{"id":15848,"date":"2016-02-15T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T16:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=15848"},"modified":"2016-02-15T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T16:42:35","slug":"radioactive-tritium-leak-at-indian-point-nuke-stopped-but-still-in-groundwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/radioactive-tritium-leak-at-indian-point-nuke-stopped-but-still-in-groundwater.html","title":{"rendered":"Radioactive tritium leak at Indian Point nuke stopped, but still in groundwater"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nPapers forged<\/a>, fire and oil leak into the Hudson River<\/a>, fracked methane pipeline planned next door<\/a>, oh, yet built on a fault line<\/a>,\r\nand people are surprised\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n there’s radioactive tritium leaking from Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant?\r\nJust like at\r\n\r\nPlant Farley<\/a> on the Chattahoochee River,\r\n \r\nPlant Hatch<\/a> on the Altamaha River and Plant Vogtle<\/a> on the Savannah River?\r\nHow about surprised if there are any nukes that don’t<\/em> leak tritium?\r\n

\r\nAP, 6 February 2016,\r\n\r\nRadioactive Material Found in Groundwater Below Nuke Plant<\/a>,\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAn apparent overflow at a nuclear power plant north of New York City\r\nspilled highly radioactive water into an underground monitoring\r\nwell, but nuclear regulators said the public isn’t at risk.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nOfficials at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, 40 miles\r\nnorth of Manhattan, reported on Friday that water contaminated by\r\ntritium leaked into the groundwater under the facility. The\r\ncontamination has remained contained to the site, said Democratic\r\nGov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered the state’s environmental\r\nconservation and health departments to investigate.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents\r\nclose to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not\r\npose a threat,” Cuomo said Saturday in a statement.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe leak occurred after a drain overflowed during a maintenance\r\nexercise while workers were transferring water, which has high\r\nlevels of radioactive contamination, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman\r\nfor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Normally, a sump pump would\r\ntake the water and filter it into another treatment system, but the\r\npump apparently was out of service, Sheehan said. After the drain\r\noverflowed, the water seeped out of the building into the\r\ngroundwater.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIt’s not like it’s the first time, neither there nor elsewhere:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThere has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian\r\nPoint. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about\r\n100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater\r\nsupply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in\r\ntwo monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the\r\ncontamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAn Associated Press investigation in 2009 showed three-quarters of\r\nAmerica’s 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked tritium, a radioactive\r\nform of hydrogen that poses the greatest risk of causing cancer when\r\nit ends up in drinking water.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\nHappy Valentine’s Day, New York City!\r\nDavid Gutierrez, Natural News, 14 February 2016, \r\nMassive leak at nuclear facility in New York causes 65,000% increase in radioactivity of ground water<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nPredictably, Entergy and the NRC both tried to downplay the\r\nseriousness of the tritium leak. They both noted that the\r\ngroundwater beneath Indian Point is not upstream of any drinking\r\nwater supplies. And while the water flows directly in the Hudson\r\nRiver, which then flows through New York City and Jersey City,\r\nEntergy claimed that “there is no health or safety consequence to\r\nthe public.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe NRC parroted this line, claiming that the river would dilute the\r\ntritium into insignificance and noting that the amount released was\r\nfar below federal limits.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSNAFU.\r\nWilliam Opalka, RTO Insider, 14 February 2016,\r\n\r\nNRC: No Further Leakage at Indian Point,\r\nRadiation Levels Continue to Fluctuate<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nLevels “of tritium will rise and fall, and that is to be\r\nexpected,” Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo if it’s not still leaking, yet radiation levels in the test wells\r\ncontinue to rise and fall, that sounds like there’s a plume of radioactive tritium spreading in the groundwater.\r\n

\r\nAll that plus both Indian Point 2<\/a> and Indian Point 3<\/a> have been down as recently as December 2015, so the purported always-up baseload capacity feature of nuclear plants isn’t, really.\r\n\r\n

\r\nNot the first or last time for falsifying records, either.\r\nDiane Turco,\r\nCape Cod Times, 15 February 2016,\r\n\r\nMake Entergy pay fines, then shut down Pilgrim<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAs\r\nyou reported Feb. 11, an Entergy security officer at Pilgrim\r\nfalsified 200 records for two years<\/a> while on fire watch to\r\ncompensate for “inoperable fire suppression,” a clear\r\nexample of NRC’s seriously flawed oversight.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAs a corporation with a long history of ineptitude and dishonesty,\r\nEntergy must be held accountable and render the $28 million fine.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThree of the worst-operating reactors are owned and operated by\r\nEntergy: Pilgrim and Arkansas I and II. Entergy’s Indian Point, 35\r\nmiles north of New York City, is under heavy attack by Gov. Andrew\r\nCuomo, who calls for its closure because of the serious public\r\nsafety threat. Vermont fought Entergy over the dangers at Vermont\r\nYankee. For years, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin called for its closing\r\nas Entergy officials lied, under oath, denying the existence of\r\nunderground pipes leaking tritium, strontium-90, and cobalt-60. Last\r\nDecember, an employee at Entergy’s Waterford 3 reactor in Louisiana\r\nfalsified fire safety records for 10 months before he was caught.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThere are documented violations upon violations. With the NRC\r\ncaptured by the nuclear industry, where is the accountability?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWhen Entergy states its principle is to “commit and adhere to\r\ntrust, honesty and integrity,” we don’t believe it. Make it\r\npay. Then shut Pilgrim down.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDiane Turco Harwich\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n— The writer is director of Cape Downwinders.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHow about we shut them all down?\r\nThe RTO story continues:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a joint investigation by the\r\nPublic Service Commission and the departments of Health and\r\nEnvironmental Conservation. He again called for the plant’s closure.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“This failure continues to demonstrate that Indian Point\r\ncannot continue to operate in a manner that is protective of public\r\nhealth and the environment,” the governor said in a letter to\r\nthe PSC.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd since Southern Company’s new Plant Vogtle nuke boondoggle on the Savannah River is only happening because SO isn’t paying for it, we are<\/a>,\r\nlet’s shut those new ones down before they start up.\r\n

\r\nAnd no new fossil fuel projects by wholly-industry-captured FERC or its stepsisters FE or MARAD, either:\r\nno more fracking, no new pipelines, no LNG export!\r\n

\r\nWe know how to go straight to wind and solar power<\/a>.\r\nLet the sun rise!\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Papers forged, fire and oil leak into the Hudson River, fracked methane pipeline planned next door, oh, yet built on a fault line, and people are surprised there’s radioactive tritium leaking from Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant? Just like at Plant Farley on the Chattahoochee River, Plant Hatch on the Altamaha River and Plant Vogtle […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[70,19,104,55],"tags":[6379,922,663,8728,779,8701,744,8709,8470,6414,8702,12,7,661,8819,2791,8737,708,110,9124,955,109,6,9125,8727,9123],"class_list":["post-15848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-history","category-nuclear","category-water","tag-altamaha-river","tag-chattahoochee-river","tag-entergy","tag-ethics","tag-farley","tag-georgia","tag-hatch","tag-history","tag-hudson-river","tag-indian-point","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-massachusetts","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nuclear","tag-pilgrim","tag-radioactive","tag-riverkeeper","tag-savannah-river","tag-tritium","tag-valdosta","tag-vogle","tag-water","tag-waterkeeper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-47C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15848"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15856,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15848\/revisions\/15856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}