Please visit the American Anti-Vivisection Society and consider donating your time and/or funds to enrich animal lives and stop the usage of our fellow animals as laboratory experiments.An airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded about 4 p.m. Saturday in the Unit 1 containment building, according to a statement from Exelon Nuclear, which operates the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The unit had been shut down since October 26 for refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement, the company said.
"A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal," the company said. "Two other monitors displayed normal readings."
Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident, a partial meltdown in 1979 that resulted in the plant's second reactor being shut down permanently.
Tests showed the contamination in Saturday's incident was confined to the building itself, and none was found outside, Exelon said. There was no threat to public health and safety, but the workers were sent home because they could not continue until the area was cleaned, Bill Noll, Exelon vice president, said in the Saturday statement.
One worker was found to have received 16 millirem of exposure, and others received lower levels of contamination. The annual occupational dose limit for workers at Exelon plants is 2,000 millirem, the statement said.
Radiation exposure from a chest X-ray is about 6 millirem, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Although Noll said it was hoped work would resume at Unit 1 on Sunday, Exelon spokeswoman Beth Archer told CNN on Sunday it had not resumed, as the cause of the leak was still under investigation.
Two radiation specialists from the NRC were scheduled to investigate Sunday. "Numerous work activities were going on in the building at the time the alarm sounded, and Exelon engineers are working to determine the cause of the incident," the statement said." read the full article here...
I was enamored of Stone Brewing Company's IPA all Summer long. Now, I have found a beer of their making, just as exciting, to quaff all Winter long: "Smoked Porter". Oh, the taste buds rejoice! Peat-smoked malt!
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists have reached an agreement Friday that scraps a controversial rule the agency had used to kill or permanently remove any wolf that killed three heads of livestock in a year.Fish and Wildlife spokesman Tom Buckley says the rule "will no longer stand."
He says the agency has ways to deal with livestock kills "and remains committed to assisting the local livestock operators in any negative impacts they may have related to wolves."
Environmentalists complained the three-strikes rule favored the ranching industry and was a major roadblock to the effort to recover the species in the wild. Ranchers responded the policy targets wolves that grow accustomed to preying on cattle.
Several environmental groups sued in May 2008, asking the U.S. District Court in Arizona to stop the removal policy." The Associated Press, November 14, 2009
Magic Hat Brewery in Burlington, Vermont has created an amazing Winter Lager in its new offering called "Howl". The brew is dark and dusky and I love it.Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.
Growing up, my parents and I went to Assateague Island, Maryland every summer. Usually in July, as my Mom always had that month off from work. We had a home-made camper on the back of our four-wheel drive International Harvester "Scout", and we would go as far down the island as allowed, and camp right there. It was fabulous. I loved it.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The last of the Evening Primroses (Oenothera) in their full glory. There would have been more this year, but the deer found them too tasty to resist. (Insert heavy sigh here)...
'Fire In The Lake' by Frances Fitzgerald is a deeply researched and intimate foray into the mind of Vietnam. It was a fantastic & interesting read. I've had this book for so long! Finally read it, and very glad for the fact. I learned a lot.
"Hazed & Infused" is a dry-hopped ale from Boulder Beer Company in Colorado. Tasty, with a really good aftertaste. Part of their 'Looking Glass' beer series. I've been on a real hop adventure recently, and this one fits right in quite well. Unfiltered also, yeah!"WASHINGTON - February 26 - A federal court has ruled [2] that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must close a loophole that -- for more than 25 years -- has made it easy for mining companies, coal ash dumps, and a host of other polluting industries to skip out on costly cleanups by declaring bankruptcy. The case concerned EPA's failure to issue "financial assurances" standards that ensure that polluting industries will always remain financially able to clean up dangerous spills and other contaminated sites.
Attorneys Lisa Evans and Jan Hasselman with the public interest law firm Earthjustice represented the Sierra Club and environmental groups in New Mexico, Nevada, and Idaho in the case, decided late yesterday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, based in San Francisco.
Environmental advocates hailed the decision as a victory that paves the way for new federal rules that would require hardrock and phosphate mine operators, metal finishers, wood treatment facilities, and other industries to post bonds covering the cost of potential future cleanups.
"By not promulgating financial assurance requirements, EPA has allowed companies that otherwise might not have been able to operate and produce hazardous waste to potentially shift the responsibility for cleaning up hazardous waste to taxpayers," Judge Alsup wrote in the decision. The undisputed evidence before the Court demonstrated that such financial assurance requirements result in better environmental protection and faster and more thorough cleanups.
When the Superfund law was passed in 1980, lawmakers gave EPA three years to start putting financial assurance regulations in place. More than 25 years later, these regulations remain unwritten. Under the terms of the decision, EPA has until May 4 to identify the industries that will be first subject to these financial assurance requirements.
"This victory paves the way for the new administration to correct a longstanding environmental problem while saving taxpayers billions of dollars at the same time," said Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman, who argued the case before Judge Alsup. "New standards will push companies that deal with toxic substances towards more responsible practices."' read the rest of this good news here...thank you Earthjustice and Common Dreams!
Oh, yes, it's Oxford Raspberry Wheat. Fantastic! I am thrilled that Oxford has taken the organic ingredient path. I've been consuming their Raspberry Wheat for six years , and find myself even more enthusiastic now...visit the website...enjoy the beer...save the world!!!
