At no point does the referenced article state has prompted evacuations. The article only contemplates possible evacuation zones and where people might be sent if an evacuation advisory, warning or order were given. There is nothing wrong with the article. There is however some thing wrong with WIPP putting a chill on a possible need for future evacuations when they have not even investigated the mines yet. The truth is WIPP claims it does not know the state of their tunnels and therefore can not claim that possible evacuations are needed or not needed. In addition, obviously for liability reasons they would most likely never evacuate. WIPP officials do not have the authority or position in regards to public health to make the determination of when an evacuation is needed. That judgment rests on the governor of the state under the guidance of government agencies and on each individuals own judgment call on whether or not they believe the current standards of release used by our government is what they feel comfortable with in their lives. TEPCO never issued an evacuation order for the public only their employees. It was the government of Japan which issued the order and the same will be true for New Mexico and Texas. Keep in mind, that the release standards in America were determined over 40 years ago back when slide rules were in use, before calculators were invented and when smoking cigarettes was considered to have no harmful risks. Our standards are based on what is safe for a 180 pound man. Our standards do not take into account what is safe for under 180 pounds, women or children nor for our most vulnerable cells which are our egg and sperm. Nuclear workers are able to work in nuclear facilities weighing less than 180 pounds because they wear dosimeters and by math calculations are able to determine when their body weight exposure is over the limit safe for their annual exposure rates. What government agencies announce as being below any acceptable exposure limit is only in reference to the 180 pound man. This is why absolute zero is what is needed for our release standards. So, that information is released in understandable units. When you hear a WIPP official say a dental x-ray dose understand that a dental x-ray is a onetime event and is not a comparable dose for a leak of particles because particles are taken into the body during an x-ray consequently the equivalent of inhaling or ingesting such a dose is a life time event during a leak meaning repeated dental x-ray dose from the particles for the rest of your life.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 04:24:23 +0000
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