President Obama comes from the most nuclear state in the US, Illinois…
The World’s first nuclear reactor was assembled under a football stadium in Chicago at Stagg Field, the contaminated materials were buried at a Chicago suburban site, now a forest preserve.
— Albert Einstein
Plans for new nuclear power plants are opening an old Pandora’s Box.Those that advocate nuclear power as a means of mitigating global warming are ignoring its terrible consequences. Nuclear power is not green. Power plant releases also disturb the ozone layer and have many other odious effects.
Strontium 90, iodine 131, and tritium are all contaminants and toxins released by Nuclear Power plants.
The Oyster Point nuclear reactor released more radiation than the Three Mile Island (TMI) incident and yet is seldom mentioned. Excess cancer deaths, leukemia, low infant birth rates. Infant mortality, genetic defects such as trisomy (a condition in which an extra copy of a chromosome is present in the cell nuclei, causing developmental abnormality), and immune deficiency are all associated with low levels of radiation exposure.
Radioactive isotopes are spread through out the food chain and spread across the entire earth. When atmospheric testing was done by France and China, it was common for cows milk to be rejected in Pennsylvania. That is because the fallout would concentrate according to weather patterns. There are maps of radioactive fallout due to the thousands of atmospheric tests done in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Chernobyl and TMI released huge amounts of radiation.
When radioactive isotopes are released, they are concentrated by the food chain. Algae, krill, plankton, and grass are lowest levels. Then fish concentrate the levels. Birds and cows eat grass, fish, and insects. Cows milk is ingested by humans. Worst of all, mothers drink the concentrated cows milk and then nurse babies. This food chain concentration was noted by Rachel Carson when she observed that eagle’s eggs had concentrated levels of DDT much higher than background levels.
Worse still, the strontium 90 accumulates in the most vulnerable areas of the body, in the marrow, because the body concentrates it the way it does calcium. Thus the ionizing radiation is directly situated next to the cells creating white and red blood cells and where DNA is being used to create new cells and is in its most vulnerable state. DNA damage results in cancer, immune deficiencies, and many other disorders. However, the damage is not limited only to DNA and bone marrow. Other organs of the body concentrate toxin levels because they are used to eliminate toxins. Cell membranes have been shown to be susceptible to damage due to free radicals formed by radioactive decay within the body.
Toxic releases from nuclear power plants create damaging results despite naive claims to the contrary.NOTE: See following link for a discussion of nuclear power and its pitfalls by Ernest Sternglass: http://www.ratical.com/radiation/inetSeries/ejs1192.html For this story and others go to Chris Arcus’ site at: http://web.me.com/aborigon/Site/Nuclear_Nightmare.html
Categories: social and political commentry by Chris Arcus