Earthbytes

PLoS ONE: Elevated Mortality among Birds in Chernobyl as Judged from Skewed Age and Sex Ratios

ABSTRACT

Background

Radiation has negative effects on survival of animals including humans, although the generality of this claim is poorly documented under low-dose field conditions. Because females may suffer disproportionately from the effects of radiation on survival due to differences in sex roles during reproduction, radiation-induced mortality may result in male-skewed adult sex ratios.

Methodology/Principal Finding

We estimated the effects of low-dose radiation on adult survival rates in birds by determining age ratios of adults captured in mist nets during the breeding season in relation to background radiation levels around Chernobyl and in nearby uncontaminated control areas. Age ratios were skewed towards yearlings, especially in the most contaminated areas, implying that adult survival rates were reduced in contaminated areas, and that populations in such areas could only be maintained through immigration from nearby uncontaminated areas. Differential mortality in females resulted in a strongly male-skewed sex ratio in the most contaminated areas. In addition, males sang disproportionately commonly in the most contaminated areas where the sex ratio was male skewed presumably because males had difficulty finding and acquiring mates when females were rare. The results were not caused by permanent emigration by females from the most contaminated areas because none of the recaptured birds had changed breeding site, and the proportion of individuals with morphological abnormalities did not differ significantly between the sexes for areas with normal and higher levels of contamination.

Conclusions/Significance

These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the adult survival rate of female birds is particularly susceptible to the effects of low-dose radiation, resulting in male skewed sex ratios at high levels of radiation. Such skewed age ratios towards yearlings in contaminated areas are consistent with the hypothesis that an area exceeding 30,000 km² in Chernobyl’s surroundings constitutes an ecological trap that causes dramatic excess mortality.

via www.plosone.org

Visualizing The U.S. Electric Grid : NPR

Cool tool from NPR:

The U.S. electric grid is a complex network of independently owned and operated power plants and transmission lines. Aging infrastructure, combined with a rise in domestic electricity consumption, has forced experts to critically examine the status and health of the nation's electrical systems.

via www.npr.org

Is Blinky a Nuke Mutant?

See the story with this photo at gizmodo.com

One of the articles making rounds in the No Nukes community today is this story about a wolf fish with three eyes caught near a nuclear power plant in the Cordoba province of Argentina.

The nuclear power station (Central Nuclear Embalse) on the southern shore of Embalse Rio Tercero near Embalse, Cordoba, Argentina [Source: Google Earth, image date 3/13/11, eye altitude 9,461 feet]

Central Nuclear Embalse is one of two nuclear power stations in operation in Argentina. Embalse is a Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor fueled by natural uranium and using heavy water for cooling. Embalse also produces cobalt-60, a radioisotope used in medicine and industry.

Embalse made news in August of 2011 when contracts were signed between the Argentine government, state-run utility Nucleoelectrica Argentina and Candu Energy to overhaul and expand the plant.

And the fish? Hoplias marabaricus -- the wolf fish -- ranges from Central America down through Argentina and usually lives near the edges of black and white water streams or pools, or on flooded forest floors. Young wolf fish sometimes become stranded in these flood pools and have to wait for the next floods to move back into stream channels.

In Brazil, researchers have studied this species as a potential stock fish for artisanal fishermen who have been dislocated from traditional river fishing areas by construction of dams for hydroelectric power generation. The wolf fish is also a species known to aquarists and sport fishermen.

Wolf Fish (Hoplias malabaricus) [Photo credit: Cláudio D. Timm]

Impacts to fish and wildlife living near nuclear plants or exposed to radionuclides is not a new area of concern. The Fukushima disaster last spring inspired a new round of articles on exposure of marine life, and consequences of  legacy nuclear waste disposal on salmon near the Hanford facility in Washington have been studied. The damage to wildlife from water intake systems at nuclear plants led the Environmental Protection Agency to propose new rules this year to reduce the number of fish killed by these cooling systems.

Finding scientific information on "fish mutations near nuclear plants" was a bad search parameter on Google today, unless you wanted to read more about Blinky and the 3-eyed fish of of Embalse.

I found the original article about this catch to be interesting, in case you want to read about it in Spanish: El pez de tres ojos de los Simpson era argentino.

EcoWatch launches nationwide news service website today

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Joins EcoWatch to Announce Launch of Nationwide News Service Website

Live Webcast at www.ecowatch.org begins at 3 p.m. EST

WHAT: Launch of Nationwide News Service Website with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Keynote

WHY: Celebrate EcoWatch and Waterkeeper Alliance’s Nationwide News Service

WHEN:   Thursday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m. EST

WHERE: Rivergate Park, 1785 Merwin Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44113

Cleveland, OH—EcoWatch, in partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance, is hosting a public event today along the Cuyahoga River to celebrate the launch of their nationwide news service website with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., founder and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, as keynote speaker.  The website—www.ecowatch.org—went live this morning and will work to unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilize millions of Americans to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment.  

The website expands EcoWatch’s coverage nationwide and becomes the first media source to focus exclusively on environmental news culled from more than 700 environmental organizations across the country.  The site showcases original content in its Insights column from leading national voices in the environmental movement, including EcoWatch’s advisory board members. 

The news service provides timely access to relevant information that seeks to motivate individuals to become engaged in their community, adopt sustainable practices and support strong environmental policy.  The site focuses on five critical issue areas—water, air, food, energy and biodiversity—and covers topics including, renewable energy, water and air quality, sustainable agriculture, fossil fuel depletion, solution-based sustainability projects, species protection, global warming, climate change and pending legislation.

“The current assault on America’s environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act, creates a pressing need to educate and engage people to protect our infrastructure, the air we breathe, the water we drink, to provide our children with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment as our parents gave us,” said Kennedy. “This website encourages people to be part of the solution and engage in democracy.”

EcoWatch, publisher of EcoWatch Journal with a distribution of more than 80,000 copies across Ohio, will launch the nationwide news service out of Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood and become part of the growing online news media market.

“Northeast Ohio is a national leader in sustainability and EcoWatch is proud to call Cleveland its home,” said Stefanie Penn Spear, founder and executive director of EcoWatch. “This news service website follows the model we developed in Ohio over the last five years and expands on my more than 20 years of publishing environmental news.”

The public event will feature brief remarks from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman; the George Gund Foundation’s Senior Program Officer for the Environment, John Mitterholzer; the Cleveland Foundation’s Program Officer, Nelson Beckford; and Kennedy, a member of EcoWatch’s advisory board, who will serve as keynote speaker. 

Other advisory board members are Wendy Abrams, an eco-advocate and philanthropist; Ed Begley, Jr., an actor and environmentalist; Lester Brown, a  prize-winning author and critical thinker; Laurie David, a bestselling author and activist; Paul Hawken, an environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; Randy Hayes, founder of Rainforest Action Network; Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace, and Harvey Wasserman, an anti-nuclear activist.

In addition to commemorating the launch of the national website, EcoWatch and Waterkeeper Alliance will acknowledge the significance of the celebration’s location, near the historic site where the then oily Cuyahoga River caught on fire in June 1969.  This event played a major role in the growth of the modern-day environmental movement and passage of the Clean Water Act. The event will also highlight the need for water advocacy and stewardship, public access to our waterways, human-powered recreation on the water and collaboration on solution-based projects like Rivergate Park. Immediately following the event, participants are encouraged to enjoy Rivergate Park, home to the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, by touring the grounds and watching rowing, kayaking and paddleboarding on the river.

Kennedy will also keynote a fundraising event at Windows on the River at 2000 Sycamore St. at 6 p.m. that evening. The event includes a VIP reception, dinner and keynote speech.  Tickets can be purchased at www.ecowatchohio.org.

To view the website, visit http://www.ecowatch.org/.

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EcoWatch is a Cleveland-based nonprofit dedicated to uniting the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilizing millions of Americans to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment. EcoWatch, founded in 2006, publishes the bimonthly newspaper EcoWatch Journal, distributed for free throughout Ohio printing 80,000 copies per issue. For more information, visit www.ecowatchohio.org

Waterkeeper Alliance is a global environmental organization uniting more than 190 Waterkeeper organizations around

the world and focusing citizen advocacy on the issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change.

Waterkeepers patrol more than 1.5 million square miles of rivers, streams and coastlines in the Americas, Europe,

Australia, Asia and Africa.  For more information, visit www.waterkeeper.org.

TVA Board: No to Zombies, Yes to Bellefonte

Very interesting experience at the TVA Board meeting yesterday... I'm working on a longer post about their decision to say yes to Bellefonte, but wanted to post this nice footage from the Knoxville News-Sentinel's YouTube channel. While people spoke out against Bellefonte inside TVA's tower, some awesome folks (denied admittance to the meeting) reached out to folks on the Market Square side of the block to talk about why Bellefonte's revival is a bad idea:

 

Yesterday, a story from WBIR documented the testimony of a half-zombie who got into one of the Two Towers:

A partial zombie, of sorts, managed to make it pass security during the Tennessee Valley Authority listening session Thursday morning.

Matt Landon, a member of United Mountain Defense, an association to which many of the protestors have claimed membership, dressed in a suit and tie to speak to the board.

He talked about his opposition to nuclear power for several reasons, including safety. At the conclusion of his comments, however, Landon said he had been bitten by one of the zombies outside, then ran his fingers through his hair to mess it up, and, in a low monotone voice, began mumbling as he was led from the room as both the crowd and some members of the board chuckled.

It was a sweet moment in a zombie kind of way. Matt had some serious comments to present to the Board, and then let the zombie in him out in a way that made a point but was not (in my opinion) disruptive. It was a good demo of a citizen exercising free and creative speech on a critical issue. Well done, Matt!

Sue Sturgis: Concerns Grow Over Risk of U.S. Nuclear Projects Post-Fukushima

Excellent article by Sue Sturgis (Facing South) published on Truthout yesterday. She has many links to supporting material in the post. The full article is well worth reading...here's an excerpt:

Today, environmental and public-interest advocacy groups filed 19 legal challenges that ask the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to put the brakes on reactor licensing until it fully incorporates into its regulatory process the lessons learned from Fukushima.

...

The contentions filed with the NRC address reactors at nuclear facilities nationwide, including 11 plants in the South: the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar plant in Rhea County, Tenn. and its Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala.; SCE&G's Summer plant near Jenkinsville, S.C.; NRG's South Texas plant near Bay City; Luminant's Comanche Peak plant southwest of Dallas; Southern Co./Georgia Power's Vogtle plant in Burke County, Ga.; FP&L's Turkey Point plant south of Miami; Progress Energy's Levy County plant in Florida and its Shearon Harris plant in Wake County, N.C.; Dominion's North Anna plant in Louisa County, Va.; and Duke Energy's Lee plant in Cherokee County, S.C.

via www.truth-out.org

TVA at crossroads as it decides future of Bellefonte nuclear plant | The Tennessean | tennessean.com

Here's an excerpt from a great article by Anne Paine (The Tennessean) on the TVA Board's upcoming Bellefonte decision:

Tennessee Valley Authority board members are looking with favor on nuclear power as they prepare to vote Thursday on whether to complete a nuclear reactor at the Bellefonte site 110 miles southeast of Nashville.

At least one freshly appointed member is studied in energy efficiency and alternative energy sources, which represents a new day for the body. However, even Marilyn A. Brown, an advocate of efficiency and alternatives who joined the TVA board in October, is far from anti-nuclear.

“Ultimately, we’re going to need more renewables,” said Brown, a professor of energy policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“I’ve always been pro-nuclear as an interim measure. For now, we really can’t live without nuclear while we wait for the price of renewables and alternatives to come down.”

via www.tennessean.com

The rest of the article includes reaction from other TVA Board members and a look at some of the issues with Bellefonte's revival that have stirred controversy.

Bellefonte: a Nuclear Generating Station in name only. [Photo credit: Tholcomb]

In my previous post I included a video and links to a report released last week by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Anne Paine wrote another article on Bellefonte last Wednesday in which she reported TVA's reaction to the SACE paper.

Regardless of your position on Bellefonte, both of Paine's articles, the Gunderson video and the SACE report are worth reading.

 

TVA Board agenda next week includes decision on Bellefonte

Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station, 21 June 2008 [Photo credit: Mandarax]

Several of my recent posts have focused on plans by the Tennessee Valley Authority to resurrect the zombie-esque nuclear plant known as Bellefonte. Next Thursday, August 18th, the TVA Board of Directors is scheduled to make a decision on what to do with this decaying, neglected and cannibalized facility.

This week, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy released a significant report on why the revival of Bellefonte is a really bad bet. The report was put together by Arnie Gunderson of Fairewinds Associates.

If you have followed the reactor disaster at Fukushima, you may have seen interviews and articles that featured Arnie's analyses. Arnie has 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. He's a former nuclear industry senior vice president with degrees in nuclear engineering, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the United States.

What I really like about Arnie is that he can talk about nuclear reactors and nuclear safety in a way that makes a lot of sense to somebody like me who is not an expert on reactors and the inner workings of the nuclear industry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In addition to writing the report, Arnie did a short video in which he summarized his primary concerns about TVA's plan for Bellefonte. If you are planning to speak at the TVA Board meeting, this video may help you decide where to focus your comments. If you are not planning to come to the meeting, this video may change your mind:

Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Here's a link to TVA August 18th Board Meeting Agenda, which includes some important information for people who wish to speak:

First, the public may comment on any agenda item or subject at a public listening session which begins at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Following the end of the public listening session, the meeting will be called to order. Bellefonte is the fourth item on the agenda.

Second, due to the possibility of a large number of attendees, speakers are asked to pre-register online before noon on Wednesday, August 17. On-site registration will be available until 15 minutes before the public listening session begins at 8:30 a.m. (ET). Pre-registered speakers are asked to check-in at registration 15 minutes before the listening session begins and they will address the Board first.

I registered a couple of days ago and it was a short, straightforward process. I hope to see you on Thursday!!!

 

Footprints for Peace cyclists join the zombies at rally to stop Bellefonte

Footprints for Peace cyclists Jim Toren, Jon Blickenstaff and Delza Smith stop by the No Zombie Nukes rally. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

Three cyclists on their way to the Names and Remembrance Ceremony at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Y-12 plant stopped by for the No Nukes, No Zombie Nukes, No Kidding rally in Knoxville last Friday to stand in solidarity with activists opposing new construction on TVA's Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station in Alabama.

Jon Blickenstaff, Jim Toren and Delza Smith began their trip in Cincinnati, Ohio for a seven day ride to join the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) in a ceremony to remember people who were killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, August 6,1945.

OREPA's next event will be a Peace Lantern Ceremony tomorrow, August 9th at 8pm in Sequoyah Hills Park in Knoxville. That ceremony will mark the destruction of Nagasaki by a second nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on August 9, 1945.

Footprints for Peace is a grassroots group that organizes walks, runs and bike rides throughout the world. Their intent is to create events that bring people together in solidarity to deepen humanity's understanding of spiritual, cultural, and environmental issues.

Another Footprints for Peace event -- Walk Away from Uranium Mining -- will get underway later this month. The 10-week walk from Wiluna to Perth, in western Australia, will give people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures a chance to walk the land, live in a community sharing collective and to educate themselves and the public about the nuclear industry.

Walkers will start on August 22nd, stopping in communities along the route and talking with local people about the nuclear industry and their experiences.

At the moment there are no commercial uranium mines in Western Australia (WA), but there are at least five proposals for uranium mines that are in various stages of approval. Opposition to these proposed mines has been growing.

In June this year, the Western Australia Labor Party confirmed that they would continue to support a nuclear free policy and would remain opposed to uranium mining should their party eventually win government. Then in July a number of groups protested the Australian Uranium Conference.

As in other parts of the world (including the United States) it is often the Indigenous people who suffer the most from uranium mining. According to Richard Evans, Koara (Gwa-da) Traditional Owner of Yeelirrie in WA:

“All those who profit from uranium mining and the nuclear industry -- they should host the radioactive waste dumps, not Aboriginal communities.”

“If uranium from our country is mined it could end up in weapons, it will become radioactive waste or it could be the fallout from a nuclear disaster like Fukushima, we don't want that responsibility of something from our country destroying or hurting people.”

On Friday I had a brief chat with Jon and Jim about the fact that, in the US, connecting all the dots of nuclear energy's dirty cradle-to-grave legacy doesn't always happen. Groups may focus on one link in the chain or another. But no mistake about it: from extraction of uranium to disposal of wastes, from bombs to power generation, the nuclear industry is a dangerous and dirty business.

And if you have been involved to stop mountaintop removal mining, or to protect your community from gas drilling and fracking, or to hold power companies accountable for coal ash, or to keep toxic chemicals out of your neighborhood's air and water, the disregard for the well-being of people and the Earth by the nuclear industry probably sounds really familiar.

I'm really glad Jon, Jim and Delza dropped by the rally. The resistance to destruction of people and nature grows. Be sure to "like" Footprints for Peace on Facebook!

Zombies rise up to stop Bellefonte revival

The 90 degree-plus temperature in downtown Knoxville last Friday, August 5th, was nothing compared to the heat that activists and Zombies are cranking up to stop revival of the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station in Alabama.

TVA's Board of Directors is scheduled to decide the fate of the facility at their meeting on August 18th, 2011.

Here are some photos from Friday's rally:

The Wheel of Nuclear Fortune turns on huge construction costs, and safety risks that the industry tends to minimize. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

 

Activists from several groups in Tennessee and Alabama joined forces to organize the rally. United Mountain Defense took on a major role in event logistics and the Zombie street theater production. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

 

A Zombie takes a swing at Bellefonte, the zombie reactor that has never lived but has never died. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

 

Some of the activists challenged the notion that nuclear power should be part of a plan to get Americans back to work. Extraction and processing of uranium has severely impacted the health and sacred lands of Indigenous people around the world. Nuclear energy is not clean, renewable or sustainable. A focus on efficiency retrofits for 1.6 million homes, for example, could create as many as 90 times more jobs than construction of one nuclear plant -- and at half the price. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]