10/27/2011 The Simpsons Called It: Three Eyed Fish Caught Outside a Nuclear Power Plant

Source: Gizmodo via Enformable
Date: 10/27/2011
by: Andrew Liszewski

Fishermen in Córdoba, Argentina caught a three-eyed wolf fish in a reservoir fed by a local nuclear power plant, which will surely hinder the plant’s owner’s attempt to run for local office.

According to Infobae.com, the lake where the three-eyed fish was caught is a reservoir where hot water from the nuclear facility is pumped, and that folks living nearby have started to grow worried after seeing undeniable evidence of mutation. Never had such a fish been seen there before.

“We were fishing and we got the surprise of getting this rare specimen. As it was dark at that time we did not notice, but then you looked at him with a flashlight and saw that he had a third eye,” said fisherman Julian Zmutt of his unusual discovery.

The men have decided to let it be tested to see if the mutation was actually a result of it being exposed to the water from the nuclear plant.

The Embalse Nuclear Power Station is one of the two operational nuclear power plants in Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of a reservoir on the Río Tercero, near the city of Embalse, Córdoba, 110 km south-southwest of Córdoba City.

The plant is a CANDU Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). It employs natural uranium (that is, with 0.72% of 235U), and uses heavy water for cooling and neutron moderation. It has a thermal power of 2,109 MW, and generates 648 MW of electricity, with a net output of about 600 MW, supplying nearly 4.5% of the production of the Argentine Interconnection System (2005).
Additionally, Embalse produces the cobalt-60 radioisotope, which is employed in medicine (cancer therapy) and industrial applications. Argentina is one of the largest producers and exporters of this isotope in the world, along with Canada and Russia.

Embalse was started in 1974 and began operation in 1983 (first criticality March 13 1983, declared commercial Jan 20 1984). It was built by an Italian-Canadian consortium formed by AECL and Italimpianti.