Tritium, NJ USA

(This expands on what Rama has already taken note of in the sidebar diaries, BP)

No two situations are identical of course but some similarities here are striking. The similarities are enough to feel once again that the Vermont legislature did the right thing voting overwhelmingly against VY’s continued operation.  

In New Jersey the Oyster Creek generating plant is a 40 year old boiling water reactor (VY is also a BWR) that was up for, and was granted a license extension by the NRC. The aging plant can now operate for twenty years past its original stop date.  A matter of days after the operating extension a tritium leak was discovered.

Oyster Creek is now one of the 33 plants nationwide leaking tritium according to the NRC. The plant owner, Exelon, is drilling monitoring wells and has been ordered by the State to “come up with a plan”.      

The tritium leaked from underground pipes at the plant on April 9, 2009, and has been slowly spreading underground at 1 to 3 feet a day. At the current rate, it would be 14 or 15 years before the tainted water reaches the nearest private or commercial drinking water wells about two miles away.  

The radioactive water leaks were found just days after the plant got a new 20-year license in 2009 that environmentalists had bitterly fought for four years. Those problems followed corrosion that left the reactor's crucial safety liner rusted and thinned.  

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon insist Oyster Creek can operate safely until it is 60 years old. But environmental groups disagree.

4 thoughts on “Tritium, NJ USA

  1. that is at, near, or past it’s original date of obsolescence to check all the underground pipes and all pipes related to their off-gas systems?

    With 33 plants leaking radioactive water, and with an apparent pattern to the locations of leaks within the plants, there should be a requirement that those areas most likely to leak be checked and upgraded BEFORE they leak!

    The insane thing is that these companies are not doing this when the cost of cleanup after a leak so far outweighs the cost of just doing the maintenance proactively. What do the shareholders think of this blatant failure of the plant operators to live up to their fiduciary responsibilities?

  2. … It follows a pattern, if you know what I mean.

    What I mean is that lying is as capitalist as capital. And, after a century plus of capital controlling government, lying is getting to be as American as Apple Pie!

    Shrinking government won’t stop the lying.

    SHRINKING THE LIARS WILL STOP THE LYING!

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