Tritium hot zone expands.

[bananas]

Source: Rutland Herald

The Department of Health said late Monday there appears to be "a very large area" at the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor contaminated with radioactive tritium, and contamination levels continue to rise.
...
He said the area of contamination was roughly from the reactor building to the Connecticut River.

Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear said Monday the new well with the highest level of contamination saw its concentration drop a little on Sunday to 2.38 million picocuries per liter, but went higher on Monday, to 2.52 million picocuries per liter of water. The federal standard for drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter.
...
Irwin said the Health Department is starting to test wells at private residences along Gov. Hunt Road, where Vermont Yankee is sited.
...

Read more: http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100209/NEWS02/2090342/1003/NEWS02

[RedEarth]

1. A quarter of U.S. nuclear plants leaking

From Climate Progress

Radioactive tritium, a carcinogen discovered in potentially dangerous levels in groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, now taints at least 27 of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors — raising concerns about how it is escaping from the aging nuclear plants. <2>



The AP story suggests that the original plant designs were inadequate from the perspective of public safety:


The leaks — many from deteriorating underground pipes — come as the nuclear industry is seeking and obtaining federal license renewals, casting itself as a clean-green alternative to power plants that burn fossil fuels.

Tritium, found in nature in tiny amounts and a product of nuclear fusion, has been linked to cancer if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large amounts.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that new tests at a monitoring well on Vermont Yankee’s site in Vernon registered 70,500 picocuries per liter, more than three times the federal safety standard of 20,000 picocuries per liter.

That is the highest reading yet at the Vermont Yankee plant, where the original discovery last month drew sharp criticism by Gov. Jim Douglas and others….

Vermont Yankee is just the latest of dozens of U.S. nuclear plants, many built in the 1960s and ’70s, to be found with leaking tritium.

The Braidwood nuclear station in Illinois was found in the 1990s to be leaking millions of gallons of tritium-laced water, some of which contaminated residential water wells. Plant owner Exelon Corp. ended up paying for a new municipal water system.

After Braidwood, the nuclear industry stepped up voluntary checking for tritium in groundwater at plants around the country, testing that revealed the Vermont Yankee problem, plant officials said.

In New Jersey last year, tritium was reported leaking a second time from the Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County, just days after Exelon won NRC approval for a 20-year license extension there. The Pilgrim plant in Plymouth, Mass., like Vermont Yankee, owned by Entergy, reported low levels of tritium on the ground in 2007. The Vermont leak has prompted a Plymouth-area citizens group to demand more test wells at the Massachusetts plant.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan says leaks have occurred at least 27 of the nation’s 104 commercial reactors at 65 plant sites. He said the list likely does not include every plant where tritium has leaked.

The leaks have several causes; underground pipes corroding and the leaking of spent fuel storage pools are the most common. The source of the leak or leaks at Vermont Yankee has not been found; at Oyster Creek, corroded underground pipes were implicated.


http://climateprogress.org/2010/02/08/a-quarter-of-u-s-nuclear-plants-leaking-radioactive-tritium/print/

[kristopher]

33. Kick

[ensho]

2. not good, not good at alll. best wishes for the local people

nt

[gratuitous]

3. Listening to Weekend Edition on NPR Sunday

They had a nice, polite Republican interview with a spokesperson for Vermont Yankee, who acknowledged that the plant was old, but there were no real problems with it. The underground pipes that they lied to inspectors about were not a major concern, and Vermonters should not be worried that they could wake up one morning with an express tunnel to Hong Kong. Nothing to see here. Weekend Edition did talk to one crunchy granola-type person who naturally sounded alarm bells about everyone in the state being poisoned, but that was discounted as crazy talk by the Vermont Yankee spokesperson.

These plants were designed for a useful life of 20 years, and most of them are well into their third decade of service. Maybe we should be concerned, and not trust quite all the information we receive from people whose paycheck depends on these plants' continued operation?

[Proletariatprincess]

4. the very worst thing about the nuclear industry is

that it can hide hazardous problems so easily. Even with effective regulation, which is an oxymoronic concept in the USA when it comes to profit driven corporations, corruption will always trump safety and it will be linked with the nuclear defense industry to keep things even more secret under the guise of national security.

[UpInArms]

5. Poison in the Well?

Tell me what's gone wrong.
I tilt my head there, under the faucet, but when I turn it on -- dry as paper.
Call the neighbors.
Who's to blame for what's going on?
In the dark without a clue I'm just the same as you.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
Not a lot, no, just a drop.
But there you are mistaken, you know you are.
I wonder just how long they knew our well was poisoned but they let us just drink on.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.
But the week is over and now it's grown into years since I was told that I should be calm, there's nothing to fear here.
But I drank that water for years, my wife and my children.

Tell me, where to now, if your fight for a bearable life can be fought and lost in you backyard?

O, don't tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy, that there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.

(10,000 Maniacs - 1989 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKfLjDdHwyk)

[Mithreal]

6. Come on folks, there are more radioactive leaks from wind, solar, tidal and geo.

Let's have perspective. What you want, clean coal to be our future? Hippies.

[Wilms]

7. And you forgot conservation, the most devastating component.

;)

[Mithreal]

9. Dirty F@#*ing Hippies! Argggghh!1!!!1!!1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4

[Wilms]

13. I LOVE that video.

You're makin' my day!

:peace:

[Mithreal]

17. .

:hi:

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Conservation doesn't get a free ride either.

Not when it means things like CFL bulbs, that are getting mercury into our drinking water when people fail to dispose of them properly.

Not to say conservation is bad, just that even THAT has it's problems. (fortunately that one can be educated away, for the most part.)

[Mithreal]

16. Educated and legislated? Treat it like bottle return laws?

You sell cfl's you take back cfl's?

We really shouldn't have to ask corporations for permission to regulate.

[mbperrin]

8. Cain't be! Everyone from the Prez on down been tellin' me how GREEN

nukular is! Been on tee-vee lots!

This story must be balderdash!

Wouldn't you rather be poisoned by good ol' American tritium than by some foreign oil?



If I need a sarcasm tag here, check your IQ.

[Grinchie]

10. Stop Solar Energy Now!

Mutants for Nuclear Energy!

[mbperrin]

11. Yes, stop it! Solar's not reliable like a nuclear plant! After all, the sun's

only been there for ...uh, whoops.

[Mithreal]

12. Why did this get moved from LBN?

[bananas]

21. Good question - I just asked the moderators

I sent this question using the alert button, I hope they answer:

Why did this get moved from LBN?
According to google news, the article was only 9 hours old when I posted it.
I just searched google news for the terms "terms 2.52 million picocuries" and only got two stories, both less than 12 hours old:

http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=tritium+2.52+million+picocuries&cf=all&scoring=n

Lawmaker seeks more oversight over nuke
Journal Inquirer - Dave Gram - ‎4 hours ago‎
But the plant announced Monday evening a new reading, from sampling earlier on Monday, showed 2.52 million picocuries per liter — the highest yet from any ..

Tritium hot zone expands.
Rutland Herald - Susan Smallheer - ‎9 hours ago‎
... concentration drop a little on Sunday to 2.38 million picocuries per liter, but went higher on Monday, to 2.52 million picocuries per liter of water. ..

Typo: I actually searched for "tritium 2.52 million picocuries", not "terms 2.52 million picocuries", this is evident by clicking on the url in the post.

[Mithreal]

22. They are occasionally making me very angry by burying important stories.

[FBaggins]

23. I don't think you're looking at it the right way.

Leaving it in LBN is what would "bury" the story.

Here you could expect a number of people who are concerned about the issue (but who might not have been on when it was posted) to see and comment.

[Mithreal]

24. Ok, I like that idea. However, I disagree. Maybe there is a way to meet in the middle?

Leave on LBN for a minimum period then transferred to the smaller forum. 6 hours?

Seems like it could be automated and the policy made clear so people like me don't think DU is censoring.

While your argument makes sense in this case, I have seen stories moved over to GD that were significant LBN and were on the front page. These same stories were original, no one else posted similar, and were fresh within the last 24 hours and had strong sources. The mods here are not performing at 100% when they do this. I am unsure how much is being left up to judgment.

[bananas]

29. I disagree

You're assuming you can read the minds of the moderators.
You don't know why they moved the story.
They have not explained themselves.

I've even seen them move posts to a third forum.
It's ridiculous.
It gives the impression that they are trying to bury the story.
Why would they shuffle a post around like that?

LBN is for latest breaking news, if a story meets the rules, the moderators should leave it there, they should respect the intentions of the person who posted it. Moving a story like that is insulting and disrespectful. And that's why people get angry about it.

If there is enough interest in EE or GD, then it can it be discussed there also.
Either the moderators or the original poster or anyone else can cross-post the story in another forum.

[Mithreal]

31. well stated

[Nihil]

32. I agree with you.

> LBN is for latest breaking news, if a story meets the rules,
> the moderators should leave it there
> If there is enough interest in EE or GD, then it can it be discussed
> there also. Either the moderators or the original poster or anyone else
> can cross-post the story in another forum.

:applause:

> I've even seen them move posts to a third forum.
> It's ridiculous.

To be fair, I think that sometimes the LBN mods have moved posts to
a "somewhere else" even when that destination is unsuitable for the
thread so that the receiving mods are obliged to (correctly) move it
again. Not saying that this happens all the time but I have seen a
number of posts that have been (wrongly) bounced from LBN into an
even less suitable forum.

:shrug:

As you say, it suggests that the LBN mods are trying to bury a story.

:-(

[AtheistCrusader]

15. I'm pretty pro-nuke but

this is bad. Very bad. Casts the entire industry in a bad light. One of these older reactors is going to have a major problem, and they are going to yank a significant portion of our electricty generating capacity overnight. These old reactors need to be replaced NOW, not after a disaster that sickens or kills people.

[phantom power]

18. It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.

I can't think of a better way for the nuclear industry to sabotage its own future than lying to people. It just reinforces the public's worst fears.

[madokie]

27. With our old plants and the industry being what it is

spewers of half truths and out right lies its par for the course.

You can bet your bottom dollar that at some point there will be a big incident that will have the potential to harm a large part of our country and a huge amount of our citizens. Nuclear energy is neither safe nor clean. The denying of the deaths that can be attributed to nuclear energy does not make it so. In my book only fools and stupid people advocate for nuclear energy over renewables.

[8 track mind]

19. Whats the big deal about glowing in the dark??? n/t

[Mithreal]

20. I like fireflies.

[Mithreal]

25. All the recs stopped when this was removed from LBN.

[madokie]

26. The nuclear power industry is lying as a first defense and always have

if they didn't know of the dangers of that technology my guess is that they wouldn't be reduced to lying so much. They know what they are doing and they know if the general population knew what was going on for a fact we'd stopped every damn one of them long ago. The simple facts of the nuke industry is the same as it always has been bullshit and when that doesn't work out right lies.

[Javaman]

28. I'm surprised a certain someone hasn't chimed in. LOL nt

[madokie]

30. I want to see his credentials myself

he's thrown his ass around here enough talking shit that I want to know what the hell he is besides being a keyboard asshole pro-nukie . I want to read about his invention also after all how can one have an honest conversion with someone who you don't know. I'm just me and never claimed to be anything so I have nothing to prove but with the big guy the story is different.
And yes I'm surprised of no chiming in too :rofl: :hi: