Nuclear plants pose threat to groundwater

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/07/24/opinion/srv0000008904317.prt
The Pottstown Mercury (pottsmerc.com), Serving Pottstown, PA
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Opinion
Itapuranga Nuclear plants pose threat to groundwater

A radioactive groundwater disaster could be unfolding around U.S. nuclear plants, according to a shocking documented report released in 2010, titled “Leak First, Fix Later” that can be found at www.beyondnuclear.org.

102 of 104 U.S. nuclear reactors leaked radiation into groundwater from aging and deteriorating buried pipes under the reactors.

There are two to 20 miles of buried pipeline under each nuclear plant which obviously go largely uninspected and unmaintained.

Limerick Nuclear Plant’s 25 year old underground pipes may have already leaked. It’s virtually impossible to detect all leaks in miles of pipes tangled beneath the plant. Monitoring can easily fail to detect leaks.

This is a fractured bedrock aquifer where radioactive contamination can travel in any direction, at any depth, and fail to ever be detected. Reliable monitoring would be prohibitively costly.

Radioactive leaks from Limerick could impact any of the region’s residents, now or in the future. There’s cause for concern, precaution, and prevention now, before Exelon is permitted to operate Limerick Nuclear Plant for a total of 60 years. None of the 102 nukes that leaked operated more than 41 years.

Limerick operated since 1985 (25 years). Buried pipes carrying radioactive water are vulnerable to leaks.

A 20-year license extension to operate until 2049 would allow 35 years more years of radioactive water transport (60 years total). Think what happens to pipes in older homes.

We can’t trust Exelon to immediately detect or disclose leaks. NRC’s oversight and enforcement are extremely lax.

Prevention is the only cure. What happens if groundwater becomes radioactive? There’s no way to clean it up from the ground. Filtering is cost prohibitive for many, if not impossible. Over 100 to 200 radionuclides are associated with Limerick Nuclear plant.

Before NRC rubberstamps approval for a license extension until 2049, Exelon should be required to replace all pipes buried under Limerick which carry radioactive water.

Exelon, the company with a vested interest in the outcome, claimed there’s no problem at Limerick, based solely on their own monitoring and reporting. Evidence below at other Exelon nukes shows why we can’t believe or trust Exelon.

Radioactive water contamination at Exelon’s Braidwood Nuclear Plant in Illinois was called by some “Exelon’s Radioactive Watergate.” Exelon failed to disclose 22 recurring uncontrolled radioactive spills in buried pipelines from 1996 to 2005. Since then, numerous leaks over a 10-year span were revealed at two other Exelon nuclear plants in Illinois. Leaks were significant. Just two Braidwood releases totaled six million gallons of radioactive water. Exelon supplied bottled water to 600 people for more than four years, but groundwater was contaminated for 14 years. It still is. March 2010, a legal settlement was reached. Exelon will be supplying a water system. But groundwater and soil remain radioactive. The mother of a teen battling cancer said, “If the cancer is in the air we breathe or the water we drank, I don’t think there’s enough money to go around. I know they admitted to mistakes but how do you put a price tag on the environment?” Another resident said, “It’s scary to live here, but who in their right minds would buy homes here?”

At Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant in New Jersey Exelon failed to report radioactive water leaking from buried pipes until 2009, just seven days after NRC issued its license renewal for another 20 years. This radioactive water reached a major New Jersey aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey (Reported 5/10). New Jersey DEP said the leaked radiation (50 times higher than levels allowed by law) has reached southern New Jersey’s main source of drinking water. Julia LaMense, Eastern Environmental Law Clinic, condemned NRC “for letting it come to this.” She said, “It’s a sad day when the ‘wait and see’ approach taken in response to yet another ‘trust us’ from Exelon results in contamination of one of the most significant aquifers in the region.”

The Mercury story March 28 by Evan Brandt showed the region’s residents are already subjected to too much carcinogenic groundwater contamination. It revealed that toxic plumes from two other industrial sites were contaminating groundwater in Limerick. Toxic, carcinogenic groundwater contamination will continue tor decades, if not forever, at Pottstown Landfill and the Oxy Superfund site.

It’s long past time for precaution and prevention. Exelon will apply for their 20-year Limerick Nuclear Plant license renewal soon. People who care about safe water for their families should get informed and get involved now. Call ACE at  610- 326-2387 and leave your name, phone, e-mail.

DR. LEWIS CUTHBERT

ACE President