"Two Cas in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish"

This is the title of a Simpson’s episode in which Lisa and Bart go fishing in the river next to Springfield’s nuclear power plant and catch a fish with three eyes. Homer tries to argue that the fish’s appearance is due to evolution but everyone knows it’s a mutation due to the radioactive waste from the power plant. This episode struck me as interesting because the negative effects that nuclear power plants have had on the environment in the United States is real. One particular case that is rather recent is the Yakama Nation situation in 2003 the tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy; contending that the DOE has failed to protect the Columbia River from pollution from the Hanford nuclear reservation. That the declining Northwest salmon populations in the last 50 years are due to the radioactive materials like uranium and strontium that remain in the river sediment while other radioactive hazards and wastes that were buried or dumped at Hanford years ago have worked their way into the groundwater.

Another example is the Beaverlodge Uranium Mill where millions of tons of liquid and solid waste were directly dumped into Fookes Lake (early 1980s). This is a totally blind long-nose sucker fish caught downstream from the Beaverlodge uranium mill. This fish is a casualty of radioactive and heavy metal pollution — the eyes have no pupils. Blindness in fish is a known result of radioactive contamination from uranium mines; fish accumulate so many radioactivities in their bodies that in some areas immediately downstream from uranium mines, they present a health hazard if eaten regularly. These are just two examples of the dire effects that nuclear power can have on the environment when the strictest safety regulations are not adhered.

While there is much promise in the future of nuclear science its past is ugly and full of skeletons, that won’t go away. In places outside the USA like Chernobyl where it is estimated that 17,000 people will die from cancer caused by the Chernobyl fallout over the next 50 years. The film “Chernobyl Heart” is a sobering look at the fallout effects from 1986 that are literally killing babies in the womb. Only a 5% of children living in the Chernobyl region are healthy and the children are particularly susceptible to radiation-induced illnesses. Many have Leukemia, cancer of the thyroid and other cancers. Brain tumors are also now greatly increased. Babies are born with many different deformities. These kid are born without a chance at a successful or healthy life a quote that really made an impact on me is from humanitarian Adi Roche: “Children are being exposed to it particularly through dairy products, they are being exposed to it in the water; you know when they swim or fish in their streams or their rivers, even though they're not supposed to, but you cannot tell people they cannot do these things when children play in un-sandy roads or in their back yards or in sand pits in their school yards; they cannot avoid the fallout. When kids are going to dig and they’ll play and then of course the farmers are constantly out and plowing up the land and their plowing up the radioactivity and it gets back into the food chain – whether you’re a vegetarian or not – it makes no difference because it’s in the vegetables as much as it is in the animal life.” To think that this horrific accident was due largely because of human err and folly makes one think. Indian Point Energy Center is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchannan, NY just 24 miles of New York City. Anything is possible. Would we be ready if a calamity like Chernobyl occurred?

The Trinity Test: From my Grandma’s back porch

The trinity test was the first test ever of a nuclear weapon; it was conducted on July 16, 1945 at 5:29:45am in New Mexico at what is now known as White Sands Missile Range. This test was crucial for various reasons; its success gave Truman leverage against Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, and following the test, two bombs were prepared and then dropped at different dates on Hiroshima (Aug 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9). Effectively ending the war and also marking the beginning of the commonly referred to “Atomic Age” leading into the cold war.

This topic is of particular interest to me because my grandmother lived in Belen, New Mexico at the time of the Trinity Test. Belen is roughly 176 miles North of Alamogordo but even that distance was of little consequence, my grandma described witnessing it “as the sky just lighting up as if it was on fire”. Imagine the variety of emotions all those who had witnessed this event such as my grandma experienced. Initial confusion at what they had just witnessed, some could have even have interpreted it as the apocalypse. Visualize the whole just lighting on fire and dependent upon proximity the after effects of the bomb’s explosion (windows rattling, earth shaking, and loud boom). Then later to have army officials appear at your door with the pathetic excuse, that there had been a secret ammunition dump in Alamogordo that had caught fire causing the explosion witnessed. The gossip in the surrounding towns must have been wild with conspiracy stories, and then on August 6th learning of the bombing of Hiroshima and the immediate deaths of 70,000+ men, women and children. Realization of the unleashed power of this weapon which had been detonated only a short distance from their homes by the US Army and seeing all the death, destruction and pain it was causing in Japan. To have witnessed firsthand something with the power to destroy the world, scary and emotionally damaging too many like my grandmother; I remember as a littler girl my grandmother telling me this story as a bogey man story. Be a good little girl otherwise the Army will drop a bomb on your town whose effects will be evident for many generations to follow.

The Genius of Farm Hall

During World War II, scientific research was beginning to focus on nuclear technology, something that was new, unknown, and exciting. This field of research was full of opportunities and promise of publication, which in the scientific community is crucial to success. A main misconception, however, involving Germany and their nuclear research was their end goal. Many believe that Germany was like America racing to build the bomb to end the war. Germany was actually more focused on the industrial prospects of nuclear technology and government officials did not believe that “the wonder weapon” could be completed before the end of the war. Their ideology was that, the weapons they were using were proving quite effective, so why change? This lasted until Germany began to lose, then they began to allot generous funding to nuclear research in attempt to create “the wonder weapon”. History is quite clear on the fact that German scientist were unsuccessful in building the bomb, what is not clear, however, is why.
Operation Epsilon was the code name of an allied operation at the end of World War II, where they arrested and detained ten German scientist who were suspected of working Nazi nuclear weapons, from May 1 to December 1945. The scientists were detained in Farm Hall a house in Godsmanchester, England that was wiretapped. The main objective was to determine how close Germany had been to constructing the atomic bomb. The genius behind this operation was the simplicity of it all. These scientists weren’t Gestapo or the SS, they were just scientist, they’re specialty was physics not interrogation techniques. Their primary concerns were simple, what had become of their families and what was to become of them. Over time they became focused on internal conflicts such as “Was I a Nazi?” and “Did We Want to Make Atomic Bombs?” Although the results from Operation Epsilon are on the whole inconclusive on the issue of why exactly German failed to make the atomic bomb; the impact of America’s success with nuclear research was devastatingly clear. Germany had assumed they were leading the nuclear research race; much of their time post Hiroshima was spent trying to figure out how. Pure brilliance, give a group of German scientist news that they had lost the nuclear race the therefore could be considered inferior to America; and then not tell them how it was done. They were able to listen to these scientists desperately attempt to figure out where they had gone wrong and thus conclude how close Germany was to acquiring nuclear technology; or rather how far Germany had been from successfully building an atomic bomb

The First Test

The First Physics Test
I don’t know about everyone else but I am relieved to get that first test over with; especially since that was my first test as a college student. I was unhappy with how I responded to the question, involving the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I figured that would be the topic of this blog. In a slight attempt to redeem myself for the foolish answer I gave on the test. Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in equation form looks like this: where is the uncertainty in position, is the uncertainty in momentum, and is h-bar. Now if you were to ask me to use this formula to calculate something I would be completely lost be unable to. When professor Maleki wrote this on the board I remember thinking to myself “what the hell is that!!?” This confusion was brief as Prof. Maleki followed with an explanation what event my little brothers would have been able to follow. Their will always be an inherent value of uncertainty in the results. Precision in measurements is near impossible dependent upon your instruments. The main point was that you can’t measure all the values at once or as Prof. Maleki repeatedly stated “Nature is allusive” That you can not find the exact position and momentum of an object, or you can not know the exact energy and time of an object. This is conflict with Classical Physics which states that you can all measurements are obtainable the only obstacle would be the precision and accuracy of the equipment and observer. Whereas Heisenberg states that regardless of faulty equipment or human miscalculations that certain measurements are unobtainable. This in my opinion is extremely disturbing, that science can be limited like this.