Fukushima Spews, Los Alamos Burns, Vermont Rages and We’ve Almost Lost Nebraska

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/29-1

Published on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Fukushima Spews, Los Alamos Burns, Vermont Rages and We’ve Almost Lost Nebraska
by Harvey Wasserman

Humankind is now threatened by the simultaneous implosion, explosion, incineration, courtroom contempt and drowning of its most lethal industry.

We know only two things for certain: worse is yet to come, and those in charge are lying about it---at least to the extent of what they actually know, which is nowhere near enough.

Indeed, the assurances from the nuke power industry continue to flow like the floodwaters now swamping the Missouri Valley heartland.

But major breakthroughs have come from a Pennsylvania Senator and New York’s Governor on issues of evacuation and shut-down. And a public campaign for an end to loan guarantees could put an end to the US industry once and for all.

Fukushima: The bad news continues to bleed from Japan with no end in sight. The “light at the end of the tunnel” is an out-of-control radioactive freight train, headed to the core of an endangered planet.

Widespread internal radioactive contamination among Japanese citizens around Fukushima has now been confirmed.

..more..

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43475479/ns/us_news-environment/t/radioactive-tritium-leaks-found-us-nuke-sites

Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

'You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected,' whistleblower says


US news - Environment - msnbc.com

The Associated Press
updated 6/21/2011 5:48:09 AM ET 2011-06-21

BRACEVILLE, Ill. — Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants.

Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.

While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.

At three sites — two in Illinois and one in Minnesota — leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard.

..more..


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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/27-6

Published on Monday, June 27, 2011 by Associated Press

Floodwater Seeps into Nebraska Nuke Plant Building
by Nelson Lampe



OMAHA -- Missouri River floodwater seeped into the turbine building at a nuclear power plant near Omaha on Monday, but plant officials said the seepage was expected and posed no safety risk because the building contains no nuclear material.

Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson said pumps were handling the problem at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and that "everything is secure and safe." The plant, about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been closed for refueling since April. Hanson said the berm's collapse didn't affect the shutdown or the spent fuel pool cooling.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks described the situation as stable. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko plans to inspect the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday as part of a pre-arranged visit to Nebraska.

Hanson said OPPD fired up generators and cut the power supply after water surrounded the main electrical transformers on Sunday. The generators powered the plant until an off-site power supply was connected later in the day.

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[jpak]

1. K&R

renewables now

yup

[Doctor Hurt]

2. we've "almost lost" Nebraska?

really. Almost, huh?

[MineralMan]

3. With the exception of the Fukushima disaster, that's hyperbole.

It doesn't serve the cause of eliminating nuclear power generation very well. Hyperbole is another way of saying lying. And that trick never works.

Nuclear power generation is not safe. It has never been safe, and cannot be made to be safe. There is plenty of actual, factual information to support that. We have not almost lost Nebraska. There's a flood there, and there's a response to the issues at the Cooper and Calhoun plants. The odds are very high that nothing will really happen at either plant. To assume the worst at those two plants is the epitome of hyperbole. Then, when nothing really happens, people will point at the outrageous statements and laugh at nuclear power opponents.

The truth is sufficient.

Unrecommended for excessive use of hyperbole.

[existentialist]

4. Nebraska? Just Nebraska?

The Ft. Calhoun reactor is in Nebraska, yes, but it is just across the Missouri from Iowa, and upstream of Missouri, the Northeastern Corner of Kansas, and then Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Given prevailing winds it is upwind from all points south and east of Omaha.

With the exception of the greater Omaha area it probably presents a greater threat to all of the listed areas than it does to central of western Nebraska.


There is also the Cooper Station reactor which is also threatened by flooding which you do not mention. It is also in the Missouri River floodplain in Nebraska, but further downstream--almost to Kansas further downstream. It is considered to be less threatened, but it has continues to operate at full capacity despite a flood threat.

[snooper2]

5. Where did Nebraska almost go?

[newfie11]

6. I wondered about that to. I think I am still here in NE!! LOL N?T

[ensho]

7. kick

nt