
saturates the thyroid gland with non-
radioactive iodine, reducing how much
dangerous radioiodine the gland can
absorb. There have also been increased
sales of Geiger counters and emergency
preparedness kits, according to amazon.
com
Does the Northwest’s nuclear danger
come from Japan or from the Hanford
nuclear site on the Columbia River?
“The Japanese reactor crisis has
important implications for the Northwest,”
according to Gerry Pollet of Heart of
American Northwest, a citizen’s advocacy
group working on issues related to
Hanford.
Fukushima nuclear plant’s reactor 3,
one of the reactors that exploded, used
controversial MOX, or mixed oxide fuel,
usually made of uranium and plutonium
reprocessed from spent uranium. That
spent uranium is sometimes a result of the
disposal of weapons-grade plutonium, and
the rods are hotter, more volatile and more
toxic than other nuclear fuels.
Pollet says documents recent unveiled
by Freedom of Information Act requests
have shown Energy Northwest has been
“formally evaluating the potential use of
MOX fuel” in the company’s single nuclear
reactor at Hanford, the Columbia
Generating Station, (aka the WPPSS 2
reactor, pronounced “whoops 2”). Heart of
America Northwest says, “Trucking
weapons grade plutonium to Hanford …
has very high security and accident risks.”
For those worried about contamination
from Japan, Eugeneans with Geiger
counters can post radiation updates to EW's
Facebook page and Twitter. Detailed maps
of surface and upper air current levels from
Japan to the U.S. are available at http://
wkly.ws/11m
For more information on Hanford, go to
www.hoanw.org and for daily updates on
the nuclear situation in Japan, go to www.
iaea.org — Camilla Mortensen
• Kudos to the Eugene City Council and Mayor Kitty Piercy for voting to
proceed with the west Eugene EmX. But this vote for public transportation
shouldn’t have been so close. We expected conservatives on the council to vote
against the EmX, but we were surprised to see continued opposition to greener,
cheaper and more equitable transportation from two councilors on the left. Their
arguments make no sense. Lots of bus drivers with little buses stuck in traffic
everywhere will cost much more than EmX, and EmX will do far more to help
businesses by reducing traffic snarl than it will do to hurt them. Perhaps these
south Eugene councilors will redeem themselves and support the future of mass
transit in the next EmX vote.
IS OSU’S
REACTOR
VULNERABLE?
• The Japanese nuclear meltdowns should put an abrupt halt to calls for
more nuke plants in the U.S., but it won’t. Like peace advocates, those with
nuclear concerns in this country have no political party. Both Obama and the
Republican right wing are gung ho for war and nukes. Scores of billions of dollars
in subsidies for a nuclear industry that makes no economic sense are Obama’s
and the Republicans’ primary response to global warming. There’s hardly any
talk of conservation anymore. Germany uses about half the electricity per
person as the U.S. and has an efficient economy that’s roaring through the
recession.
Coincidentally, the UO just hosted a panel discussion on the dangers and high
costs of our aging U.S. nuclear power infrastructure at the recent Public Interest
Environmental Law Conference (see News Briefs). Adding to the coincidence was
the “Nuke Info Night” event March 7 at Harris Hall calling for a transition from
nuclear to solar and other safe energy sources.
But our immediate focus should be on helping the people of Japan recover
from this catastrophe. To contribute to relief efforts in Japan, contact Save the
Children at http://wkly.ws/11j or the International Medical Corp at http://wkly.
ws/11k or text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross from your
cell phone bill account. We also see at KMTR.com that UO students associated
with the Japanese Student Organization have put up a website
SendaiEarthquakeRelief.org to coordinate information sharing, education and
fundraising efforts locally. Regionally, the Portland Japanese Garden now has a
memorial and information center set up on its grounds.
With nuclear reactors in Japan exploding
and melting down after a massive
earthquake and tsunami, could a similar
nuclear disaster happen here?
The closest nuclear reactor to Eugene is
OSU’s very small research reactor in
Corvallis. OSU officials claim the facility is
totally safe. But nuclear officials in Japan
said the same thing about their facilities
before men in moon-suits began wanding
Japanese toddlers with Geiger counters.
Judging by a Safety Analysis Report
OSU filed with the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in 2004 (with large sections
blacked out), the chance of a nuclear
emergency in Corvallis does appear to be
extremely low, but not impossible.
“Failure of the reactor tank and loss of
the coolant in the event of a very large
earthquake have been considered ... and the
consequences found acceptable from the
standpoint of public safety,” the OSU report
states.
The report examined what it considered
a worst case scenario: “In this scenario, the
entire north wall of the reactor room
instantly vanishes. No credible cause for
this occurrence can be imagined.”
The OSU report calculated the maximum
radiation exposure inside or nearby the
campus building of such a scenario as about
500 mrem. The report said that’s below
federal safety limits.
But such limits may not represent an
acceptable risk from the general public’s
perspective — 500 mrem is equivalent to
about 50 chest X-rays in a few minutes.
Fear of cancer from such a release could
cause widespread panic or evacuations and
render billions of dollars of property at
OSU and in Corvallis functionally unusable.
The OSU report appears to make no effort
to balance such public risk, however
remote, against the likely public benefit of a
research reactor located in a populated area.
The OSU report also appears to only
consider smaller earthquakes than other
disaster preparedness reports consider
possible for the area. The report cites
magnitude 6 earthquakes in the past 150
years in Oregon and cites data indicating a
maximum earthquake acceleration of the
Corvallis area of .38g.
By comparison, the Haiti earthquake
that killed about 100,000 was a magnitude
7 quake with a .5g acceleration.
A Benton County Multi-Hazard
Mitigation plan from 2006 found
“earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction
Zone may have magnitudes of 8 or greater,
with probable recurrence intervals of 500 to
800 years.”
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• Worried about radiation drifting to Oregon from Japan? You don’t need a
weatherman to know which way the wind blows, but you might need a surfer.
Check out the surfers’ wind pattern website at http://wkly.ws/11l Meanwhile,
Oregon radiation levels are being monitored carefully by our scientific community,
including people here at UO. Right now we have more to worry about from all the
toxic crap that unregulated Chinese industries have been pumping into our
atmosphere for years. We’re downwind.
• One of our local so-called neo-Nazis, Jimmy Marr, and his friends are
getting attention on the Portland Independent Media Center website. Marr,
known for his bizarre behavior at Pacifica Forum events last year, has reportedly
been hanging out around the Whitaker neighborhood, raising Nazi salutes in his
Scottish kilt as he did at Pacifica Forum, giving the old tartan a bad name.
It’s irritating to see Eugene once again branded as a vortex that sucks in
crackpots and extremists, but perhaps we need regular reminders that destructive
ideologies are lurking all around us, looking for fertile ground in which to grow.
Whether you are an offended Scot or not, you can join the lively discussion at
http://wkly.ws/11i and the site lists an email contact for the Eugene chapter of the
Anti-Racist Network: emeraldcityara@gmail.com Comments can also be posted
on our Facebook page.
• Death isn’t cheap. The state of Oregon will spend millions and millions of
dollars prosecuting and defending and judging Angela McAnulty to death. It’s
tempting to say McAnulty deserves the costly ultimate penalty for the heinous
torture and murder of her daughter. An execution gives the public the satisfaction
of revenge, ambitious prosecutors a boost of publicity and tabloid media bleeding
headlines. But beyond that, a better memorial for the slain child would be to let
McAnulty rot in jail for life and spend the millions on preventing child abuse. With
funding for such programs now threatened, choosing to spend heavily on death
for the guilty rather than saving the lives of the innocent is criminal.
• Need a little fun in the midst of all this gloomy news? Check out Molly
Templeton’s reports from the South By Southwest music convention on our blog
this week at http://blogs.eugeneweekly.com Our intrepid longtime film critic and
former music editor is now living in New York City, but she continues to write for
us every week. She’s been in Austin for SXSW for several days now and writes,
“It’s debauchery and inspiration in nearly equal parts, with a side order of
aggravation. And I love it.”
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good
rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
lighten up
If the thrice-married Newt Gingrich becomes president will his current wife be
called the Third Lady?
— Rafael Aldave, Eugene
EUGENE WEEKLY
MARCH 17, 2011 7