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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.
They can always import water from Flint ... at least the lead will block a bit of the radiation .
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Don't worry -- it's leaking into the Hudson, which is already so polluted, nothing can live there and it it does, it's already got three heads....
Hey, New Yorkers are tough -- what's a little radioactive water?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Didn't we already have a story from this ridiculous website? The hysterical cry of "80%" never addresses the actual numbers nor discusses the conservative limits set by the NRC. Yet another "ZOMG nuclear!" hit piece.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in real life!
(or maybe Godzilla, I'm not sure which)
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
It's 80% higher than it was before. That's all you need to know.
It's teh nuclear radiations. It's going to mutate fish into giant sea monsters, give mice cancer, and reduce property values.
Bad article, clickbait title. Quotation in title is unattributed until you click through two more references, at which point you find out it came from a Huffington Post blogger. The only person quoted in the article with a relevant degree is "John J. Kelly, former director of licensing for Indian Point and a certified healthy physicist, said that tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that is found naturally. 'It’s more of a regulatory problem than an environmental problem,'".
Another article referenced by this one gives a very similar quotation from an actual relevant source:
"'An uncontrolled, unmonitored pathway to the environment — in this case the Hudson River — is unacceptable' an NRC spokesman said".
http://www.lohud.com/story/tech/science/environment/2016/02/15/indian-point-what-happens-next/80288826/
But that doesn't sound nearly as sensational.
Why does it seem that the HR department at nuc plants uses Matt Groaning to screen applicants?
... nine ... eight ..."
"And thank you most of all for nuclear power, which is yet to cause a single proven fatality, at least in this country."
"Well you know boys, a nuclear reactor is a lot like women. You just have to read the manual and press the right button."
"And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipe dream."
"Yeah, you know, boys, a nuclear reactor is a lot like a woman. You just have to read the manual and press the right buttons."
--Homer Simpson
Bart: Dad, wake up. [Homer was sleeping at nuclear plant.]
Homer: I'm awake. I'm awake. I'm protected member of the team. You can't fire me, I quit! Please, I have a family.
[One lazy afternoon at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer is asleep at his workstation and a dog is sleeping on the floor next to his chair. In his sleep, Homer slumps over, falling onto a button labeled "Plant Destruct" and triggering an alarm.]
Computer Voice: "Core meltdown in ten seconds
[The dog wakes up, walks to the console, and pulls a lever. The alarm and the countdown stop.]
Computer Voice: "Meltdown averted. Good boy!"
[Later that same lazy afternoon, inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission arrive at the power plant in their van. A woman inspector presses the buzzer at the front door.]
Mr. Burns [on intercom]: "What? How dare you disturb me during nap time!"
Woman Inspector: "We're from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This is a surprise test of worker competence."
Mr. Burns: "There must be some mistake. We, uhh, we make cookies here. Mr. BurnsOld-Fashioned Good-Time Extra-Chewy-" Man Inspector: [cutting Burns off] "Get the axe."
[Now in college, Homer interrupts the Nuclear Physics Professor's lecture.]
Homer: "Uhh, excuse me, Professor Brainiac, but I worked in a nuclear power plant for ten years and I think I know how a proton accelerator works."
Professor: "Well, please come down and show us."
Homer: "All right, I will."
[The scene shifts to students screaming and fleeing the building while a green radiation glow fills the windows. Homer casually walks out just as two technicians in radiation suits are walking in.]
Homer: [gesturing over shoulder] "In there, guys."
Technicians: "Thanks, Homer."
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.
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.
Semi-paywalled source of more accurate information here
From back on the 15th:
and
No current absolute numbers, but the article reports:
33 times the drinking water limit? Not scary. Find the leak, fix the problem, make a rational decision whether the maintenance risks are beginning to exceed the benefits of the plant to begin a plan for refurbishment or retirement.
From a linked article... some actual numbers:
According to initial reports, the radioactivity levels are quite high and the leaked materials contain tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope. At one location, levels shot up 65,000 percent from from 12,300 picocuries per liter to over 8,000,000 picocuries per liter.
The usual denial from the power plant operator (nothing to worry about here...):
Despite the size of the leak, Entergy, the company that owns the plant, has argued the radioactive materials only leaked into the groundwater and should not impact drinking water sources.
(Not sure how radioactivity leaking into groundwater is not a concern for drinking water.)
The Governor seems to be concerned and has called for an investigation:
Cuomo has called on Entergy to shut down the Indian Point facility while the full scope of the problem is assessed.
Further denials... yes, it's leaking but "no problem":
“While elevated tritium in the ground onsite is not in accordance with our standards, there is no health or safety consequence to the public,” Entergy said in a statement late Saturday.
Old nuclear plant has had problems before:
This isn’t the first problem with tritium leaks at Indian Point, which supplies around 30 percent of the electricity used in New York City. The plant had three emergency shutdowns in December, and there have been a number of leaks in recent years.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
“These values remain less than one-tenth of 1% of federal reporting guidelines,” the company said in a statement, adding the higher levels are “fluctuations that can be expected as the material migrates.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new...
And it's Tritium being leaked. Aka Relatively harmless
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/...
http://www.amazon.com/Glow-Fob...
Why is it that when you apply a Kalman filter to http://inhabitat.com/ all the content vanished?
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.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
According to initial reports, the radioactivity levels are quite high and the leaked materials contain tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope. At one location, levels shot up 65,000 percent from from 12,300 picocuries per liter to over 8,000,000 picocuries per liter.
Ok, finally some numbers. So in other words, it went from 0.0123 microcuries per liter to 8 microcurie per liter. So it went from under safe drinking water limits to about 400 times the safe drinking water limit in a monitoring well.
Is there a problem? Yes. The monitoring wells detected that there is a leak. Is the sky falling? NO. We don't drink from the MONITORING wells, especially the one well that is the closest to the leak, and thus has the highest concentration of the contaminant. You mix that water with 399 liters of other water and it is under safe DRINKING levels. And if you don't think that water would mix with other water as it disperses away from the plant, I don't know what to say to you other than you are a complete alarmist, anti-nuclear FUD pusher. As the scientist in the linked article said:
It's more of a regulatory problem than an environmental problem
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
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.
First, it's going to be heavily diluted before it ends up anywhere that someone can drink it. Second, that matter of time is important. If it takes a few centuries to get anywhere, then in addition to the dilution, you have several halvings from radioactive decay.
Best to take care of this at the source.
I think this is the point of testing. Shutting down the plant doesn't serve that purpose.
From a linked article... some actual numbers:
According to initial reports, the radioactivity levels are quite high and the leaked materials contain tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope. At one location, levels shot up 65,000 percent from from 12,300 picocuries per liter to over 8,000,000 picocuries per liter.
OMG! That's 7 times more than...the fire detector you have in your house! You'd get radiation sickness after drinking only a few...hundred thousand liters over the course of...a few days...wait, what was the panic about?
You can buy tritium glow rods, sticks, rings, watches, keychains, exit signs, etc. that contain anywhere from .5 to 2+ Curies of tritium at several places online. That's only a few orders of magnitude more than this inspection well water but whose counting?
Tritium is a low energy beta emitter with a very short biological half-life. It can't even penetrate paper, much less your skin. Unless you're drinking or inhaling it, you're going to receive more radiation exposure from an airline flight. At the concentrations mentioned, it would be physically impossible to ingest enough well water to induce radiation sickness, much less affect long term likelihoods for cancer. You'd piss it all out long before you could reach any significant accumulation levels.
Now if this were cesium 137 flowing directly into the water table, that would be cause for concern. But tritium? I'd be much more concerned about the fly ash from a coal plant than tritium.
~X~