One year later Forbes resumes Fukushima coverage — Jeff McMahon continues reporting on EPA and Fukushima radiation

Published: April 27th, 2012 at 1:39 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
24 comments


Title: Inspector General Faults EPA Radiation Monitoring
Source: Forbes
Author: Jeff McMahon
Date: Apr. 27, 2012

Twenty percent of the EPA’s stationary radiation monitors were out of service last year at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident, leading the U.S. Office of the Inspector General to conclude that the EPA’s Radnet system is “vulnerable” and managed with less urgency and priority than it deserves.

Broken monitors, parts shortages, “relaxed quality controls” and a lack of volunteer operators left 25 of the EPA’s 124 stationary monitors out of service for an average of 130 days at the beginning of the Fukushima disaster, according to the OIG. Two monitors—in Harlingen, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina—were out of service for more than a year.

“EPA’s RadNet program will remain vulnerable until it is managed with the urgency and priority that the Agency reports it to have to its mission,” the Inspector General concludes in an audit released last week. [...]

Read the report here

Published: April 27th, 2012 at 1:39 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
24 comments

Related Posts

  1. Obama pick to lead EPA is from ‘Office of Air and Radiation’ — In charge of troubled ‘RadNet’ during Fukushima peak March 4, 2013
  2. Gov’t Report: EPA’s ability to protect human health with RadNet was “potentially impaired” for Fukushima — Officials questioned why they were using “dramatically less strict” standards for radioactive contamination April 24, 2012
  3. Correspondent: “I couldn’t believe CNN was making me put what I knew to be gov’t lies into my reporting” (VIDEO) September 28, 2012
  4. U.S. Nuclear Expert: We are currently experiencing a cyber attack — Email system also compromised February 1, 2013
  5. Fairewinds: Website is under verified DDS attack — Another nuclear expert’s site had similar problems — Both involved with San Onofre issue — “What is the nuke industry hiding?” February 1, 2013

24 comments to One year later Forbes resumes Fukushima coverage — Jeff McMahon continues reporting on EPA and Fukushima radiation

  • Whoopie Whoopie

    Posted at HP
    Video of SFP4 | Fukushima Diary: http://bit.ly/JxxxaI #genpatsu #BBC #PBS @maddow #LAW #HumanRight


    Report Comment

  • nuckelchen nuckelchen

    ..tepcologic, what else.. ;-)


    Report Comment

  • TheBigPicture TheBigPicture

    EPA included this with their data for the first couple months of the disaster.

    "To-date, levels recorded at this monitor have been thousands of times below any conservative level of concern."


    Report Comment

  • What-About-The-Kids

    Hey, thanks, Jeff McMahon for your latest Fuku article. But just one question: where the heck have you been for the past year? Fuku hasn't stopped spewing this entire time, so why did you stop (not "spewing," of course, but reporting?) ;-)


    Report Comment

  • glowfus

    you picked a fine time to leave me radnetlucile, 4 trillion beguerrels and a sfp in the field, we've had some hot times,,,


    Report Comment

  • Less data, less fear, less harm. Yeah right.
    Nothing short of criminal.


    Report Comment

    • What-About-The-Kids

      Gotta love their excuse: "We can't ask our volunteers to actually do the job they volunteered with us to do." Sounds like they need some new volunteer trainers and managers, at the very least…if this is indeed what the real problem was…


      Report Comment

  • Cisco Cisco

    Here's what future generations in the Japan and the Northern Hemisphere will be looking like.

    All the pukes at the NRC. IAEC, the US Conrgress, the administration, their nuclear and other corporate masters, and their shills and lobbyists should have to watch this video essay…Paul Fusco's "Chernobyl Legacy". Then tell us how safe nuclear power is.

    http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl

    Those of us who will not be exposed to Fukushima's radioactive fallout…will be the exceptions.

    You will inhale it, eat it, or have skin exposure. And, it will metastasize into a cancer sometime in your life. Your DNA will be corrupted; and, if you procreate, you will pass your damaged genes on to the next generation, and each generation thereafter.

    WTF


    Report Comment

  • Kevin Kevin

    No resources for monitoring properly but endless resources and cash to throw into the plutonium pit….

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/the-federal-governments-10-billion-plutonium-boondoggle/256470/


    Report Comment

    • What-About-The-Kids

      Thanks for the link to this excellent opinion piece in The Atlantic, Kevin! Joe Cirincione of the Plowshare Fund hits the nail precisely on its wastful nuclear head!

      snip:

      "Some members of Congress are trying to restore billions in funding for a new factory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make plutonium cores for nuclear bombs that the military doesn't need. Meanwhile, President Obama is plowing ahead with plans to make plutonium fuel rods for power reactors that no power company wants to buy. Together, construction costs for these two radioactive white elephants add up to over $10 billion, and rising."

      and:

      "CMRR isn't the only white elephant in the nuclear budget. The plan to build a new facility for producing a dangerous nuclear fuel is equally wasteful.

      "In his speech at Hankuk University in South Korea, President Obama called his plan part of the "fuel cycle of the future." Plutonium fuel is not the fuel of the future. It is the failed fuel of the past.

      "This Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, a blend of plutonium and uranium, is dangerous and expensive. That's why no power companies in the United States want to buy it. Producing this fuel will weaken the global nonproliferation regime by developing a plutonium economy that will encourage plutonium production."


      Report Comment

    • CaptD CaptD

      Great link!

      Let's not forget to mention all the Nuclear CRIMES committed by these folks:
      US Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium
      http://www.dcbureau.org/

      A really high quality article with attached research doc's…


      Report Comment

  • PoorDaddy PoorDaddy

    This article is total bullshit! They intentionally pulled these monitors offline so no one would find out just how fucking high the levels were. You may be able to NUKE us all to death one way or another, but you can't blow smoke up our asses anymore!
    SHUT EM ALL DOWN NOW !


    Report Comment

  • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

    Why are volunteers involved in radiation monitoring?

    The nation is full of fire departments with firemen that have time available when not at a fire or training that would allow them to maintain radiation monitoring equipment.

    I thought that one up in about 2 minutes after reading the info. above from the article. Why are we not making use of already existing infrastructure/people like the firemen to help facilitate this? I must be a freakin' genius or more likely the government doesn't really want us to know what the radiation reading are.

    You want a more efficient government, elect some Mom's who are on a tight budget. They will show you how to use all resources and stretch a buck.


    Report Comment

    • What-About-The-Kids

      LOL!!! :-D You got that right, EnoughAlready45! Moms definitely can teach the EPA a thing or two!

      And I love your idea about using the help of firefighters on their downtime! Why didn't anyone else think about that one? You MUST be a genius! LOL!


      Report Comment

  • CaptD CaptD

    Agreed
    You can bet that these "volunteers" are all very cozy with the Nuclear Industry and know when to lay low and claim everything is A-OK, especially when it is NOT!


    Report Comment