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Entergy Admits 2005 Tritium Leak
mdsolar writes "The leaking Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was hit last week by a whistleblower allegation that a previous tritium leak had occurred. Now the parent company, Entergy, has admitted the occurrence of at least one prior leak to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This is particularly significant for three reasons: because the leak occurred in pipes that company officials later testified under oath did not exist, because the Vermont Senate will likely soon vote to deny Entergy a needed approval to extend the power plant's license for another 20 years, and because President Obama just put taxpayers on the hook for new nuclear power plants in Georgia."
I don't want to be all "So what?" but so what? One plant leaks an unspecified amount of a weak beta emitter...It tested at the leak at a whopping 2 million picocuries, which is a bullshit measurement that's clearly chosen because it's more shocking than 2 microcuries. 2 microcuries is about what you'd get for a basic thyroid test at the docs office. Trituim doesn't stay resident in the body, it's half life is 12 years long, and it's a beta emitter: if you drink it you'll get a few rads, but you can take a shower in it without any problem.
The whole thing is clearly being pushed as an example of the horrible dangers of the super scary nuclear power industry, but what I see is the dangers that are inherent in running antiquated plants for years beyond their design life because a bunch of poorly informed hysterics have blocked all attempts to modernize them for the last 40 years.
And what the hell is the point in talking about the plants in Georgia? That's a different type of plant, being built by a different company! Georgia has the largest coal fired power plant in the us: where's that outrage? Where is the outrage over the radiation it emits?
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
because President Obama just put taxpayers on the hook for new nuclear power plants in Georgia
The keyword there is "new".
That plant has to be at least 30 years old. I think that technology has changed a bit in that time. In general, new is usually better than retrofitted old.
Corporate malfeasance, a dash of coverup, and a more or less fully captured regulatory agency!
I, for one, am fully confident that the present minor tritium leak is the only thing going wrong, or likely to go wrong in the near future. Everything else is absolutely fine and, if it weren't, those involved would do the responsible thing and fix it....
you're not biased.
Yes this leak isn't a big deal as a leak. Nor for that matter is the recent leak. The problem is they lied under oath. And once people are lying about the state of things you don't know what else they are or will lie about. These might not matter, but they might very well lie about the next leak when it is a serious problem. As with many issues, the initial incident isn't nearly as much of a problem as the coverup.
The difference being that the Tritium in luminous devices is contained and no one has lied under oath about it. I am a big supporter of nuclear power for environmental and economic reasons and I believe these guys ought to be nailed to the cross over this. Nuclear power is one of the few technologies that are capable of displacing fossil fuels to any extent and the last thing we need is some corporation cutting corners and getting away with it. The public's confidence in nuclear power needs to be strengthened by making damn sure these corporations are doing what they are supposed to do in order to keep these plants safe.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
I just love how the anti-nuclear comes out every time. Yes, it is significant that this leak was hidden from the NRC. Yes, it should affect that company from getting an extension. And yes, because they lied to the government about these pipes when they knew they existed (since they obviously covered up the previous leak), they should get heavy fines (to the individuals, not just the corporation), and even jail time. And absolutely should get denied operating license extension, and possibly even have their existing license revoked.
But all of the above is already covered under existing law and policy, and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a DIFFERENT COMPANY building a NEW PLANT in a DIFFERENT STATE. It would be like arresting every person in the country who owns a Silver or Gray car because a Silver/Gray car was involved in a hit and run Rhode Island.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
It's ridiculous that the summary implies that, in the context of this leak, Obama setting aside funds for building new power plants is a negative thing.
If anything, the fact that America's only nuclear power comes from relatively ancient, decaying reactors of obsolete design should be motivation for building new nuclear power plants. This might be the best tangible thing Obama has proposed to date and informed citizens should be applauding it.
Hey mate, spare a sig?
seconded.
nail em to the wall.
This is a trivial leak but a serious matter.
Tritium is pretty safe outside your body. Not so safe inside it.
Did you really name your son "Robert');DROP TABLE Students;--"?
There are not enough mod points in the world for your comment.
the market does not take care of itself
repeat: the market does NOT take care of itself
with things like energy utilities, you do NOT privatize. you heavily involve the government and you heavily regulate
no, it is not red tape that interferes with the normal functioning of the marketplace, it is the only way things fucking work right
for examples like this, for the example of the economic meltdown in 2008, for the example of healthcare, and for examples like enron
no, it does make you a fucking communist to admit that the market does not solve ALL problems. it simply makes you wise and intelligent for simply recognizing that THE. MARKET. DOES. NOT. SOLVE. ALL. PROBLEMS. full stop
for most sectors of society, indeed, a market free of most regulations IS the ideal. but even then, in something like food, for example, you still want the government running around, and you still want to spend tax money on all those pesky government employees and their horrid, horrid bureaucracy, to fucking make sure you're not eating melamine or toxic e coli. yes, you want to pay fuckign taxes for that, asshole
if you had no inspectors, the manufacturers would likely suffer business wise. true. BUT THEY WOULD ALSO KILL PEOPLE. get it? in other words, some failures that market players can suffer are so severe, a simple market correction is not the only way they should be punished. furthermore, some "failures", such as leaking tritium, or overindulging on bad mortgage loans, are so horribly disruptive as to kill people or destroy an entire economy
then you need government bailouts. after which some of you assholes will still blame the government for that, as fucking blind as you are, when it was YOUR FUCKING THINKING THAT LED TO THE DISMANTLING OF THE GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS THAT CREATED THE MELTDOWN
please adjust your idiotic simplistic worship of market forces: they are not the fucking answer to everything. really. welcome to reality assholes
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Kind of like bullets and knives...
Before we talk about nailing the company to the wall perhaps we should look into the reporting requirements a little closer. The linked article itself states, "The NRC is investigating why it took Entergy five years to report the leak, but for it to have been reportable, it has to meet certain off site dose limits. It is also investigating how Entergy responded to the problem." So we don't even know if the leak met reporting requirements. Also, there is much hay made over Entergy lying about the existence of the pipes. The company apparently did not deny the existence of underground pipes but some company representative stated before a public service commission that he/she was unaware of any underground pipes carrying radioactive particles. I don't know the context of the original statement but a close reading would seem to imply the steam pipe in question was not intended to carry radioactive particles and only the failure of several check valves allowed the particles to get into the pipe. I would guess that the steam leak was found because of the trace radiation.
DEATH BY SNU SNU!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sure, it can be done safely. But, when you've got Corporate American running things with CEOs who'd sell their own mothers to bury one quarter of lackluster PR, you get these kinds of results. Toyota tried to bury a potentially life threatening flaw in order to postpone a little bad press resulting in a major scandal years later. This is the fundamental flaw in Free Market thinking. Companies aren't going to do the Right Thing because profitability dictates it. They'll lie about it then leave the train wreck for next guy.
If Toyota is willing to lie about a little brake problem that's probably killed people, you trust a company not to lie or cut corners when it comes to expensive waste disposal?
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I am a big supporter of nuclear power for environmental and economic reasons and I believe these guys ought to be nailed to the cross over this.
Having worked in the nuclear industry, I understand there's a lot of unreasonable fear about radiation and radioactivity. I also understand that 2.5 million picocuries per liter sounds like a huge amount, but it's closer to a drop of tritium in a swimming pool. That's a very low level of contamination.
Even at that, lying under oath and otherwise being dishonest is not okay. Patient education and being truthful will win over time. Yes, you'll have to sometimes make expensive repairs, which you'll then pass on in the form of rate hikes. That's life in the nuclear business.
I'll help pound the nails.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
As tritium is not a strong beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally, but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food, water, or absorbed through the skin.
(Emphasis mine.) Heavy water containing tritium will be absorbed by your body, just like normal water. Some of it will enter your cells, where it will decay, emitting a beta particle. If you are lucky, this will be relatively harmless. If you are unlucky, it will cause cancer.
It's widely used because of its decay characteristics. It only emits beta particles, which can be blocked by the skin. Outside of the body it is completely harmless, and the relatively short half life (around 9 years) means that disposal is not a major concern.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
would that be a Trivial Tritium Trickle?
I sat down to write a new sig tonight and all I did was make the chair warm.
The only part of this article worth mentioning was the lying under oath. The tritium leak was harmless to anyone not 3 feet away when it happened. As for the American taxpayers being 'on the hook' for new power plants that will only happen if the plants somehow default on their loans, something no nuclear power plant has done in American history and given the subsidies already given to nuclear power it is highly unlikely that any new (and therefore more easily maintained and more efficient) reactor would do so.
The summary reads like a troll to me, but YMMV.
The quantity of Uranium that is in higher grade ores is limited although the quantity of Uranium at lower concentrations is enormous. Fossil fuels are much more likely to run out long before Uranium does.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Define 'safe'.
This is a tiny leak that is a regulatory problem, not a safety problem. The tritium levels are regulated because it isn't expensive to contain it, not because it poses an extreme and eminent danger.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
We cannot continue down this unlimited power path forever. Eventually it will run out.
No way. The universe has effectively unlimited energy, although it is not always conveniently available to us at our present level of technology.
> What happens when the uranium runs out?
You mean Uranium 235? There is still Uranium 238, which is very common. Then there Thorium, which is available just about everywhere. Chances are that we melt the earth before running out of Thorium, but if you still need more energy, there is always fusion.
The sources are not the problem, the sinks are. What do you do with radioactive waste? And how do you tell the public that everything is safe when the nuclear industry is lying like Dick Cheney? Those are the real questions.
Oooooo, scary tritium. Looks like hydrogen but has two scaaaary extra neutrons.
When you get done tilting at this windmill, I think you need to go take on carbon-14. It also has two extra neutrons. Scaaaaaary.
Newsflash bub, it's in your water already. It's in ALL water. It's in the air. And it was there before we started using nuclear power, and it'll be there after we're gone.
Fearmongering to try and sell your fricking solar panels is pathetic.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
What happens when the uranium runs out? Then what do we use to replace nuclear?
Solar. If solar cost and efficiency improvements continue the way they are doing right now, we'll be fine in a hundred years, and the uranium ought to last that long. Should that fail, there's space based solar, there's fusion, there's reprocessing of fissionable material, there's all the non-solar "green" technologies (though they don't scale as wonderfully as solar).
Our current problems are somewhat temporary, unless they kill us or make it impossible to sustain technological improvements.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
Entergy has announced it will sell 3% of its power VT Yankee at close to its old rate of 4 cents/kwh though it has not agreed to a price for the other 97%. http://www.reformer.com/latestnews/ci_14455061
The Nuclear Energy Agency disagrees with those numbers. They say there is at least a 230 year supply. And that isn't even taking into account any increases in efficiency (most of the US nuclear plants were built using 1960s technology, newer plants being built today are more efficient), finding undiscovered resources, etc. into the equation.
"But this one goes to 11!"
When combined with carbon in sugars and starches, it stays in the body when consumed.
Well then we gotta do something! NO MORE SUGARS! DEATH TO BIG STARCHES!
Maryland's Calvert Cliffs reactors seem to be becoming unreliable: http://wjz.com/wireapnewsmd/NRC.inspectors.sent.2.1514222.html And, South Carolina's Oconee just sprung a leak as well http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/feb/09/oconee-nuclear-station-reports-tritium-exceeds-ind/ It is probably a mistake to run these plants past their 40 year design lifetime.
A list of some scientific studies on the effects of tritium with references in case there is any doubt regarding Triated water's effect on living beings.
Tritium is biologically mutagenic *because* it's a low energy emitter. This characteristic makes readily absorbed by surrounding cells. The available evidence from studies conducted journal a list of effects. From those works;
Tritium can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through skin. Eating food containing 3H can be even more damaging than drinking 3H bound in water. Consequently, an estimated radiation dose based only on ingestion of tritiated water may underestimate the health effects if the person has also consumed food contaminated with tritium. (Komatsu)
Studies indicate that lower doses of tritium can cause more cell death (Dobson, 1976), mutations (Ito) and chromosome damage (Hori) per dose than higher tritium doses. Tritium can impart damage which is two or more times greater per dose than either x-rays or gamma rays.
(Straume) (Dobson, 1976) There is no evidence of a threshold for damage from 3H exposure; even the smallest amount of tritium can have negative health impacts. (Dobson, 1974) Organically bound tritium (tritium bound in animal or plant tissue) can stay in the body for 10 years or more.
It's often said "of all the elements in nuclear waste tritium is one of the more harmless ones" and while it's more benign than most other radioactive effluents it's toxicity should not be under-estimated.
Tritium can cause mutations, tumors and cell death. (Rytomaa) Tritiated water is associated with significantly decreased weight of brain and genital tract organs in mice (Torok) and can cause irreversible loss of female germ cells in both mice and monkeys even at low concentrations. (Dobson, 1979) (Laskey) Tritium from tritiated water can become incorporated into DNA, the molecular basis of heredity for living organisms. DNA is especially sensitive to radiation. (Hori) A cell's exposure to tritium bound in DNA can be even more toxic than its exposure to tritium in water. (Straume)(Carr)
First, as an isotope of hydrogen (the cell's most ubiquitous element), tritium can be incorporated into essentially all portions of the living machinery; and it is not innocuous -- deaths have occurred in industry from occupational overexposure. R. Lowry Dobson, MD, PhD. (1979)
References;
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
"The sources are not the problem, the sinks are."
I must ask to clarify: Are you saying there are not enough sinks in the U.S.? My home has 2 in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the basement. Now, if you are talking about 'everything but the kitchen sink', that stills leaves me with 3 sinks to dispose of this nuclear waste. There are millions of Americans who have sinks where we can stash the stuff. Once its down the sink, it just disappears and out of sight anyways. Seesh!
"And how do you tell the public that everything is safe when the nuclear industry is lying like Dick Cheney?"
That's quite the loaded statement. You fail to mention how often Dick Cheney tells the truth!
The leak was into groundwater. It was in no way harmless. From http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100210/NEWS02/2100351:
The Vermont Department of Health last month confirmed that the tritium contaminated water was reaching the Connecticut River, since one of the most polluted groundwater monitoring wells was about 15 to 20 feet from the river.
...
According to the Department of Health, there is a general increase in tritium contamination at the wells that do show the radioactive isotope.
The well that shows the highest level of contamination decreased a little on Tuesday, down from 2.52 million picocuries per liter to 2.4 million picocuries, according to the latest post from the Department of Health Tuesday afternoon.
The first well that showed contamination measured 39,000 picocuries, the next worst well measured 890,000 picocuries, and there were two other contaminated wells, one measuring 81,000 picocuries and another, 2,500 picocuries.
One well tripled in contamination in recent days, going from 6,900 to 23,000 picocuries per liter.
The federal standard for drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter.
All of our nuclear reactors are leaking QUADRILLIONS of neutrinos per second! Close down these radiation death machines NOW! Rah rah rah!