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

[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.