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

Solution

[BarbaraHudson]

They can always import water from Flint ... at least the lead will block a bit of the radiation .

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Bravo, BRAVO!!! And the 2016 Insult to Injury Award goes to...

Hudson

[tekrat]

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?

Re:Hudson

[BarbaraHudson]

Hey, I am NOT that polluted! :-)

Re:Hudson

[tnk1]

Methinks your second head doth protest too much.

80% of what?

[Alypius]

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.

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.

Re:80% of what?

[BarbaraHudson]

New York Times from February 6th (~3 weeks ago):

New York State will investigate high levels of radioactive contamination found in the groundwater at the Indian Point nuclear plant, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Saturday.

The governor said water contaminated with tritium had leaked into the groundwater at the plant, causing “alarming levels” of radioactivity to be found at three out of the 40 monitoring wells on the site.

One of the wells reported a 65,000 percent increase in the water’s level of radioactivity, Mr. Cuomo said, citing a report by Entergy Corporation, which owns the plant.

At the same time, it's reported as being 0.1% of acceptable levels ... but it's not clear from the article if they're talking about that well, all the detection wells combined, or the property.

Clickbait

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Somebody wake Homer up!

[MountainLogic]

Why does it seem that the HR department at nuc plants uses Matt Groaning to screen applicants?

"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 ... nine ... eight ..."
[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."

80% up, 80% down, source probably found... OMG!

[DRJlaw]

Semi-paywalled source of more accurate information here

From back on the 15th:

On Wednesday Entergy, the company that owns Indian Point, said the highest concentration of elevated tritium levels had increased by about 80 percent from the first test to the second, "fluctuations that can be expected as the material migrates."

Entergy spokesperson Jerry Nappi said on Saturday, though, that the groundwater monitoring well that had increased by 80 percent was back down to its initial elevated level from the first sample, which was expected.

and

"[An inspector] saw leakage that supports the theory that the water came from [a] water storage tank," Neil Sheehan, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson, said Friday.
* * *
The NRC inspector saw boron crystals in the pipe tunnel where the suspected leak occurred.

No current absolute numbers, but the article reports:

The NRC investigated a similar leak at the plant almost two years ago. In April 2014 Indian Point Unit 2 reported a leak of 687,000 picocuries per liter, Sheehan said.

"To put that into perspective, the EPA safe drinking water limit for tritium is 20,000 picocuries per liter," he said. "However, groundwater at Indian Point is not used for drinking-water purposes."

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.

Re:Careful and expeditious investigation is pruden

[mspohr]

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.

What the headline didn't bother to mention

[Crashmarik]

“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/...

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.