Land & Water

Manitowoc County has approximately 1,220 farms with approximately 187,000 tillable acres averaging 153 acres per farm including approximately 195 dairy farms with 55,000 cows (Source). Those acres of precious soil would be unusable for thousands of years following a nuclear accident. The soil, food supply, water and animals would be contaminated and affected.

Millions of people depend on the Great Lakes and thousands depend on Lake Michigan for their drinking water supply. Due to the location of Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of Lake Michigan, should an accident or leak occur, the damage and consequences would spread far beyond the reach of Wisconsin.

Radioactive isotopes released in accidents include Iodine-131 and Cesium-137. Exposure to I-131 comes from contaminated water, milk, foods or breathing dust particles contaminated with I-131.  I-131 accumulates in the thyroid gland, which produces hormones that control how quickly the body uses energy.  The thyroid doesn’t distinguish between I-131 and non-radioactive iodine, so the thyroid will accumulate either form.  This may increase the risk of thyroid cancer many years later, especially in kids.

Mothers & Children

Women, children, fetuses, and embryos are the most radiosensitive. Experts theorize that rapid cell division during childhood and pregnancy are the reasons for vulnerability of embryos and fetuses. Then radiation has a negative impact on estrogen and consequently its function in the body. Furthermore, women have much larger reproductive organs and hormonal systems than men (and remember the “reference man” is what regulations and standards are based on).

Children that were around the Chernobyl contaminated areas suffered reduced respiratory capacity. Additionally, birth defects were found in children and grandchildren of the adults there were exposed to the Chernobyl disaster.

Mining: “Early findings from a government-funded study reveal that almost a quarter of 781 Navajo (Diné) women examined have high levels of uranium in their bodies. Newborns continued to have these high levels in their bodies as well, for at least the first year of their life. This discovery by the University of New Mexico researchers is occurring decades after uranium mining for cold war atomic bombs has ended, meaning that living in a contaminated environment is to blame.” More information and source >>

cancer

From the “National Cancer Institute: Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants and Cancer Risk”, high doses of ionizing radiation can cause radiation sickness and death, but it’s also a carcinogen even at low doses because it damages DNA. Children and adolescents are even more sensitive to cancer causing effects of ionizing radiation because their bodies are still growing and developing - plus they have more years of life following exposure which cancer may develop.

Cancer risks associated with nuclear power plant accidents, depends on:

1. specific radioactive materials released and the quantity

2. how a person comes into contact with radioactive material (e.g. contaminated food, water, air or on the skin)

3. person’s age (younger age is at higher risk)

4. duration and amount of exposure

People at risk need to minimize locally grown produce and local water consumption as well as take potassium iodide, preferably should take it within a few hours of exposure or preemptively before exposure. “Potassium iodide is a salt of stable (not radioactive) iodine that can help block radioactive iodine from being absorbed by the thyroid gland, thus protecting this gland from radiation injury” (CDC).

It should be noted that the NRC was commissioned to conduct a study to examine cancer incidences around nuclear facilities in 2010. However, the NRC cancelled the study in 2015 because they claimed it would be to expensive and funding difficulties.

Radiation SIckness

Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space at the speed of light. This energy has an electric field and a magnetic field associated with it, and has wave-like properties. You could also call radiation “electromagnetic waves” (source).

Acute radiation syndrome (aka radiation sickness) is caused by a high amount of radiation exposure in a short time period. According to the CDC, there are four stages of radiation sickness and they are described below:

1. Prodromal stage (N-V-D stage): The classic symptoms for this stage are nausea, vomiting, as well as anorexia and possibly diarrhea (depending on dose), which occur from minutes to days following exposure. The symptoms may last (episodically) for minutes up to several days.

2. Latent stage: In this stage, the patient looks and feels generally healthy for a few hours or even up to a few weeks.

3. Manifest illness stage: In this stage the symptoms depend on the specific syndrome and last from hours up to several months.

4. Recovery or death: Most patients who do not recover will die within several months of exposure. The recovery process lasts from several weeks up to two years.

Treatments for radiation sickness include addressing nausea and vomiting, treat bone marrow depletion possibly with a transplantation, treat skin lesions with topical ointments and try to avoid further infections.