Slashdot Mirror
Another Crumbling Reactor Springs a Tritium Leak
mdsolar writes "The decrepit nuclear reactor Vermont Yankee has sprung a radioactive leak similar to those at other poorly run reactors in Illinois (Braidwood, Byron and Dresden), Arizona (Palo Verde), and New York (Indian Point). Greenpeace noted 3 years ago that radioactive tritium leaks even threaten Champagne from France. Tritium and its decay product helium 3 are incredibly valuable and there is currently a shortage of helium 3. What, besides shutting down leaky old nuclear plants, could be done to better control release of tritium into the environment?"
We're talking about *tritium* here, not plutonium. It's just not all that dangerous as far as radioactive materials go. You might well be *WEARING* some right now if you have a watch that glows in the dark. Unless they're releasing hundreds of pounds of it at a time here (they aren't, there's ~165lbs of the stuff in the US right now) , any farm even a kilometer away is not a real health hazard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
Good grief, could this /. article possibly be more biased? Who the hell does Slashdot think it is, the MSM? I thought the Internet was supposed to be an improvement.
Lets just agree with the idiots at Greenpeace.... on one condition, that if we agree the current plants are operating far beyond their original design life they agree with us that the solution is to replace them with modern safer reactors.
Democrat delenda est
1 Curie = 2*10^12 disintigrations/minute .65 picograms of Tritium per liter of water. This water is just marginally more radioactive than brazil nuts.
17,000 picocuries = ~~625 disintigrations/second
This level of radiation would require
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
"Is this the fucking Greenpeace sight?"
No. As a "greenie" since the 70's I can assure you greenpeace were blinded by ideology a long time ago.
I think this became pretty obvious when they started campaigning against chlorinated water a couple of decades ago. Despite the fact it has been repeatedly pointed out to them, it seems to have escaped their attention that chlorination was probably the single largest improvement in public health in the 20th century.
It happens to all political movements, they start off with a real issue and end up handling associated facts with the same respect fox news does. Often the founders end up either quitting in disgust (as is the case with GP) or being pushed out by the spin doctors. Organisations such as GP are also susceptable to having people form "tea parties" and go off doing their own thing under the organisations banner.
None of this means leaky reactors are not "news for nerds", that's just you sticking your fingers in your ears and singing "la, la, la, la" because you saw the word greenpeace. If TFA that I haven't read is a bullshit press release from GP then by the time it reaches the bottom of the front page there will be a dozen or more highly rated post that debunk it with sound logic, reputable references and a bit of humour.
BTW: You almost got it right, "Luddite" accurately describes some parts of GP policy but it's doubtfull the editor who posted TFA subscribes to it.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.