GAO Report On Nuclear Security: “DOE Needs to Resolve Significant Issues”

Cover page of April 27, 2004, U. S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report for Cong. Christopher Shays, Chairman, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations in the Committee on Government Reform in the U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
Cover page of April 27, 2004, U. S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report for Cong. Christopher Shays, Chairman, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations in the Committee on Government Reform in the U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

April 27, 2004  Washington, D. C. – A General Accounting Office (GAO) report was released today about the Department of Energy (DOE)’s slow response since 9/11 to change its plans for dealing with terrorist threats at American sites containing nuclear weapons and/or nuclear materials such as plutonium. In fact, it’s now estimated that it will take until 2008 for DOE to implement its updated plan to deal with terrorist threats.

Click for report.

Light Anomalies in Photos of Conondale, Australia Grass Circles

Black arrow points to Conondale valley region that is small dairy farming community a couple hours by car northwest of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Black arrow points to Conondale valley region that is small dairy farming community a couple hours by car northwest of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Conondale is the location where the March 28, 2004, four grass circles were discovered. Conondale is about 50 minutes northwest of the Glass House Mountains where sorghum was found downed in May 2003. Some investigators thought natural lodging explained the sorghum event. In both years and locations at the time plants went down, local residents reported seeing unidentified lights.
Conondale is the location where the March 28, 2004, four grass circles were discovered. Conondale is about 50 minutes northwest of the Glass House Mountains where sorghum was found downed in May 2003. Some investigators thought natural lodging explained the sorghum event. In both years and locations at the time plants went down, local residents reported seeing unidentified lights.
April 14, 2004  Conondale, Queensland, Australia – Australian crop circle researcher and author, Richard Giles, reported in Swirled News that the two local teenagers in Conondale who first spotted the four grass circles on Sunday afternoon, March 28, were Eli Colbran and Tom Braby.

Click for report.

Part 2: 25 Years After Three Mile Island, Is Another Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Inevitable?

“Davis-Besse plant operators lied to the NRC about conditions at the plant, particularly when the NRC was preparing to shut the plant down for safety reasons. They lied to the NRC about the safety of the plant and that is inexcusable.”

– David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists

 

Davis-Besse nuclear power station 25 miles east of Toledo, Ohio, where FirstEnergy plant owners falsified records about damage from boric acid that nearly ate through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap. Photograph by Rad Journal.
Davis-Besse nuclear power station 25 miles east of Toledo, Ohio, where FirstEnergy plant owners falsified records about damage from boric acid that nearly ate through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap. Photograph by Rad Journal.

Click here for Part 1

April 12, 2004  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, D. C. – One man who has lived in Harrisburg all his life is Scott Portzline, Security Consultant for Three Mile Island Alert. Born in 1958, Scott was twenty years old when TMI’s Unit 2 reactor began to melt down. Five years later in 1984, he wanted to know the truth about what had caused the near-meltdown. A decade later, Scott had lost confidence in government explanations and began to question how much radiation had escaped from the TMI reactor. What had radioactive contamination done to the people, plants, animals and insects? Why did the government and nuclear industry tell the public that only small quantities of radiation had been released with exposures far below levels that could affect health? In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the 1979 President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island concluded that the maximum possible radiation dose beyond Three Mile Island was less than average annual background levels.

How was that possible if up to 13 million curies of radioactive gases and up to 17 curies of radioactive iodine were released during the disaster?

Scott became increasingly disturbed by what he learned and his research has been cited by the U. S. Department of Energy, Stanford and Harvard Universities, and various military branches.


Interview:

Scott Portzline, Security Consultant, Three Mile Island Alert, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: “Just one curie is 37 billion radioactive disintegrations per second, and each disintegration has the potential to harm a human cell. If we multiply 37 billion disintegrations per second by the 13 million curies released at Three Mile Island in 1979, we get a number so big that you have to state it scientifically: 4.81 x 10 to the 17th power.

It’s actually billions of chances each second for the radioactivity to find and damage cells that can potentially lead to cancer or leukemia or other problems. And the NRC and the industry want to tell us that nobody around Three Mile Island was even harmed from it. That’s impossible! (See Earthfiles Part I)

 

American Nuclear Power Plant Problems in Last Half of March 2004

Scott Portzline: “The nuclear industry likes to say how much safer things are today after the 25th anniversary of Three Mile Island. But listen to the track record of the industry just in the last half of March 2004. We do see and are concerned that another accident (like TMI) is just a couple of years away as all the nuclear plants age.

So far, there have been 8 reactor scrams.
2 manual shut downs.
1 low level emergency declared at the St. Lucie plant in Florida during re-fueling when a reactor coolant started leaking.
The high pressure injection systems were found inoperable at 3 plants. Two plants were in Pennsylvania ­ the Peach Bottom and Limerick plants ­ and this is a major safety system.
Cracks were found in the Susquehanna Pennsylvania reactor.
Both emergency diesel generators were found inoperable at the Cooper plant in Nebraska.
It was discovered that an earthquake could cause electrical short circuits at the Wolf Creek reactor in Kansas.
Three workers were injured when their bucket truck contacted a high voltage line at the Susquehanna reactor.
And a fourth worker injured his hand when a grinder he was using lost power during that event and he lost control of the grinder.
Two supervisors were found to be on drugs, one at Turkey Point in Florida and another at Callaway in Missouri.
Two incidents of controlled substance testing were positive in the workers.
A guard shot himself in the leg at San Onofre in California.
The NRC released a press release on the disturbing re-licensing exam failure rates of the control room operators at Cooper Station, Nebraska.”

 

Most Recent Near-Disaster at Davis-Besse
Nuclear Power Plant Near Toledo, Ohio, Spring 2002

Large hole eaten away by leaking boric acid from a cracked reactor drive nozzle at the Davis Besse nuclear power plant in Toledo, Ohio. Discovered in 6-inch steel casing and photographed in spring 2002. Plant shut down to avoid potential core melt down. Photograph from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Large hole eaten away by leaking boric acid from a cracked reactor drive nozzle at the Davis Besse nuclear power plant in Toledo, Ohio. Discovered in 6-inch steel casing and photographed in spring 2002. Plant shut down to avoid potential core melt down. Photograph from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In the spring of 2001, the Ocone nuclear power station near Greenville, South Carolina, which is a sister plant to both Davis-Besse (Toledo, Ohio) and Three Mile Island (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) found some cracked pipes. These pipes passed through the very top of the nuclear reactor vessel and the cracks allowed reactor cooling water to leak out of the vessel. Because of that discovery, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) asked that all nuclear power plants with similar configurations look at the pipes and see if they had cracks and to fix them or verify that they were crack-free.

Davis-Besse was one such plant and one of the oldest in the United States. The NRC staff was so concerned about safety at Davis-Besse that in September and October of 2001, they drafted an order that would require Davis-Besse to shut down for safety reasons. The owner did not want to shut down the plant. So, the owner came in and met with the NRC staff in October and November of 2001 and provided reasons why they thought the plant was safe to keep operating. The NRC looked at that information and ultimately agreed with the plant’s owner and did not require the plant to shut down.

But later in the spring of 2002, when the plant was finally shut down for a scheduled re-fueling outage, very serious cracks in the nuclear reactor vessel were found, boric acid was leaking out of those cracks and had eroded a large hole through the 6-inch steel cladding in the reactor vessel beneath Nozzles 1, 2 and 3.

Scott Portzline told me, “When I first saw the photograph of the hole that was eaten into the Davis-Besse reactor, I could hardly believe it. We realized that we were really lucky that Toledo did not have a nuclear accident and studies indicated that we were just a month or so away from it (potential melt down event).”

Undetected, that ever-widening hole at Davis-Besse would have lead to a core melt down event. Once that near-miss was discovered, the NRC started investigating more closely. The investigators learned that information given to the NRC by Davis-Besse in October and November of 2001 – that allowed the plant to continue running – had been falsified.

 

Davis-Besse Owners Lied to NRC
in Fall 2001 About Inspection and Repairs

David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Engineer, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, D. C.: “The Davis-Besse plant’s owner (FirstEnergy) had said, for example, that it had fully inspected those pipe areas in 2000, 1998 and 1996 ­ the last opportunities it had to do so. But in fact, the company owner knew that it had NOT done that. It had inspected part, but not the entire area. They misrepresented the truth ­ or lied ­ to the NRC and said they had looked everywhere and had found no problems.

In addition, as further proof of that, the Davis-Besse owner had showed the NRC videotapes they had made during those inspections. The inspections were only done in certain areas. But to convince the NRC that they had done more, the Davis-Besse owners basically altered the videotape and represented it as showing the entire top of the reactor when it only showed a small portion of it.

So both in writing, words and in video, Davis-Besse misrepresented the actual condition of the plant to the NRC and deluded the NRC into allowing the plant to continue running at tremendous risk to the public.

WHAT ARE THE LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR THIS?

Once the NRC discovered it had been lied to, they had the NRC police which is called the Office of Investigations go through and interview people under oath. They assembled a large case of wrong doing. The NRC then turned the case over to the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) which impaneled a grand jury. The grand jury subpoenaed a bunch of records from the Davis-Besse company and the grand jury continues its deliberations to this day. So far, no actions have been taken against the Davis-Besse company or the individuals involved.” (Howe emphasis.)

Above: Cracked Nozzle # 3 (missing in this photograph) was undergoing repairs when a piece of nozzle sleeve fell into hole. That lead to discovering the nozzle hole was filled with leaking boric acid. Below: The boric acid ate away into the steel cladding around Nozzle #3. Images from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Above: Cracked Nozzle # 3 (missing in this photograph) was undergoing repairs when a piece of nozzle sleeve fell into hole. That lead to discovering the nozzle hole was filled with leaking boric acid. Below: The boric acid ate away into the steel cladding around Nozzle #3. Images from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Arrow points to crack in 6-inch steel cladding at Nozzle # 3, Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant, 2002. Photograph by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Arrow points to crack in 6-inch steel cladding at Nozzle # 3, Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant, 2002. Photograph by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Implications for All Nuclear Reactors
of Hole and Crack in Above Davis-Besse Photographs

 

Scott Portzline, Three Mile Island Alert: “In the photographs showing the large hole and crack in steel cladding, you have to understand there are two shells: one is the inner shell made of stainless steel and that’s just about bulletproof to any corrosion. The outer shell is regular carbon steel and that is where the boric acid was eating inward toward the inner shell. Boric acid was leaking out of a reactor drive mechanism nozzle and it was eating through the steel to the point where the only thing protecting us from a terrible accident were 3/8th-inch of carbon steel. When you look at the newest photographs, you can see the cracks starting in that carbon steel and it was bulging outward from the pressure of the heated water in the reactor that is pressurized so it does not turn to steam. We were very, very close to a disastrous situation.

WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A SCENARIO IF A HOLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THAT CARBON STEEL?

These reactors are under very high pressures, so the moment that a hole is breached in the reactor, you have what’s called ‘loss of coolant accident.’ It was believed until Three Mile Island that such a small break would not cause a problem. The NRC really didn’t study it. That’s one of the problems at TMI ­ they didn’t even study the effects of small breaks.

But that type of pressure from the water shooting out could damage nearby equipment and could cause electrical short circuits and would increase the size of that hole until it released all the pressurized gases. And then the water inside the reactor itself can start to boil away and you have a loss of coolant accident where the fuel can melt. In the meantime, there are going to be systems trying to overcome the problem that has developed. One of those systems is where the control rods drop into place in a scam, provided the water spraying out of the area under high pressure does not interfere. The control rods are located in the same spot. The spraying water could work against dropping the control rods into place. Then you might not be able to get the control rods inserted in time. Without that, you have a smaller chance and more difficult task of halting the nuclear chain reaction and they would have to dump borated water ­ neutron-killing water ­ into the reactor. Of course, some of that is going to boil away and you have a boron release into the containment building, plus all the other radionuclei.

That’s one thing we saw here in TMI ­ the boric acid and the boron were released into the atmosphere along with many radionucleides. People had a metallic taste in their mouths. After that, good luck trying to control that reactor because some of the normal things you would do to control the situation, such as adding water but which is continuing to boil away. The pressures get so high inside the containment building that they have no choice but to release what is inside the containment building to the air in a controlled release ­ if they have that much control ­ and you have a general emergency declared where evacuation will be required.”

Notice By NRC About Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station’s Deterioration:

“Overview of Reactor Vessel Head Degradation

On February 16, 2002, the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, began a refueling outage that included inspecting the nozzles entering the head of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV), the specially designed container that houses the reactor core and the control rods that regulate the power output of the reactor. Of these vessel head penetration (VHP) nozzles, the licensee’s inspections focused on the nozzles associated with the mechanism that drives the control rods, known as the control rod drive mechanism (CRDM). Both the inspections and their focus were consistent with the licensee’s commitments in response to NRC Bulletin 2001-01, ‘Circumferential Cracking of Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles,’ which the agency issued on August 3, 2001.

In conducting its inspections, the licensee found that three CRDM nozzles had indications of axial cracking, which had resulted in leakage of the reactor’s pressure boundary. Specifically, the licensee found these indications in CRDM nozzles 1, 2, and 3, which are located near the center of the RPV head. The licensee reported these findings to the NRC on February 27, 2002, and provided supplemental information on March 5 and March 9, 2002. The licensee also decided to repair the three leaking nozzles, as well as two other nozzles that had indications of leakage but had not resulted in pressure boundary leakage.

The repair of these nozzles included roll expanding the CRDM nozzle material into the material of the surrounding RPV head and then machining along the axis of the CRDM nozzle to a point above the indications in the nozzle material. On March 6, 2002, the licensee prematurely terminated the machining process on CRDM nozzle 3 and removed the machining apparatus from the nozzle. During the removal, the nozzle was mechanically agitated and subsequently displaced (or tipped) in the downhill direction (away from the top of the RPV head) until its flange contacted the flange of the adjacent CRDM nozzle.

To identify the cause of the displacement, the licensee investigated the condition of the RPV head surrounding CRDM nozzle 3. This investigation included removing the CRDM nozzle from the RPV head, removing boric acid deposits from the top of the RPV head, and ultrasonically measuring the thickness of the RPV head in the vicinity of CRDM nozzles 1, 2, and 3.

Upon completing the boric acid removal on March 7, 2002, the licensee conducted a visual examination of the area, which identified a large cavity in the RPV head on the downhill side of CRDM nozzle 3. Follow-up characterization by ultrasonic testing indicated wastage of the low alloy steel RPV head material adjacent to the nozzle. The wastage area was found to extend approximately 5 inches downhill on the RPV head from the penetration for CRDM nozzle 3 and was approximately 4 to 5 inches at its widest part. The minimum remaining thickness of the RPV head in the wastage area was found to be approximately 3/8 inch. This thickness was attributed to the thickness of the stainless steel cladding on the inside surface of the RPV head, which is nominally 3/8 inch thick.

The investigation of the causative conditions surrounding the degradation of the RPV head at Davis-Besse is continuing. Boric acid or other contaminants could be contributing factors. Other factors contributing to the degradation might include the environment of the RPV head during both operating and shutdown conditions (e.g., wet/dry), the duration for which the RPV head is exposed to boric acid, and the source of the boric acid (e.g., leakage from the CRDM nozzle or from sources above the RPV head such as CRDM flanges).”

Above: Top bolted domed head to nuclear reactor vessel at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in April 2000. Red streams running down the side toward 25-inch-long grey bolts are from boric acid leaking from the large hole eaten away into the steel under Nozzle 3. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission at first denied this revealing photograph had been given to the NRC by Davis-Besse owners. Below: Boric acid also caused red stains at Nozzle # 1 beneath the dome on Vessel Flange (12RFO) shown above. Photographs by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Above: Top bolted domed head to nuclear reactor vessel at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in April 2000. Red streams running down the side toward 25-inch-long grey bolts are from boric acid leaking from the large hole eaten away into the steel under Nozzle 3. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission at first denied this revealing photograph had been given to the NRC by Davis-Besse owners. Below: Boric acid also caused red stains at Nozzle # 1 beneath the dome on Vessel Flange (12RFO) shown above. Photographs by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

So Far, No Legal Action Against Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant Owners

David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists: “The Davis-Besse plant owners (FirstEnergy) and the NRC claim that the individuals who may have been responsible were transferred away from Davis-Besse and whether they are implicated or not ultimately by the grand jury, they are not in any position of authority at Davis-Besse. Even if that were true, the lack of justice to this date is insufficient because the people who are now at Davis-Besse need to know that the NRC will hold them accountable for lying about safety. In addition, if the guilty parties are no longer at Davis-Besse, but are at other nuclear power plants, well that’s just moving a problem around. That’s not solving it.

WHY WOULD THEY HAVE LIED IN THE FIRST PLACE?

At the time this was all happening, the Davis-Besse company was going through a merger and acquisition with another utility. There were stock implications, price implications associated with the stock and what it was selling at in the fall of 2001. Had the plant been shut down, the price of the stock would likely have declined. That deal would have come around much differently than if all the bad news could have been pushed into the New Year after the deal was over.

In addition, part of the reason the company lied was that they had experienced problems for a number of years, but those problems never lead to disasters. As annoying as those problems were, they thought they could live with them and they didn’t want the NRC to know about those problems because it was an in-house issue that they were dealing with – or not dealing with ­ much like the Challenger and Columbia disasters. There were a number of events prior to the final tragedies that weren’t fully appreciated in their full dimensions.

The Davis-Besse company knew they had problems. They just didn’t understand the full dimensions of those problems until it was too late.

BUT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE DAVIS-BESSE OWNERS LYING ABOUT WHAT WAS ESSENTIALLY THE BIGGEST NEAR-DISASTER SINCE THREE MILE ISLAND 25 YEARS AGO. THAT LARGE HOLE IN THE NUCLEAR REACTOR VESSEL WALL COULD HAVE BEEN DISASTROUS.

But to be fair to the company, there is no evidence that they knew about the hole until 2002. But, they knew there were conditions that could allow a hole to develop. And they knew the pipes that ultimately caused the hole were likely to be cracked and leaking and that is the information they withheld from the NRC ­ the condition of the piping and the cracks in the piping. It’s not clear they knew about the hole. But in some respects, that distinction is mute. Davis-Besse plant operators lied to the NRC about conditions at the plant, particularly when the NRC was preparing to shut the plant down for safety reasons. They lied to the NRC about the safety of the plant and that is inexcusable. (Howe emphases)

WE’RE AT 2004 – WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN LEGALLY?

Unfortunately, the NCR’s track record on cases like this is not very good. Twice in the recent past, the NRC has allowed the 5 year statute of limitations to expire before they took action. Because the 5 year statute of limitations expired, they couldn’t take any action against the individuals guilty for violating federal regulations. The clock is running on this one. We are hoping that that injustice is not repeated again.

WHO CAN YOU APPEAL TO AS THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS?

When we did the legal memo last year, we sent that directly to the Dept. of Justice because the NRC had not yet finished its investigation and it looked like it might never finish its investigation. When we heard nothing back from the DOJ except an acknowledgement that they had received our package, we then went to the State of Ohio and met with the Attorney General’s office. The Ohio Attorney General’s office was interested in the issue but felt they lacked jurisdiction. It was really the NRC and DOJ who at some point had to take action. They were very sympathetic, but their hands were tied. Ultimately, we have no appeal. We have to help the federal government do the job that it is entrusted with.

SO, WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS THAT LYING ON THE PART OF THE DAVIS-BESSE STAFF IN 2001 COULD EXPIRE WITH A 5 YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS AND NOTHING BEING DONE?

It’s happened in the past. And on the current pace, it looks like it will happen again. The problem is that if workers and managers at nuclear power plants know that they can get away with such a heinous crime just by dragging their feet and not cooperating with an investigation, they are going to do it. The NRC needs to show that it puts safety and the public health ahead of the convenience of plant owners and workers. That foolishness needs to stop.

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO CHANGE THE LAW SO THERE COULD BE MORE TEETH IN PUNISHING PEOPLE WHO TRY TO GET AWAY WITH THIS KIND OF LIE?

That’s a good question. We’ve looked at that question in the past. Unfortunately, the obstacle of the Catch-22 you’re up against is that the current law has sufficient teeth if the lawmaker was just of a mind to enforce it. So, the problem isn’t that the law is weak. It’s that the regulator is weak. We need to have the NRC step up to the plate, get off the bench and get into the game and be the public guardian that is expected of them. Right now, it’s not doing that.

WHEN YOU WENT TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IN THE STATE OF OHIO, WHAT HAPPENED?

The A.G. looking at the evidence that we prepared was amazed that the NRC had not done anything. They felt there was an issue and need to take action. But they felt they did not have the jurisdiction to take that step. They felt it was the NCR’s job to take the next step and wished us luck in getting the NRC to take that next step.

In some respects, the people living in and around Toledo can take some comfort in the fact that over the past two years, many millions of dollars have gone into restoring safety margins at that plant and replacing some of those (former workers) who were responsible (for lying about looking for cracked pipes). In some respects, that plant (Davis-Besse) is safer.

DO YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THE SAME PEOPLE WHO LIED AT DAVIS-BESSE ARE STILL WORKING AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS SOMEWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES?

At first, they moved from Davis-Besse to other operating plants and now have gone elsewhere. Over time, we have lost track of them because their movements are hard to follow and it’s hard to know where they are today. But many of them went from Davis-Besse to other nuclear power plants in the first move.”

 

How Many American Nuclear Power Plants Today Have Flawed Drains and Pumps?

Outrage about the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant deterioration and indications the drains and pumps were flawed when the plant opened twenty-seven years ago was expressed by reporter and writer Matt Bivens on March 10, 2004, in his “The Daily Outrage” column for The Nation:

Matt Bivens, “The Daily Outrage,” The Nation, March 10, 2004: “The (Davis-Besse) plant’s operators reported to the NRC that key backup systems — a series of drains and pumps to keep a runaway reactor fed with coolant water — had been flawed ever since the plant opened 27 years ago. The company’s report admitted that in an accident, the pumps would probably not have worked properly. The NRC studied this report and declared it to be a code ‘yellow’ finding, ‘one of substantial importance to safety.’
But as I reported in The Nation six months ago, this problem with the backup drains and coolant pumps exists at 68 other, similar-designed nuclear reactors across America. Yet only Davis-Besse has addressed it. And this is so despite a shocking study by the nuclear-industry-friendly Los Alamos National Laboratory, which suggested that this problem represents a one-in-three chance of disaster at an American nuclear power plant over the next three years. (The NRC’s response was that they’d fix the problem in … four years.)
The Los Alamos study went reactor by reactor across America, calculating a risk level for each plant — and back then, before Davis-Besse made any improvements, Davis-Besse was considered one of the least risky plants. One of the most risky was the Indian Point reactor complex outside New York city. Yet the NRC, which judged the problem at Davis-Besse to be a ‘yellow’ alert, ignored calls to have the same problem tackled at Indian Point. What kind of logic is that? Answer: the best logic that money can buy, of course.”

What Can Be Done to Regenerate 103 Aging Nuclear Power Plants?

Scott Portzline, Three Mile Island Alert: “Some plants need to be shut down and overhauled and some probably should not even be restarted. The economics of these plants is bad to begin with, so a business decision might be made to close down a plant permanently. The chances of regenerating nuclear power in this industry can only be driven by political will. The business will is not there at this point ­ it’s not economically viable. We’re seeing the political will of the current Administration that has relaxed pollution standards, yet wants to tax coal because of the pollution to create a favorable environment for nuclear power economics.

This is totally backwards. They should be encouraging wind turbines which could actually generate enough electricity to supply 100% of this country’s energy needs. I thought that number was ridiculous, but there was an expanded study originally done by the Dept. of Energy that showed that using wind turbines and the electricity to convert hydrogen ­ to create hydrogen ­ and use the hydrogen in future technologies that are doable, some now and some that we can phase in gradually, would solve all of our problems and we wouldn’t have to have anything to do with these nuclear Edsels.

We are trying to take old cars, basically, and keep them safe on our highways. Except this time, the risk could be we could lose the entire state of Pennsylvania.”

Continued in Part 3.


More Information:

Mary Osborn, photographer and member of Three Mile Island Alert (Earthfiles Part I), gave a presentation of her plant evidence in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago. Mary asked Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey (D-7th Dist) about classified 1979 TMI documents. Rep. Markey serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Select Committee on Homeland Security, the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals, the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, the Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Border Security, and the Committee on Resources.

After Mary’s presentation, one of Rep. Markey’s staff approached her to pursue declassifying TMI documents since there is a Presidential Executive Order to automatically declassify government documents that are 25-years-old. On April 9, 2004, Representative Markey wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Energy to request that all Three Mile Island government documents, including ones classified, be released to Congressman Markey on or before April 28, 2004.

Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant near Pennsylvania's state capitol, Harrisburg, and the Harrisburg International Airport. TMI Unit 2 reactor went into melt down on March 28, 1979, releasing 13 to 17 curies of iodine and 2.4 million to 13 million curies of noble gases into the environment.
Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant near Pennsylvania’s state capitol, Harrisburg, and the Harrisburg International Airport. TMI Unit 2 reactor went into melt down on March 28, 1979, releasing 13 to 17 curies of iodine and 2.4 million to 13 million curies of noble gases into the environment.

Letter from Congressman Edward J. Markey to DOE Secretary

“April 9, 2004

The Honorable Spencer Abraham
Secretary, Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Secretary Abraham:

I am writing to request the immediate declassification of all documents in the possession of the Department of Energy related to the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident in accordance with Presidential Executive Order 13292. In addition, I ask that you provide me with a copy of all such documents.

As you know, the 25 year anniversary of the TMI accident was on March 28, 2004. On that date. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Nils Diaz told CNN that ‘Three Mile Island was not really a disaster in radiological terms. There was no significant amount of radiation released, nobody was hurt.

‘The NRC also stated in its publicity materials released for the TMI anniversary that TMI brought ‘about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to tighten and heighten its regulatory oversight. Resultant changes in the nuclear power industry and at the NRC had the effect of enhancing safety.’

You may be aware that Presidential Executive Order 13292 Part 3, which was published on March 25, 2003. states that ‘Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government,’ that ‘information shall be declassified as soon as it no longer meets the standards for classification under this order,’ and ultimately calls for automatic declassification of documents that are more than 25 years old. The only materials that would be exempt from the automatic declassification requirements would be those that would threaten national or homeland security or those that reveal the identity of a confidential human source.It is in the public interest to disclose all documents related to TMI; Numerous members of the communities living near TMI have been attempting to obtain these documents for years in order to ascertain additional details regarding the radiation levels they may have been exposed to. Moreover, Americans have the right to be informed of the activities of their Government during and subsequent to the country’s most serious nuclear reactor accident. If, as was stated by Commission Chairman Diaz to CNN, no significant amount of radiation was released, shouldn’t interested parties be able to review the documents themselves in order to be sure? And if, as the NRC publicity materials state, the industry has undergone sweeping changes that enhanced safety and emergency response planning, there should be no national or homeland security risk in disclosing any previously classified materials regarding the cause of an accident that occurred 25 years ago.

Please provide these documents to my office by April 28, 2004. If there are specific documents that you believe should not be declassified, please provide a list of all such documents as well as the reason why the materials contained therein should remain at a classified level. Thank you very much for your consideration of this important matter. If you have any questions or concerns, please have your staff contact Dr. Michal Freedhoff of my staff at (202) 225-2836.

Sincerely,Edward J. Markey
Congressman, Rep. 7th District, Massachusetts

2108 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2836

5 High Street, Suite 101
Medford, MA 02155
781-396-2900

188 Concord Street, Suite 102
Framingham, MA 01702
508-875-2900


Websites:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation/overview.html

http://www.tmia.com  (Three Mile Island Alert)

http://www.ucsusa.org/  (Union of Concerned Scientists)“The Daily Outrage”Rad Journal.

 

FBI Is Investigating Animal Deaths in Johnston County, North Carolina

Eight dead animals were found on the Selma farm owned by Doug Holloman on March 31, 2004, and the FBI has been investigating five other suspicious dog deaths on another farm one mile away.
Eight dead animals were found on the Selma farm owned by Doug Holloman on March 31, 2004, and the FBI has been investigating five other suspicious dog deaths on another farm one mile away.

April 8, 2004  Selma, North Carolina – Doug Holloman is thirty years old and has lived in Selma all his life. In 1997, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science from Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. Since then, he and his family have been working their family farm, raising tobacco, soybeans, wheat and sweet potatoes, but no animals except pet dogs.On Wednesday, March 31, 2004, at 2 p.m., Doug was working his tractor in a 20 acre field when he noticed a dead animal laying on it side. He thought it was either a coyote or dog.Click for report.

Four “Combed” Grass Circles in Conondale, Australia

Retired English teacher, Kate Dash, examined one of four clockwise "combed" circles in wild pasture grass in the small farming town of Conondale west of Maleny in Queensland. Photograph © 2004 by The Sunday Mail.
Retired English teacher, Kate Dash, examined one of four clockwise “combed” circles in wild pasture grass in the small farming town of Conondale west of Maleny in Queensland. Photograph © 2004 by The Sunday Mail.

April 7, 2004  Montville, Queensland, Australia – Kate Dash grew up in the Thames Valley of England in a house her mother called “Avebury.” Forty years ago, she moved to Australia and has lived the past 35 years in Montville about forty minutes from Conondale. She is fascinated by the crop circle phenomenon and has visited Wiltshire, England, several summers to climb the hills and walk through the mysterious patterns in the crop fields. But she never expected to see beautifully “combed” circles in grass so close to her Montville home.Click for report.

Part 1: 25 Years After Three Mile Island, Is Another Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Inevitable?

“When I first saw the 2002 photograph of the hole that was eaten into the Davis-Besse reactor (Toledo, Ohio), I could hardly believe it. We realized that we were really lucky that we did not have a nuclear accident and studies indicated that we were just a month or so away from it (potential melt down event).”

– Scott Portzline, Three Mile Island Alert

 Six-inch hole eaten away by leaking boric acid from a cracked reactor drive nozzle at the Davis Besse nuclear power plant in Toledo, Ohio. Discovered and photographed in 2002 and plant shut down to avoid potential core melt down. Photograph from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Six-inch hole eaten away by leaking boric acid from a cracked reactor drive nozzle at the Davis Besse nuclear power plant in Toledo, Ohio. Discovered and photographed in 2002 and plant shut down to avoid potential core melt down. Photograph from Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

April 5, 2004  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, D. C. – The worst American nuclear power plant accident began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979. The Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, overheated. Due to the loss of reactor coolant, fuel rods began to melt. Because the fuel rods were sticking up out of the lowered water level, the nuclear chain reaction could not be controlled. The rods actually melted into the remaining water, dropped to the bottom of the reactor where enough collected to start another uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction.For five days, scientists and engineers struggled to prevent the unimaginable nightmare of a core melt down that would have poisoned all the Harrisburg population with radiation. Fortunately, the nuclear chain reaction was finally stopped, but a lot of radiation was released into the atmosphere. On March 29, 1979 – the second day of the ongoing crisis – the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported a reading of 3,000 millirads per hour taken above Three Mile Island. The 1979 President’s Commission on Three Mile Island finally estimated that the radioactive release over thirty-one days to the environment ranged from 2.4 million to 13 million curies – or 13 megacuries.

“The total release of radioactivity to the enviroment from March 28 through April 27 has been established as 13 to 17 curies of iodine and 2.4 million to 13 million curies of noble gases.” (Page 31, Section 13, 1979 Report of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island.) For comparison, all combined radioactive isotope contamination at the Chernobyl melt down is estimated ato have been100 to 130 million curies, or 100 to 130 megacuries.

Here is how the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines curies, megacuries and other curie fractions:

– Curie (Ci) is defined as 37 billion disintegrations per second.

Megacuries (MCi) are 1 million curies (1 x 106 Ci).
Megacuries are used in measuring the very large amount of radioactivity released from nuclear weapons.

Picocuries (pCi) are 1 million millionth of a curie (1 x 10-12 Ci). Picocuries are used in measuring the typically small amount of radioactivity in air and water.

Millicuries (mCi), or 1/1000 Ci

– Nanocuries (nCi), or 1 billionth of a curie.

RADs and Millirads: See More Information below.


Any Evidence of Radiation Damage in Three Mile Island Region?

Higher Cancer Rates

On February 24, 1997, the National Institutes of Health issued a press release entitled “Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident Data Revisited” by Professor Steven Wing, M.D., and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who published their study of medical data about TMI community cancer rates in the February 24, 1997, Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

“NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
————————————————————-
Monday, Feb. 24, 1997
12:01 AM Eastern Time

Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident Data Revisited

“Exposure to radiation after the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island may have increased cancer among some Pennsylvanians downwind of the plant, according to a recalculation of data to be published Feb. 24 in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.The controversial new study was carried out by Professor Steven Wing and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The new study involved re-analyzing data from a 1990 report that concluded the nation’s worst civilian nuclear accident was NOT responsible for excess cancers because radiation exposures were too low. However, the new analysis takes a contradictory position.

Dr. Wing comments: ‘Several hundred people at the time of the accident reported nausea, vomiting, hair loss and skin rashes, and a number said their pets died or had symptoms of radiation exposure. We figured that if that were possible, we ought to look at [the data] again. After adjusting for pre-accident cancer incidence, we found a striking increase in cancers downwind from Three Mile Island… I would be the first to say that our study doesn’t prove by itself that there were high-level radiation exposures, but it is part of a body of evidence that is consistent with high exposures.’

“In 1998, U. S. District Court Judge Sylvia Ramob dismissed more than 2,000 damage claims filed against the Davis-Besse power plant by nearby residents.”

In December 2002, the U. S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals found that the district court had erred in excluding increased incidence of lung cancer data, but declined to hear an appeal of Judge Rambo’s dismissal. Attorneys representing 1,990 remaining plaintiffs in the TMI case declared they would take no further legal action, despite their conviction that Dr. Wing’s research indicated higher cancer rates after March 29, 1979, in the Three Mile Island region.

2003 Follow-Up On TMI Cancer Rates

In November 2003, Dr. Wing published “Objectivity and Ethics in Environmental Health Science” in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. He described information from a spring 1987 survey of 450 people living with “unobstructed views of TMI at distances of between 3 and 8 miles.” After the TMI accident, residents who had been out-of-doors reported ” a metallic taste, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, erythema (redness of skin caused by chemical, poisoning or burn). …Residents reported 19 cancer deaths during 1980-1984 (5 year period after nuclear disaster), compared with an expected number of 2.6.”

“We found positive relationships between accident dose estimates and cancer rates for all three categories of cancer (lung cancer, leukemia, childhood cancers). The slope of the dose-response estimates was largest for leukemia, intermediate for lung cancer, and smallest for all cancers. …Lung cancer showed the most consistent dose-response relationship across levels of dose. The map below shows dose estimates in relation to lung cancer rates, based on the 400 cases diagnosed in the 10-mile area during 1981-1985, adjusted for pre-accident variation in lung cancer incidence, but not for socioeconomic status. The height of the bars represents the difference between the observed numbers of cases at each dose level and the number that would have occurred if each area had experienced the average lung cancer rates of the 10-mile area population as a whole.”

 

Radiation emissions and incidence of lung cancer, 1981-1985, in the TMI 10-mile area. Graphic by Julia R. Bryan for Endeavors Journal, Volume XIV, No. 1, Fall 1997, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Radiation emissions and incidence of lung cancer, 1981-1985, in the TMI 10-mile area. Graphic by Julia R. Bryan for Endeavors Journal, Volume XIV, No. 1, Fall 1997, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.


Deformed Plants and Insects

Top : Clump of deformed dandelion flowers found in April 1987 about 6.5 miles north-northwest of Three Mile Island.  Right: Enormous dandelions exhibit the classic symptom of "gigantism" associated with  exposure to radiation. All plant and spider photographs © Mary Osborn.
Top : Clump of deformed dandelion flowers found in April 1987 about 6.5 miles north-northwest of Three Mile Island. Bottom: Enormous dandelions exhibit the classic symptom of “gigantism” associated with exposure to radiation. All plant and spider photographs © Mary Osborn.

Left: Clump of deformed dandelion flowers found in April 1987 about 6.5 miles north-northwest of Three Mile Island. Right: Enormous dandelions exhibit the classic symptom of "gigantism" associated with exposure to radiation. All plant and spider photographs © Mary Osborn.

Daddy-long-legged spider with only four legs photographed on Sunday, July 27, 1996, about 6.5 miles north-northwest direction. Normal spiders have 8 legs.
Daddy-long-legged spider with only four legs photographed on Sunday, July 27, 1996, about 6.5 miles north-northwest direction. Normal spiders have 8 legs.
Dark, misshapen Maple leaves with grossly deformed margins found  in August 1987, approximately 6.5 miles north-northwest from TMI.
Dark, misshapen Maple leaves with grossly deformed margins found in August 1987, approximately 6.5 miles north-northwest from TMI.

 

Deformed Gloriosa daisy found in 1989 on the river banks of the Susquehanna in Goldsboro, directly across from Three Mile Island. This plant also had a very wide, flat stem and many deformed flower heads. Some looked like caterpillars and one was a double flower growing back-to-back.
Deformed Gloriosa daisy found in 1989 on the river banks of the Susquehanna in Goldsboro, directly across from Three Mile Island. This plant also had a very wide, flat stem and many deformed flower heads. Some looked like caterpillars and one was a double flower growing back-to-back.

Mary Osborn gave these leaves to Japanese botanist, Dr. Sadao Ichikawa, who said he had seen similar effects in Germany after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986.Is

Another Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Inevitable?

Continued About Davis-Besse “Near-Disaster” in Part 2.


More Information:
Measurement International (SI) Unit U.S. Unit Conversions
Radioactivity Becquerel (Bq) Curie (Ci) 3.7 x 1010 Bq = 1 Ci
Absorbed Dose Gray (Gy) RAD 1 Gy = 100 RADs
Equivalent Dose Sievert (Sv) REM 1 Sv = 100 REMs

Absorbed Dose: RADs and Grays

This relates to the amount of energy actually absorbed in some material, and is used for any type of radiation and any material. Rads describe doses from both external penetrating radiation and from radionuclides contained within the body, but do not measure specific biological damage. A rad to the hand, for example, is not considered as dangerous as a rad distributed over the whole body.

  • A RAD is the American unit used to measure absorbed dose, and stands for “Radiation Absorbed Dose.” One RAD is defined as the absorption of 100 ergs per gram of material, and amounts to approximately one ionization per cubic micron.

For more radiation units of measurement, please see Texas Radiation Online. 


Websites:

http://www.tmia.com (Three Mile Island Alert)

http://www.nrc.gov/ (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2004/index.html (NRC Event Notification Reports 2004)

http://www.ucsusa.org/ (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Wyoming Elk Paralysis and Mysterious Lichen Poison

We’re not at all convinced at this point that usnic acid is the toxic compound we are dealing with. It’s been hypothesized, but not proven, and it’s going to take a fair amount of work to determine exactly what the toxic compound is in this lichen that is causing the paralysis effect in the elk. …We’ve had e-mails going out to all of our colleagues throughout the nation, and even some international people, and no one has ever heard of anything like this before.” – Walter Cook, Ph.D. and D.V.M., Wyoming Wildlife Veterinarian

Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, tumbleweed shield lichen, common to the region south of Rawlins, Wyoming. There in a 50-square-mile region, 304 elk have been paralyzed and died since the first of February 2004. Unidentified toxin suspected in the lichen. Image courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, tumbleweed shield lichen, common to the region south of Rawlins, Wyoming. There in a 50-square-mile region, 304 elk have been paralyzed and died since the first of February 2004. Unidentified toxin suspected in the lichen. Image courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

March 29, 2004  Laramie, Wyoming – The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Veterinarian Laboratory, working in conjunction with the Wyoming State Veterinarian Laboratory, have ruled out 38 possible explanations for the paralysis of 304 elk in a 50-square-mile region south of Rawlins since the beginning of February 2004. Ironically, the culprit might be one of the most common ground plants in the region – a lichen known as Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, or “tumbleweed shield lichen.” But no animal expert in North America or the rest of the world has ever seen such a mysterious assault on elk or caribou before.

Puzzled by what could be seriously damaging the muscles in so many otherwise healthy elk, veterinarian toxicologist Dr. Merl Raisbeck, D.V.M. and Ph.D., from the Wyoming State Veterinarian Lab, walked some of the region with game warden, Benge Brown. Both noticed a large concentration of the lichen where the elk had been found unable to stand up. The lichen also appeared to have been eaten by the elk and later necropsies confirmed the lichen was in dead elk stomachs. But to date, no specific breakdown of chemical ingredients in the lichen has been made and no specific toxin has been identified – despite erroneous media reports that the poison was usnic acid.

Gary Butler, Wyoming Game and Fish Habitat Program Manager, collects Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, also known as "tumbleweed shield lichen," that had been browsed by elk in areas where the paralyzed animals were found south of Rawlins. Photograph courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Gary Butler, Wyoming Game and Fish Habitat Program Manager, collects Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, also known as “tumbleweed shield lichen,” that had been browsed by elk in areas where the paralyzed animals were found south of Rawlins. Photograph courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Interview:

Walter Cook, Ph.D. and D.V.M., Wildlife Veterinarian, Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Veterinarian Laboratory, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming:

Healthy Elk Fed Lichen To See If Poisonous

“Indeed, when we had the rumen contents (stomach contents) of the elk analyzed, they did detect this lichen in the rumen contents. Consequently, Dr. Merl Raisbeck found some literature from the 1950s suggesting that one of the lichen that is fairly common in Wyoming caused a similar syndrome in the 1950s in cattle. So, based on that, we got kind of suspicious about this lichen – Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, or “tumbleweed shield lichen” – and we decided the best way to definitely find out if the lichen was the culprit was basically to feed it to some research elk.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has a research compound for wild animals and has some elk in that compound. So, we took three elk and put them on a diet of this lichen that is found out there and after seven days on the diet, one of the three elk went down. It exhibited virtually identical signs that we have seen in the field. Then three days later, or after ten days of being on that diet, the second animal went down. We still have a third animal who has been on that lichen diet for two weeks and that animal is doing fine. Based on that experiment, it looks very suspicious that the lichen is the culprit.

 

Rehydrating Sick Elk Did Not Work

Testing the idea that something might be interfering with the elk’s vitamin or mineral intake, four elk were kept alive on saline solution and food to see if they could be restored to better health. But after one week, one died, two became more ill and had to be put to sleep and the fourth remained very ill.

Two of the four paralyzed elk that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department tried to rehydrate to restore vitamin and mineral intake. But none of the animals improved. Image courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Dept.
Two of the four paralyzed elk that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department tried to rehydrate to restore vitamin and mineral intake. But none of the animals improved. Image courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Dept.

 

Deteriorated Elk Muscle Contains White Lesions

DID YOU DO NECROPSIES ON EITHER OF THOSE TWO SICK ELK THAT WENT DOWN AFTER YOUR EXPERIMENTAL DIET? IF YOU DID, WHAT ABOUT THE MUSCLES IN THE DISEASED ELK THAT HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS WHITISH AND SICKLY LOOKING, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN LINKED TO THIS TYPE OF TOXICITY BEFORE?

Yes, that’s correct. The two elk that went down and we did euthanize and necropsy them. The results on the first elk are completed now and the second one, we are waiting to get the histology results back from the pathologist at the State Vet Lab. But on the first animal, we have the same type of lesions there and see the same kind of muscle degeneration. So, that seems to indicate that whatever toxic compound is in the lichen is causing these muscles to break down.

AND TURN WHITE?

That occurs over an extended period of time. It is very difficult to see with the naked eye, except in the very advanced stages. But under a microscope, you can pretty clearly see the muscle degeneration.

 

Toxin Could Be Usnic Acid, But Lichen Components Still Not Known

IS IT TRUE THAT ONE OF THE CONFUSIONS IS THAT IN PEOPLE, THE SAME KIND OF USNIC ACID IS FOUND IN CERTAIN KINDS OF DIET PILLS BUT NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN MUSCLE DETERIORATION IN HUMANS – ONLY LIVER TOXICITY?

That’s my understanding from the people I have talked to, but I should point out that we’re not at all convinced at this point that usnic acid is the toxic compound we are dealing with. It’s been hypothesized, but not proven and it’s going to take a fair amount of work to determine exactly what the toxic compound is in this lichen that is causing the effect in the elk.

SO USNIC ACID IS NOT CONFIRMED AT ALL?

That’s exactly correct. Some of the reports in some of the newspapers make it sound like this is definitely the answer, but we’re nowhere near that point yet.

HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE?

We can analyze the lichen for usnic acid relatively rapidly ­ in a matter of a few weeks. But even if we find usnic acid in the lichen, that doesn’t necessarily mean that usnic acid is what is causing this particular problem. If usnic acid is isolated, we then have to try that out itself (on the elk) to see if that is the toxic compound.

The other thing that toxicologist Dr. Raisbeck is interested in doing is fractionating out various compounds from this lichen and going through and testing each one of them individually to see which compound is actually the toxic compound.

I AM SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT THERE HAS NOT EVEN BEEN A CONFIRMATION OF USNIC ACID IN THIS PARTICULAR LICHEN, GIVEN SOME WYOMING MEDIA REPORTS.

That’s correct. At this point, we don’t even no if it has usnic acid. The research that was done in the 1950s, they were able to detect usnic acid in the lichen. But we don’t even know if we are for sure dealing with the same species of lichen as they were in the 1950s.

I have been disappointed in some of the media articles. They were basically taking what were hypotheses and stating as facts. It might turn out that usnic acid is the culprit here. But we are not to that point yet.

 

Why Would Elk Eat Toxic Plants?

Wyoming Game and Fish personnel investigated ground around paralyzed elk and discovered large concentration of the lichen Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa. No specific toxic chemical in the lichen has yet been identified. Photograph courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Dept.
Wyoming Game and Fish personnel investigated ground around paralyzed elk and discovered large concentration of the lichen Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa. No specific toxic chemical in the lichen has yet been identified. Photograph courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Dept.

ANOTHER PUZZLE TO ME IS THAT ELK ARE AN INTELLIGENT ANIMAL AND THEY ARE VERY RUGGED AND THEY ARE ALL OVER THIS AREA IN WYOMING. I’M HEARING YOU SAY THAT THERE HASN’T BEEN ANYTHING IN ELK LIKE THIS BEFORE AND THAT IT WAS A 1950 STUDY RELATED TO CATTLE THAT IS FOCUSED ON USNIC ACID. WHY WOULD ELK EAT ANYTHING THAT WOULD CONTAIN A TOXIC POISON?

Well, that’s one of the things that we would like to figure out for ourselves. We really don’t know. There are a couple of different hypotheses.

One is that elk regularly ingest lichen and regularly ingest this particular type of lichen (Xanthoparmelia Chlorochroa), but that for whatever reason, the lichen in the red rim south of Rawlins has concentrated the toxin that it normally does not have, or has at very low levels. So that’s one hypothesis.

The other hypothesis would be that the habitat conditions, the foraging conditions, that are out there are relatively poor and so they didn’t have a lot of different forage to choose from. It might have been a matter of necessity that the lichen was abundant and that’s why they chose to eat that instead of something else because they didn’t have any choice. Those are the kinds of things that we definitely want to work out.

 

Toxic Metals?

SOME PEOPLE HAVE E-MAILED ME ABOUT URANIUM CONTAMINATION IN THAT WYOMING REGION’S WATER, BOTH GROUND WATER AND SURFACE WATER. COULD THE LICHEN ABSORB SOMETHING FROM URANIUM IN THE SOIL?

Probably not uranium itself. We tested for the heavy metals early on in the course of this investigation and couldn’t identify any. But there is a possibility of a different toxic compound that might be out there.

SOMETHING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, PERHAPS SUCH AS DRYNESS AND SUDDEN WATER COULD CONCENTRATE IT IN LICHEN?

That’s another hypothesis that we are working on that there is a fairly significant drought in this area and there are some toxins in some plants that do tend to concentrate under conditions of environmental stress, so that is certainly a possibility.

SO, WITHOUT THE DROUGHT, THE LICHEN MIGHT BE TOTALLY HARMLESS?

Yes, that is exactly right.

 

Most Females and Calves Disabled in Mid-February 2004

DO YOU STILL HAVE A STEADY DRIP OF A FEW PARALYSIS CASES EVERY DAY OR WEEK?

No, it seems like the event is over at this point. We had a peak of the number of cases probably in mid to late February. We had a few cases at the beginning of February and then it increased and got a lot of cases around mid-February and then it’s tapered off in March. I haven’t heard of any new cases in the last ten days.

WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT ANYBODY HAS BEEN ABLE TO POINT A FINGER TO THAT HAPPENED IN MID-FEBRUARY IN TERMS OF WEATHER OR INDUSTRY OR ANYTHING IN THAT AREA?

No, not yet.

DO YOU PERSONALLY HAVE ANY SUSPICIONS?

I guess I have two hypotheses I’m working from. One is the one I’ve already mentioned to you ­ that habitat stress, probably the drought, increased a level of a toxic compound in the lichen that doesn’t normally get concentrated enough to cause a problem.

The other is that perhaps the animals are slowly introduced to this stuff that their gut could slowly adapt to it so it doesn’t become a problem. Because we have other animals in this area, particularly pronghorn in there, and we haven’t verified this yet, but it’s possible the pronghorn are eating the same lichen and not having the effects. So, the idea that the animals might be able to adapt if they were gradually introduced to this stuff is a good possibility.

ISN’T THAT ONE OF THE PUZZLES THAT THE ONLY ANIMALS THAT SEEM TO BE AFFECTED WERE MOSTLY FEMALE ELK?

That was one of the things that was particularly puzzling about this ­ the fact that it was the females isn’t particularly troublesome because the herd itself was made up mostly of cows and calves. There weren’t a lot of bulls in there, so you wouldn’t expect to see a lot of bulls sick. But the fact that it was strictly elk when there are pronghorn out there, a few deer, a few head of cattle and horses, that is what is particular puzzling.

AND STILL NO ANSWER AS TO WHY.

Still no answer as to why, other than this adaptation hypothesis kind of makes sense from that perspective.

BUT WHY WOULD A PRONGHORN BE ABLE TO ADAPT WHEN A RUGGED ELK COULD NOT?

It’s just that the pronghorn is in that habitat year after year, but the particularly affected elk herd does not normally winter in this area. It normally winters considerably further south. So, if it is not normally accustomed to eating this particular lichen and it moves in there and suddenly eats a bunch of it. It seems plausible they could have over-indulged and got whatever toxic compound is in there at such a concentration that it caused this problem.

WHY WEREN’T THE ELK IN THEIR NORMAL FURTHER SOUTH AREA?

That’s anybody’s guess.

IT MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE DROUGHT?

It could. I really don’t know why they chose to be there this year (south of Rawlins) rather than where they have normally wintered.

IS IT TRUE THAT NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN SUCH A DETERIORATION IN 304 ELK EVER BEFORE?

Nothing like this. The only kind of die-offs we get on this kind of scale are usually winter-related mortalities, either starvation events or extreme cold weather. So, this is quite unique.

THIS IS UNIQUE AND IT IS UNIQUE TO THE ENTIRE GLOBE OF THE ELK POPULATION?

As far as I know. We’ve had e-mails going out to all of our colleagues throughout the nation, and even some international people, and no one has ever heard of anything like this before.

WHAT IS THEIR COMMENT BOTH ON THE UNIQUE DETERIORATION OF THE MUSCLES THAT CAN BE SEEN AS SICKLY WHITE?

They are quite surprised, to say the least. There are a variety of wildlife species that eat a variety of lichens. Caribou are probably the most well known. Caribou are closely related to elk and they make up a large part of their diet from various lichens. So, it was pretty puzzling to everybody. The muscle lesions ­ again, that is something that has not been described before with any kind of toxin like this. It is a unique situation.

 

Toxin Interfering With Cell’s Energy Production?

FROM YOUR VETERINARIAN DOCTORATE AND Ph.D. DEGREE, IS THERE ANY LESION IN ANY OTHER DISEASE THAT AFFECTS ELK THAT COMES CLOSE TO THIS?

Yes, if animals are over-exerted, basically run too hard, their muscles can deteriorate like this. I have seen that both in wild animals and in endurance riding with horses. Horses, if they are over-exerted in endurance rides, can have the same kind of thing.

WHAT WOULD CAUSE EXTREME EXERTION IN PREGNANT FEMALE ELK?

One of the hypotheses out there is that whatever toxic compound ­ it might shut down the cell’s ability to manufacture energy. Because of that, the energy sources of that muscle cell get depleted very rapidly and so the muscle degrades because of that. It’s not because the muscle is being over-exhorted. It’s that the muscle is unable to regenerate its energy supply.

DOES THIS FALL IN ANYWAY INTO THE CATEGORY OF WHAT HAPPENS IN THINGS LIKE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND THINGS LIKE PRION-RELATED DISEASE?

No, this seems to be pretty much so far dealing just with the muscle. It doesn’t seem to be that the nerves are affected at all. There is no indication of any kind of prion activity occurring at all.

 

Trying To Understand Why 50-Square-Miles Became Poisonous to Elk

DO YOU IN AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL WAY TO SOLVE SUCH A MYSTERY THAT SEEMS TO HAVE A BELL-SHAPED CURVE IN CAUSE AND AFFECT THAT WENT THROUGH FEBRUARY, PEAKING IN MID-FEBRUARY? HOW DO YOU TRY TO FIND OUT WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED IN THE LANDSCAPE?

Fifteen miles south of Rawlins, Wyoming, in a 50-square-mile area owned and managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) 304 elk have been disabled by baffling paralysis since first of February 2004, and subsequently euthanized by the WGFD.
Fifteen miles south of Rawlins, Wyoming, in a 50-square-mile area owned and managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) 304 elk have been disabled by baffling paralysis since first of February 2004, and subsequently euthanized by the WGFD.

That is actually a good question and that is one of the things that lead up to this. When we first started having the deaths occurring, we have this list of differential diagnoses ­ anything that could cause a similar syndrome. Very early on, we determined that this was not an infectious agent. The vet lab did not isolate any bacteria or viruses or parasites that would have lead to something like this. there was no indication of an immune response as you would expect in an infectious disease. So, fairly rapidly in the course of this investigation, we decided it was some kind of a toxin. Then we started thinking about what is the possibility for a toxic water source or a toxic spill that might have occurred at some place. then as the whole thing progressed and we start of getting what you are describing, the bell-shaped curve of death, and also deaths occurring over a very wide area ­ about 50 square miles in which the elk were dying. that made it very unlikely that we were dealing with a single point source of a toxin. Most spills in a toxic water problem would be a single point source, so the animals would die in a fairly small radius to that point source.

That was another thing that keyed us into that whatever this toxin is, it is pretty equally distributed out there in the environment. That was when Dr. Merl Raisbeck and Mr. Benge Brown, game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Dept., noticed all the lichen appeared to have been browsed upon. But what it is in the lichen that is causing this, we don’t know yet and it will probably be a matter of months before we are able to say for sure.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT WHATEVER HAPPENED, THE ELK DON’T SEEM TO BE DYING IN THE NUMBERS THAT THEY WERE IN FEBRUARY?

That’s correct. Whether that’s because they adapted to it, or more likely, it’s because they moved out of there. They’ve headed back south into their more traditional migration for summer. They are out of the area of the toxin.

BUT ISN’T THAT A MYSTERY BECAUSE THAT 50-SQUARE-MILE AREA STILL HAS A LOT OF ANIMALS IN IT? WHY AREN’T THE OTHER ANIMALS AFFECTED? WHY ONLY THOSE PREGNANT ELK AND THEIR CALVES?

That’s one of the things we want to work up on. There are still some deer and pronghorns in the area, whether it’s because they chose not to eat the lichen or because they adapted to it. We want to look at the diets of the other animals out there to see if they have eaten any of this – or learned to avoid it.”


More Earthfiles Information:

· 03/09/2004 —  300 Wyoming Elk Dead After Baffling Paralysis


Websites:

http://gf.state.wy.us/

Milkweed Poisoning Killed the 31 Cedaredge, Colorado Cattle

Cedaredge is a farming and ranching community southeast of Grand Junction, Colorado.
Cedaredge is a farming and ranching community southeast of Grand Junction, Colorado.

March 12, 2004 Cedaredge, Colorado – Cedaredge, Colorado is west of Grand Junction in a Rocky Mountain region that has long been the home of farmers and ranchers. And one of those ranchers had 31 of his cattle die last weekend on Saturday, March 6, 2004, in only 12 hours. Vern Hillis estimates the one yearling bull and 30 mostly pregnant heifers were worth about $31,000. Veterinarians at first were not able to confirm what caused the cattle to stumble and fall down kicking and tossing their heads until their last breath. But today, a positive test was confirmed for a particular milkweed plant that grows in the region. It can kill cattle rapidly and violently.

Rancher Vern Hillis is 62-years-old and was born and raised on the ranch first settled by his grandfather. In the past half century of working the family’s 1400 acres, Mr. Hillis told me he has never encountered anything like the mass death of half his herd. I talked with him this week about what happened – prior to the Friday, March 12, lab confirmation that the culprit was milkweed.Click for report.

300 Wyoming Elk Dead After Baffling Paralysis

Fifteen miles south of Rawlins, Wyoming, in a 50-square-mile area owned and managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) 300 elk have been disabled by baffling paralysis and subsequently euthanized by the WGFD.
Fifteen miles south of Rawlins, Wyoming, in a 50-square-mile area owned and managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) 300 elk have been disabled by baffling paralysis and subsequently euthanized by the WGFD.
Female elk unable to rise on her legs. Ten animals have been airlifted by helicopters to veterinarian pathologists trying to find an answer for the bizarre paralysis. So far, no answers, as the numbers of disabled elk keep rising. Image courtesy WGFD.
Female elk unable to rise on her legs. Ten animals have been airlifted by helicopters to veterinarian pathologists trying to find an answer for the bizarre paralysis. So far, no answers, as the numbers of disabled elk keep rising. Image courtesy WGFD.

March 9, 2004  Cheyenne, Wyoming – On February 8, 2004, Wyoming coyote hunters contacted the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Rawlins to report their finding two live elk down on their chests, unable to rise. The location was about 15 miles southwest of Rawlins on land actually owned and managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. A Rawlins field biologist went to investigate, found the two elk and subsequently, other field investigators found another 80 live, paralyzed elk. The number of debilitated animals has now risen to almost 300 today. Nine more, all alive, were found the weekend of March 6-7, 2004. Sadly, all found alive and paralyzed have been euthanized to put them out of their misery.This week I talked about the baffling phenomenon with Tom Reed, Publications Supervisor, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Cheyenne, Wyoming.Click for report.

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