65,000% Spike in Radiation Outside New York Nuclear Plant is Likely Worse than Fukushima

[KamaAina]

http://www.activistpost.com/2016/02/65000-spike-in-radiation-outside-new-york-nuclear-plant-is-likely-worse-than-fukushima.html

An uncontrollable radioactive flow from the Indian Point nuclear power plant continues leaking into groundwater, which leads to the Hudson River, raising the specter of a Fukushima-like disaster only 25 miles from New York City.

The Indian Point nuclear plant is located on the Hudson River, approximately 25 miles North of NYC, and serves the electrical needs of an estimated 2 million people. Last month, while preparing a reactor for refueling, workers accidentally spilled some contaminated water, containing the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium, causing a massive radiation spike in groundwater monitoring wells, with one well’s radioactivity increasing by as much as 65,000 percent....

Of course, the tritium leak is the ninth in just the past year, four of which were serious enough to shut down the reactors. But the most recent leak, however, according to an assessment by the New York Department of State as part of its Coastal Zone Management Assessment, contains a variety of radioactive elements such as strontium-90, cesium-137, cobalt-60, and nickel-63, and isn’t limited to tritium contamination.

Despite the assurances from Entergy, the area around Indian Point is a “cancer cluster,” with the local rate of thyroid cancer rates registering at 66 percent higher than the national average, according to Joseph Mangano, Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP).

That piece of $#*! should have been decommissioned decades ago!

[thereismore]

1. Bad, but nothing in history was worse than Fukushima. nt

[KamaAina]

2. A counterexample can be found within Japanese history.

[thereismore]

4. Sorry, see No. 3. mispost. nt

[thereismore]

3. In terms of total radioactive material released? Are you sure? I am not talking about the immediate

human toll, obviously.

[Decoy of Fenris]

7. I think Chernobyl wins that dispute. n/t other than link to Chernobyl on Wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

[leftynyc]

5. Less than 10 miles from

where I live.

[Victor_c3]

8. I live in Cornwall. I think that puts me at 11-13 miles from Indian point n/t

[leftynyc]

10. I'm in northern westchester

So is my mom and my sister and husband.

[Journeyman]

6. "Many a mickle makes a muckle." ~ Poor Richard's Almanac (Ben Franklin). . .

[marmar]

9. Nuclear spin control should be arriving soon.

[malaise]

11. Well I hope they saw the arrest of three senior men in Japan

[NickB79]

12. SciAm: What You Need To Know About Indian Point Nuclear Plant's Groundwater Alert

http://www.popsci.com/elevated-radiation-levels-found-in-groundwater-near-new-york-nuclear-plant

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It's present in the environment naturally in very small amounts, but can also be created by nuclear power plants. It can't travel very far in air, but it can combine with oxygen to create water, just like normal hydrogen. This resulting water is called tritiated water, and can mix with regular water easily. That's what was found in the monitoring wells at Indian Point.

The water in the wells isn't used for drinking, but even if it was, tritiated water isn't considered a huge health concern, especially in extremely low doses. Because it acts just like other forms of water: it goes into soft tissues, and is generally expelled from the body quickly, in a matter of days.

That doesn't mean that people aren't paying attention to the issue. Nuclear power plants aren't supposed to leak. Even if they aren't leaking glowing green sludge, it's something that people want to monitor. But tritium leaks happen more often than you might think. Of the 65 nuclear power plants (past and present) in the United States, 46 have reported tritium leaks into groundwater in excess of the 20,000 picocurie per liter limit set by the EPA as the safe amount in drinking water. There are 13 total power plants that are currently reporting levels of tritium larger than the EPA limit, but none have detected that amount in any drinking water.

A picocurie is one-trillionth of a Curie, a measure of radioactivity. For comparison, a routine thyroid test uses about one millionth of a curie, a much larger dose.