US Environmental Protection Agency: What Nuclear Disaster?
Friday, June 24, 2011
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Update: New Exposé Reveals Nuclear Regulatory Commission Colluded with Industry to Weaken Safety Standards. Watch/read Democracy Now
If radiation levels are too high, increase the allowable exposure. and here.
If US safety standards are too high for ageing nuclear plants, reduce the standards.
If you are worried what the results of tests might reveal, stop testing.
EPA Halted Extra Testing for Radiation From Japan Weeks Ago
23 June 2011
by: Mike Ludwig, Truthout
Radiation is expected to continue spewing for months from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that suffered a meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami in March, but despite grim reports from Japan, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly stopped running extra tests for radioactive material in America's milk, rain and drinking water.
The EPA initially ramped up nationwide testing in the weeks following the disaster in Japan, and radioactive materials like cesium and iodine-131 were detected on US soil. Citing declining levels of radiation, the EPA has abandoned the extra tests, even as reports from Japan indicate that the Fukushima plant continues to emit radiation and the disaster is one of the worst in world history.
The EPA posted a statement online saying it would return to routine testing on May 3, but the agency did not send out a press release. The media widely ignored the change, even as Japanese officials admitted just weeks later that they were battling a full nuclear meltdown.
In March and April, samples of milk, rain and drinking water from across the country tested positive for radiation from the Fukushima plant. The radiation fell in rain across the US and was absorbed by plants and dairy cows.
The EPA insisted that the radiation levels were too low to cause public health concern, but Truthout identified gaps in the agency's data and nuclear critics said the EPA has failed to acknowledge that even small amounts of radiation could be dangerous.
Now the EPA has returned to routine testing of milk and drinking water once every three months and testing rainwater once a month. The EPA continuously monitors background radiation with more than 100 air filter monitors, but nuclear critics say more testing should be done.
"The Fukushima disaster is unlike any nuclear accident we have ever had," said Dan Hirsch of the nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap. "We haven't had anything that has gone on for a year, and that is what the Japanese authorities are predicting - if they're lucky. It might even take longer. The fuel has melted through, there are breaches at the containment structures, and there are constant radioactive releases." more
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