Radioactive water leaks at Vermont nuclear plant and other facilities raising doubts about safety

[bigtree]

VERNON, Vt., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Radioactive water leaks at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and other such facilities are raising doubts about nuclear safety, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.

The newspaper said such incidents at more than 20 U.S. nuclear plants in recent years have created doubts about the viability of nuclear power at a time when President Barack Obama has called for "a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country" along with alternative energy sources.

The Globe said a controversy over the Vermont Yankee leak in Vernon, Vt., could scotch plans to extend its operating license for 20 years. It said such leaks could stand in the way of resurgence for nuclear energy as memories of accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island recede.

Critics cite the integrity of underground pipes that carry the contaminated water, the report said. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., this month called for the U.S. Government Accountability Office to probe the state of buried pipes at nuclear plants.

But nuclear proponents say that while leaks of water containing tritium are serious, those that have contaminated groundwater have not exceeded regulatory limits or harmed any plant's structural integrity, the Globe reported.


article: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/31/Radioactive-water-leaks-raise-nuke-doubts/UPI-88081264968237/

[whyverne]

1. Doesn't sound like an insurmountable problem.

I have a leaky pipe under the sink with a bucket under it. I'll get to it someday.

[Vincardog]

2. Read my lips Nuclear is never a good option. No a private insurance company will cover it, No

private money will build it.
And NO ONE want to store the waste for the next 100,000 years.

GIVE IT UP

[TheWraith]

4. Private insurance already does cover it, and private money builds it.

Get your facts straight.

[Vincardog]

6. Quit lying. Give me a link to one nuclear power plant financed by private money. Show me the proof

of any private insurance company agreeing to assume the liability for one.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Obama's energy plans are bringing the anti-science fanatics out

That some people are afraid of nuclear energy is understandable, but the fanatics and ranters are a lost cause. For them, it's life-and-death, plus an inexhaustible excuse for emotionally-satisfying ranting.

This is our War-On-Drugs, our Global Warming Skepticism, our Creationism, our Right-To-Life Crusade, and our Teabaggers, rolled into one "movement".

At least it's convenient.

--d!

[truedelphi]

9. Having grown up around a dinner table in which an engineer who

Worked for the nuclear industry constantly spouted the latest on how much his industry got away with, I doubt what you're saying.

Their notion of storing the nuke waste - bribing some Indian tribe.

Their notion of safety - cover ups.

And as for it being "private money" - have you never read any single analysis of how the "private investors" always get their return from the utility users. Who are forced to pay for the nuclear power generation, even in places like Southern California where solar is the logical solution. (but oh noes - we cannot have de-centralized power -such that each citizen owns their own solar panels mounted on their homes' roofs.)

[Edweird]

14. De-centralized. Here in Florida, you can actually make money selling power to the utility.

If you generate your own power, you can meter it back to them. Well, at least at one time, anyway. I don't know if it's still an option.

[TheWraith]

3. Vermont Yankee is about a billion years old. It needs to be replaced.

Tritiated water isn't a big deal, but the whole plant is just an antique as far as it's systems and facilities go. A modern plant would never have these sorts of problems. Take it down and replace it with a swanky new Westinghouse AP-1000.

[cali]

5. what's more, Entergy lied to the legislature.

[bigtree]

10. there it is

. . . I knew you'd have a perspective on this plant. Lied about the pipes, didn't they?

[cali]

11. yep.

Vermont Yankee: Violating the Public’s Trust, and the Public Trust

By Opinion on January 22, 2010

Editor’s note: This opinion piece is by Jon Groveman, general counsel and co-director of the Water Program at the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

The recent news that Entergy officials misled Vermont regulators about the existence of underground pipes at the company’s aging nuclear reactor in Vernon demonstrates a major breach of trust. Even people within the Douglas administration, which has supported relicensing the plant, say the development is “very disturbing” and have said they will not support the relicensing of the plant until the questions are cleared up.

Whether Vermonters will ever forgive this transgression, this repeated mischaracterization of possible threats, is anybody’s guess. But it is important to note that Entergy may have also breached the public trust in another sense: by the very act of fouling Vermont’s groundwater (and now surface water, too) with dangerous radioactive tritium.

Surface waters, like the Connecticut River, have been considered public trust resources nation wide since 1892. That means they are resources collectively owned by all Vermonters.

In 2008, the Vermont Legislature passed, and Governor Douglas signed, a bill declaring groundwater ­– our underground aquifers which provide two–thirds of Vermonters drinking water supply – to also be a public trust resource. This means that Entergy, a Louisiana-based corporation, has placed in serious jeopardy a vital, finite, life-sustaining resource that is held in trust for all Vermonters by failing to keep radioactivity from leaching into our groundwater.

An Entergy spokesman says the Vermont Yankee monitoring wells are not drinking water wells, but merely testing wells. He also says the pollution appears to be migrating toward the Connecticut River and not toward drinking water resources.”

Vermont’s public trust designation means that groundwater legally belongs to all of us and must be managed by the government in the best interest of all Vermonters. Radioactive isotopes like tritium in our drinking water are clearly not in anyone’s best interest.

Adding insult to injury is Entergy’s reaction to the news of the leaks. An Entergy spokesman says the Vermont Yankee monitoring wells are not drinking water wells, but merely testing wells. He also says the pollution appears to be migrating toward the Connecticut River and not toward drinking water resources. We all know groundwater is a system, and testing wells are often connected to drinking water wells and even to surface water, like the Connecticut River. So Yankee’s reaction to this new water pollution should be cold comfort to Vermonters, and it demonstrates an apparent dismissive approach to Vermont’s precious natural resources and public health. When you pollute water, even if it’s not directly or currently drinking water, that pollution is a violation of Vermont’s public trust.

<snip>

http://vtdigger.org/2010/01/22/vermont-yankee-violating-the-public%E2%80%99s-trust-and-the-public-trust/

[truedelphi]

7. I guess that Nuke Plant didn't listen to Obama's speech.

You know, the part where he insisted that nuclear power was SAFE!

[Bobbieo]

12. Nuclear energy is safe until there is an accident or a leak!!!

The Navajos can tell you!!!!

[Turborama]

13. K&R Thanks bigtree & cali

For the very interesting related articles.

As well as the obvious difference in safety issues, I'd like to know the cradle to grave time & $ of a nuclear power plant versus the cradle to grave time & $ of a wind, solar and/or wave farm. Has anyone got any stats on this?

For a start, nuclear power plants take up to 10 years to build and therefore it's a myth that they are some magic wand that can instantly solve our energy needs.






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