New Contamination Found At Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant Potentially Dangerous Element

[brianct]

yes, american nuke plants are as unsafe as old soviet ones.


New Contamination Found At Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant
Potentially Dangerous Element Found In Soil At Nuclear Plant

VERNON, Vt. - Calls for a shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are being repeated after health officials said another chemical was found contaminating the plant's grounds.

Vermont Yankee said there was no public threat from the cesium 137 found in soil samples taken from the plant. But experts said the element is more dangerous than the tritium discovered in a recent leak.

The Vermont Department of Health said the samples had contamination levels 12 times higher than normal. A plant spokesman said it's unclear where it came from, saying that it could have been from a fuel failure eight years ago.

The news comes soon after Vermont Yankee discovered the source of tritium that was detected in monitoring wells.

Experts said cesium 137, a byproduct of nuclear fission, can potentially be dangerous.

"It has what's called a half life of about 30 years, meaning it will decay, it will transform itself into another element, which happens to be barium 137," said Dave McDonald of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. "And that, in turn, gives off gamma radiation, which is not friendly to people."

U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., is calling again for the immediate shutdown of the reactor at Vermont Yankee.

New Contamination Found At Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant | CommonDreams.org (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/01-7)

[Recycled Souls]

very interesting, I was actually researching nuclear power earlier today and found out quite a few *cough* unpleasant things about it.

[Tsyal Makto]

very interesting, I was actually researching nuclear power earlier today and found out quite a few *cough* unpleasant things about it.

Yeah, it's a pretty sad situation. We need to replace this stuff ASAP.

[joeylovesgaia]

And the nuclear industry is applying to Congress for subsidies, trying to sell itself as green b/c it emits less carbon. There are better, cheaper, faster solutions--like better efficiency and conservation--but no one stands to make a lot of money from that.

[brianct]

notice how caesium 137 becomes barium 137...which gives off gamma rays! Will that turn us into Hulks?

[Grif]

I worry about nuclear technology, it can be clean if you take the steps to make sure it stays clean. I hope that this doesn't impact thorium research which is safer than uranium.

[Neytiri]

Grrrrrrrrrrr.... whatever we have coming to us as a species, we deserve it. We're a bunch of arrogant bastards, us humans. We have a brain, so how come we don't use it? I will NEVER trust nuclear power in human hands. We'd have to evolve into a species completely different than what we are today for me to say, "Here's some nasty radioactive material. I know you can handle it properly."

[brianct]

I worry about nuclear technology, it can be clean if you take the steps to make sure it stays clean. I hope that this doesn't impact thorium research which is safer than uranium.

nuclear technology can never be clean..those who claim it is or can be are deluding others.

[joeylovesgaia]

OK, so there's a kind of reactor that's safer--pebble bed reactors. But we don't have the time to build enough of those, and efficiency measures could implemented immediately, with far less cost and greater effect.

[joeylovesgaia]

notice how caesium 137 becomes barium 137...which gives off gamma rays! Will that turn us into Hulks?

Ha ha ha! Boy did those comic writers get their science wrong, should have taken some classes at community college.:p

[Atuma Miatan]

I too worry about nuclear technology, I sure don't want to hear about another Chernobyl Disaster on the news.

[applejuice]

Cesium!!!


Caesium compounds are rarely encountered by most persons; most caesium compounds are mildly toxic because of chemical similarity of caesium to potassium. Exposure to large amounts of Cs compounds can cause hyperirritability and spasms.
The isotopes 134 and 137 (present in the biosphere in small amounts as a result of radiation leaks) represent a radioactivity burden which varies depending on location. Radiocaesium does not accumulate in the body as effectively as many other fission products (such as radioiodine and radiostrontium). As with other alkali metals, radiocaesium washes out of the body relatively quickly with the sweat and urine. However, radiocaesium follows potassium and tends to accumulate in plant tissues, including fruits and vegetables.[/URL] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesium#cite_note-89) Accumulation of caesium-137 in lakes has been a high concern after the Chernobyl disaster. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesium#cite_note-91) Experiments with dogs showed that a single dose of 3800 μCi/kg (4.1 μg of caesium-137) is lethal within three weeks, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesium#cite_note-93) smaller amounts may cause infertility, cancer.[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesium#cite_note-95"]The International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources have indicated that radioactive materials, such as caesium-137, may be used in radiological dispersion devices, or “dirty bombs”
Taken from Wikipedia
4 ug, that's nasty, a human hair weights like 10000 times more!

[Zapgun]

Yeah, it's a pretty sad situation. We need to replace this stuff ASAP.

This really grinds my nerves, if you are going to demand that something be replaced, be ready to suggest a replacement. If not, then you are part of the problem and are doing nothing to alleviate the problem.

On topic however, someone should come up with a use for the nuclear byproducts of a nuclear powerplant, that makes the byproducts of THAT less radioactive.

[Imperius Dictatio]

You people are overreacting to the situation.
The nearby river remains uncontaminated so that makes me doubt that the tritium is going to be a major problem. Once they find the pipe that's leaking and do some basic cleanup things should be fine.

And besides that, the levels of cesium-137 detected in the silt on site were 2,600 picocuries/kg. To paint a clear picture of this, a kilogram of bananas contains almost 50% more radioactive than that, or 3,500 pCi/kg. Furthermore the cesium hasn’t migrated from the site nor increased. Hells Bells it's more than likely been present from before 2001 so this is obviously not a major issue.

Throne of God, y'all are acting like this is a second Chernobyl.

[applejuice]

^ Ah, I see. Heheh, I usually forget that, despite being a relatively new species, man is much more stronger than he is given credit for and that we are exposed to many sources of contamination every day (and this is from the beginning of man kind). For a moment, this all looked like the doomsayers about global warming and finally it turned out to be a big lie.

[brianct]

is it any surprise the Dictatort and applejuice..endorse pollution and nuclear contamination? Not after their attacks on President morales.

theyd think different if they were affected.

[Imperius Dictatio]

http://www.avatar-forums.com/images/extras/not-available.gif

[Imperius Dictatio]

^ Ah, I see. Heheh, I usually forget that, despite being a relatively new species, man is much more stronger than he is given credit for and that we are exposed to many sources of contamination every day (and this is from the beginning of man kind). For a moment, this all looked like the doomsayers about global warming and finally it turned out to be a big lie.

No one seems to know that humans are radioactive.
O NOEZ! HUMANS ARE POLLUTUNG THE ENVIORMENT BY JUST EXISTING!

And people are forgetting that humans only create 3% of the worlds background radiation.

[applejuice]

brianct,
I explained with plenty of details how things really are here... take or leave it.
One important thing that was not debated properly in the CMPCC was that, inevitably progress ALWAYS carries a degree of contamination. You can't have progress without contaminating the environment because, unfortunately, there is no ideal industrial process. If you don't want contamination, then you are limiting developing nations to stay "in development" for a longer time while people stays poor. For example, the mere fact of visiting this site, or writing a post in it, already pollutes the environment somewhere. When we eat, we contaminate, we are natural factories of waste. So, that's the compromise, if you want development, then you are going to contaminate, else means you cannot use natural resources to cover human needs.

[allrock123]

As a vermont resident I frequently see the massive public relations effort "Entergy" the plants owner puts on TV and radio and print media , its about as effective as the so called "clean coal" campain , vermont yankee is one of the older operating plants with known issues such as cracks in is high presure steam dryer and underground pipes they said where not there , the main issue is with the age of the plant, When is it considerd no longer safe to operate due to issues of corosion and metal fatigue in areas that are hard to inspect ? The odds of a failure of the primary or secondary cooling system carry the same risks as the Fukushima Daiichi reactor in japan loss of cooling that cant easly be repaired if the break happens in a bad area , the plant has a large amount of waste stored on site to make maters worse. many here feel the plant is worn out and should be shut down not run at higher power levels that further reduce safety margins.