NYC's Nuclear Power Plant Leaking 'Uncontrollable Radioactive Flow' Into River (inhabitat.com)

MikeChino writes: New samples taken from groundwater near New York's Indian Point nuclear plant show that contamination levels are 80% higher than previous samples, and experts say the leak is "a disaster waiting to happen." The Indian Point nuclear power plant is located just 25 miles north of New York City, and it is a crucial source of power for the greater metropolitan region.

Comments

Re:80% of what?

[sycodon]

I found a penny on the ground yesterday.

I found two today.

There has been a 100% increase in the amount of money lying on the ground!

Careful and expeditious investigation is prudent

[Mostly a lurker]

It is true that a careful reading of TFA suggests there is probably not much to worry about. However, it is wise to be cautious. We know older nuclear plants often have design flaws. We certainly would not want major nuclear contamination this close to a major metropolitan area.

Consider the source

[Chris Mattern]

This is from the same yahoos who though LA's methane leak was a disaster on a par with thousands of people dead, so I'd take it with a pretty big chunk of salt.

Re:Careful and expeditious investigation is pruden

[mspohr]

I don't expect that anyone drinks out of the monitoring wells... they are for, well, monitoring.
However, groundwater is mobile. It flows through different layers of the, well, ground and eventually ends up downhill somewhere (i.e. NYC metropolitan area).
(Interesting fact is that surface water flows such as rivers are only about 10% of fresh water flows. The rest are underground.) It's pretty obvious that the water will move to a place where someone has drilled a drinking water well... it's only a matter of time.
Best to take care of this at the source.

Re:80% of what?

[hey!]

The word people are using is "alarming"; not "catastrophe" or "disaster". That's because the facts warrant alarm (n. a sudden fear or distressing suspense caused by an awareness of danger; apprehension; fright.), but not panic. There is at yet no data which shows an imminent serious threat to human or environmental health, but the alarming thing is that the tritium levels found in the groundwater shouldn't be that high. If they are that high then something is not working the way it's supposed to be working, and we don't know why.

That's a very reasonable grounds for apprehension, and the appropriate response is an investigation, which we all hope turns up some minor and readily corrected problem. Otherwise there'd be no point checking the groundwater for tritium in the first place.

If you don't like TFA you can simply google "indian point tritium groundwater" and pick up a more trusted news source. Most of the major news sources are taking the position I just outlined: no need for panic, but this needs a good looking-into.