Several U.S. Nuke Sites Have Sprung Leaks

With so much focus recently on nuclear power sources in certain other parts of the world, it’s important to note that the U.S. has some considerable issues of its own in that department.

Take these results of a yearlong investigation into domestic power plants by The Associated Press, which found that three-quarters of American nuke sites have sprung tritium leaks. In other words, this is a problem that’s happening in our own backyard. –KA

AP via My Way News:

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP’s yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard – sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.

While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.

At three sites – two in Illinois and one in Minnesota – leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard. At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more