Nuclear Disinformation

"Workers use heavy machinery to remove waste in an area near two dormant nuclear reactors on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., May 6, 2004." Image Source: AP / Jackie Johnston via CTV.

Today, the BBC confirmed that the steam which continues to rise from reactor #3 at Fukushima One is a cause for concern. Water should not be boiling if a reactor is in cold shutdown. Histories of Things to Come also recently covered a series of photographs (here) of Fukushima's mutated vegetables. These photos are now being debunked online as an Internet hoax. How much of a hoax they are is debatable.. About.com dismisses the latter report as a Millennial urban legend, since the vegetables were photographed before the Fukushima accident, or were grown too far from the Fukushima site to have been effected. One could always ask whether the fallout from the accident was more widespread than has been acknowledged to the public.

Meanwhile, the American Department of Energy dismissed another major cause for concern, the Hanford nuclear waste repository in Washington state. The Department assured the public on 22 July 2013 that the contents of a leaking tank have not reached the soil, although an elevated radiation reading was found in the leak detection pit. The feds say there is no immediate threat, but state officials want to pump the tank out anyway:

Tank AY-102 holds more than an Olympic-sized swimming pool’s worth of toxic radioactive waste. Federal managers say video and water tests found no leaks so-far outside of the tank. But Washington State officials aren’t convinced this tank will stay sound. That’s why they are asking the Department of Energy to pump out all the liquid it can from AY-102.

Other reports state that the leak is indeed reaching the soil.  Another nonscientific report observes an increase in birth defects among inhabitants near the area.