Radioactivity found in Swiss lake near nuclear plant

[bananas]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Scientists have discovered a radioactive substance in sediment under a Swiss lake used for drinking water and situated near a nuclear plant, the Le Matin Dimanche weekly reported Sunday.

<snip>

The plant is believed to have caused a spike in cesium 137 found in the sediment of Lake Biel and dating back to 2000 through the discharge of contaminated waste water into the Aar river that feeds into the lake, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) downstream, the weekly reported.

<snip>

Politicians and environmentalists however expressed outrage Sunday that the plant and nuclear inspectors had provided no information about the higher levels of cesium 137 released more than a decade ago into a lake that provides 68 percent of the drinking water to the nearby town of Biel.

<snip>

The group, which has long called for the plant's closure, also questioned in a statement how the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate could have either missed the higher radioactive levels or decided not to inform decision makers or the public about them.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130714/radioactivity-found-swiss-lake-near-nuclear-plant

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Among the other secrets being kept from the public....

which brings up the question..why is there NO discussion of the continuing radiation spewing from Fukishima?

[drynberg]

2. YES, THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE MY MIND WENT UPON HEARING THIS LATEST SWISS MISS

When will we learn that this Nuclear Fuel Cycle has to be perfect or very bad outcomes happen? Hint: We ain't perfect...

[mbperrin]

3. What a shock! The most vile, dangerous process ever invented

and something went wrong.

Imagine.

And yet when I argue for wind and solar, I get bombarded by all these "green" nuclear folks.

Huh.

[Taft_Bathtub]

7. Coal and Fracking are way worse.

Also this plant is 41 years old. It probably should be replaced.

[mbperrin]

10. Yes, those are bad. That's why I support wind and solar. ONLY.

But even coal and fracking don't have waste products with half lives in the thousands of years.

[Taft_Bathtub]

12. I support solar and wind as well.

I also support nuclear, at least the current technology reactors (any reactor older than me needs to be replaced ASAP), and also thorium which doesn't have the lengthy half-life waste that you describe.

[NickB79]

13. Coal and fracking DO have waste products that last many millenia

The CO2 and methane being released will alter the climate for hundreds of thousands of years before nature finally re-sequesters it.

Burning coal releases massive amounts of naturally occurring uranium and thorium, both emitting low-level radiation.

And the massive amounts of heavy metals released by burning coal don't even have half-lives; they're toxic FOREVER until redeposited deep in the earth.

[mbperrin]

14. That's why I only support wind and solar.

They're here. Existing companies don't want to change, so they sling propaganda instead.

[NickB79]

16. Agreed.

There was a time I was more supportive of nuclear, but that time has passed. Theoretically, I think we could have done it right if we'd focused more on different designs back in the 60's and 70's (thorium reactors, for example) but we went a different way that ultimately appears to be a failure.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Biel/Bienne.

.

[watoos]

5. Just a wild guess but

I wouldn't want to live downwind from any nuclear plant anywhere. Every plant leaks radiation of some kind.

[panzerfaust]

6. Oh, probably just one of those coincidences which popup now and again. Nothing to worry about.

[Liberalagogo]

8. Jebus! i was just going to post this:

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Maybe Jeebus is pissed at the moneychangers?

Don't the people who build this shit ever watch a fucking 1950s monster flick?

On the down side, cancer is not very funny.

[hunter]

11. Clearly they should replace it with a coal fired plant, just like the Germans are doing.

Seriously, old nuclear plants ought to be shut down, but sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

It's a good bet that the fossil fuel poisons accumulated in these lake sediments are deadlier than the nuclear poisons. Things like mercury and lead have "half lives" of forever.

Natural gas and other fossil fuels will destroy life on earth as we know it. All the horrors of nuclear power will be negligible in the final accounting of catastrophe.

I don't make any apologies for it, I'm a neo-Luddite. I want to live in a world without automobiles, large electric grids, factory farms, oil and gas wells, or coal mines.

Fuck all our current ideas about economic "productivity." This kind of "productivity" is killing both our human spirit and the natural environment that supports us.

We're driving down the highway to hell. It's time to abandon the car and walk away to a healthier place.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. When the super-rich destroy the rest of the planet, they won't even be able to escape to Switzerland

Don't they realize what they are doing?