Two more potential nuclear disasters in the United States

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

On top of Fort Calhoun and the Cooper Nuclear Station, two more facilities housing nuclear materials are now at risk. Of course the mainstream media is all but totally silent on this issue as it is a bit worrisome for people to think about four plants on the brink of potential nuclear disaster. Not to mention the worst industrial disaster of all time, Fukushima, that continues to spew radioactive particles into the air, groundwater, and ocean.

What should concern the people of America is not just that there is a possibility that there could be a nuclear disaster in the continental United States, but that we can expect the engineers and regulatory bodies to react as they did at Fukushima. This is a grim thought, because it has now become clear that, according to the Dean of Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Dr. Iven Mareels, “Engineers likely understood [Fukushima] containment breached immediately.” You wouldn’t be out of line in wondering if the same exact tragic events might repeat themselves here in America.

The two new potential disasters include a massive wildfire in New Mexico roughly 2 miles from nuclear waste at Los Alamos as of Mid-day Tuesday and a failed cooling pump that caused the Salem Unit 2 nuclear facility to go into “hot shutdown.” I must emphasize, as of the writing of this article, these issues do not seem to be out of control or catastrophic.

However, these issues will assuredly be swept under the rug without consideration from the mainstream corporate media. Both of these incidents need to be covered, especially because the fire in New Mexico is, as of now, out of control. The situation at Salem 2 seems to be more stable with NJ.com reporting:

Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspectors assigned to the Salem site responded to Salem 2 and verified that the plant was stable and operator actions were consistent with procedures and that appropriate troubleshooting was being performed by PSEG Nuclear, according to NRC Spokesman Neil Sheehan.

I wish we could trust the NRC and assume that they are giving us the unadulterated truth but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case. There are also the serious questions raised by the mysterious pump failure that has yet to be explained.

The situation at Los Alamos is much more uncertain with CNN reporting nearly 10,000 evacuees (and York Daily Record reporting about 12,500) fleeing what is officially dubbed the Las Conchas fire, and InciWeb reporting more than 60,000 acres consumed and no containment (as of 4 hours before the writing of this article).

York Daily Record reports:

The fire has forced the evacuation of the entire city of Los Alamos, population 11,000, cast giant plumes of smoke over the region and raised fears among nuclear watchdogs that it will reach as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste.

‘The concern is that these drums will get so hot that they’ll burst. That would put this toxic material into the plume. It’s a concern for everybody,’ said Joni Arends, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, an anti-nuclear group.

Arends’ organization also worried that the fire could stir up nuclear-contaminated soil on lab property where experiments were conducted years ago. Burrowing animals have brought that contamination to the surface, she said.

This should be a serious concern getting massive media attention, yet it is brushed off in the article with an assurance that they would spray some flame retardant foam on the barrels if the fire came close enough. The EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department along with Los Alamos laboratory officials are monitoring “at least 60 air monitors for radiation and other hazards.” I wonder if the EPA will be using their rigged RadNet meters to make sure the American people are safe.

Just like there was supposedly no real danger from the radiation of Fukushima, the mainstream media is already telling us there is nothing to worry about, even though the fires are not under control. CNN reports, “Charles McMillan, the laboratory’s director, said Tuesday that all was under control at the facility, regardless of a small fire that broke out Monday.” However, at one point the fire was as close as 50 feet away from the grounds.

At this point, there is no reason to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, but we should avoid forgetting these issues completely. The mainstream media will likely ignore these issues in favor of the next celebrity break-up or Washington sex scandal. Thankfully, we still have the alternative media to keep track of these issues, even if it ends up being nothing to worry about.