Nuclear Reactors Found to Be Leaking Radioactive Water

[dogday]

WASHINGTON, March 16 — With power cleaner than coal and cheaper than natural gas, the nuclear industry, 20 years past its last meltdown, thinks it is ready for its second act: its first new reactor orders since the 1970's.

But there is a catch. The public's acceptance of new reactors depends in part on the performance of the old ones, and lately several of those have been discovered to be leaking radioactive water into the ground.

Near Braceville, Ill., the Braidwood Generating Station, owned by the Exelon Corporation, has leaked tritium into underground water that has shown up in the well of a family nearby. The company, which has bought out one property owner and is negotiating with others, has offered to help pay for a municipal water system for houses near the plant that have private wells.

In a survey of all 10 of its nuclear plants, Exelon found tritium in the ground at two others. On Tuesday, it said it had had another spill at Braidwood, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, and on Thursday, the attorney general of Illinois announced she was filing a lawsuit against the company over that leak and five earlier ones, dating to 1996. The suit demands among other things that the utility provide substitute water supplies to residents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/national/17nuke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Untermonkey]

1. Nuclear energy holds promise, IF...

IF they can figure out what to do with the waste, and IF they can assure public safety, and IF they can ever get through the red tape needed to even pick out a site.

[MadHound]

2. And there is one other big if

If they can eliminate the largest cause of nuclear accidents, human error. It is doubtful that they can solve any of these problems either in the short or the long run, therefore we need to steer our energy policy away from nuclear. It is too risky, and we have other options that provide truly clean, cheap, and problem free energy.

The first one that comes to mind is wind energy. In 1991 the DOE found that there was enough harvestable wind energy in three states, North Dakota, Kansas and Texas, to power the entire US electrical grid, including factoring in for growth, through the year 2030. And that was with '91 tech, wind power has made huge technological strides since then. In fact America has been called the Saudi Arabia of wind power, due to our vast renewable wind resources across the Great Plains.

So rather than go with a nuclear policy, which is a disaster waiting to happen, and would once again strap us to a finite resource mainly controlled by foreign countries, we should invest in a domestic, renewable energy policy, featuring wind and solar.

Anything else is foolish and a catastrophe waiting to happen.

[Untermonkey]

4. I'd love to see an entire country powered by wind, water, and solar power.

Some of our biggest problems are created by our dependency on foreign oil and the money involved therein. Oil is the only reason we, as a country, expend so much money, time, and human lives on the Middle East.

[MadHound]

5. What I find really ironic,

And somewhat infuriating is that the nuke industry is pushing nuclear power as the way to stop America from being bent over the foreign oil barrel. What the nuclear industry fails to tell you is that US reserves of uranium are quite low, since most of our resources are sitting on top of various rockets and missles. Therefore if we were to crank up nuclear power, we would be forced to import it from other countries, probably the bulk from South Africa. Therefore, instead of being bent over the foreign oil barrel, we would be bent over the foreign uranium billet. Absolutely insane:crazy:

But gee, with wind power, not only could we provide for our energy needs domestically, we could actually export a large portion of that power, employing people in well paying jobs, and being energy independent of the rest of the world. But heaven forbid this misadministration do anything that is sane, sensible and logical.

[RufusEarl]

3. Pretty simple!

If they can use tax money to build nuclear plants, they can charge for electricity. But if we as a people develop solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, corporate america can't charge past the original purchase.

It's about money, it's always about money and how corporate america can keep the american people at it's tit. Nuclear power is not safe, it never has been and never will be. Let alone disposing
of waste, nuclear power is just a bad idea again.