2/7/2012 More Concerns Over San Onofre Safety

Source: San Diego Reader
Date: Posted February 7, 2012, 7:26 a.m.
by: Dave Rice

Concerns about safety and the durability of components at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station are continuing to surface as the plant approaches a full week of complete shutdown. The plant’s Unit 3 reactor was taken out of commission after a radioactive water leak was discovered on January 31, while Unit 2 was already down for scheduled maintenance. The Unit 1 reactor was taken offline permanently in 1992.
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See also these great article from ENENews:

1. Nuclear Expert: Pipe ruptures at Calif. nuke plant could have lead to meltdown, China Syndrome, catastrophic radioactivity release (VIDEO)
2. San Onofre Whistleblower: This is extremely significant — They had an actual tube rupture — This is very, very significant (VIDEO)

Map of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station:

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1/30/2012 Home video of Byron Nuclear Generating Station venting radioactive steam

Source: rcjmd YouTube channel
Date: 1/30/2012


Offsite power was lost on 1/30/2012 due to equipment failure in the switchyard which caused the nuclear power plant's diesel backup generators to kick in. An Unusual Event was declared, which is the lowest of four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  In the video steam containing small amounts of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) is being vented from the reactor, which is out of the ordinary.  Under normal operation, only the cooling towers vent steam.  The Illinois Emergency Management Agency was sent out to gather air samples as well as water and vegetation samples to test for radioactive tritium levels.

Map of Byron Nuclear Generating Station:

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8/24/2011 (Video) Why did the Virginia nuke plant, built on fault line, have its quake sensors removed?

Source: RT News
Date: 8/24/2011
by: Thom Hartman


[Editor's Note: I extracted the Thom Hartman interview segment with Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter concerning the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station which is run by Dominion Generation (the company stock is listed as Dominion Resources). Some disturbing points are brought up. This nuclear power plant actually had its seismic sensors removed in the 1990's due to budget cuts. The Lake Anna Dam, which was constructed on the North Anna River to create Lake Anna, an artificial reservoir to cool the North Anna nuclear plant, was recently inspected for earthquake damage and passed inspection. However, as Mr. Gunter notes, America's crumbling infrastructure has low D- ratings on many of its dams with regards to upkeep, including this one. Also, due to the nuclear power plant being very close to the epicenter of the 5.8 magnitude quake, Gunter feels that damage to the nuclear plant's is likely, such as cracked pipes which in the case of the Dresden nuclear power plant in Illinois, leaked radioactive tritium.

Link to original Thom Hartman interview which includes other segments: http://youtu.be/pRs5RKXoZ6I

Good article that speculates that the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station has been damaged and is possibly leaking radiation: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/us-quake-nuclear-meltdown-wa...]

8/18/2011 Vermont Yankee radioactive tritium found leaking in to Connecticut River

The Vermont health department says (Reuters published an article on 8/18/2011) they have been closely monitoring the radioactive tritium in groundwater originating from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Nuclear Power Plant as it has progressed in to the Connecticut River. Tritium levels tested by the state laboratory measured at 534 to 611 picocuries per liter. The EPA's maximum safe limit for drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter. Entergy stated that they found lower tritium levels from their own tests of river water, and that the levels registered below the official minimum detection limit. Entergy has also previously denied that strontium-90 found in a fish caught in the Connecticut river near Vermont Yankee originates from the nuclear power plant they run. [1]

The Vermont senate has voted to block the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee, whose current license to operate expires in March of 2012. The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has already granted a federal license for Entergy to continue operation of the nuclear power plant through March 21, 2032. Entergy has filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the state's veto law. [2]

RSOE EDIS event report.

Map of Vermont Yankee

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Sources:
[1] Radioactive tritium found in river near Vermont Yankee plant, Jason McLure, Reuters
[2] Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Wikipedia

8/12/2011 (Video) America's Nuclear Nightmare

Source: The Young Turks
Date: 8/12/2011

A Rolling Stone article by Jeff Goodell shares shocking facts about the dangerous state of many nuclear power plants and lack of oversight in America. Is a Fukushima type meltdown inevitable in the United Sates? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss.

8/2/2011 Bernie Sanders: Nuclear Safety Now

Source: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders via NuclearFreePlanet.org
Date: 8/2/2011

Uploaded by Bernie Sanders on Aug 2, 2011

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today pressed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to aggressively implement task force recommendations on reactor safety in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis.

Editor's Note: Here is a map of the controversial Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant run by Entergy which the Vermont Senate voted to block from being re-licensed for operation in February 2010 due to tritium leaks, lies by plant officials and other safety issues.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

Entergy has filed a Federal lawsuit against Vermont's veto law which allows the state to block the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee, so that the utility can continue operation of the nuclear power plant. The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), a federal agency, has already approved a 20 year license renewal for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant as of March, 2011. Recently there has been bad news about fish near the nuclear power plant being contaminated by strontium-90.  Vermont Yankee's current license to operate expires March of next year.

7/22/2011 Inside the Innards of a Nuclear Reactor: Tiny Robots May Monitor Underground Pipes for Radioactive Leaks

Source: Science Daily
Date: 7/22/2011

A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal network of valves and pumps. (Credit: Harry Asada/d'Arbeloff Laboratory)

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2011) — As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of "unrelenting wear" in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States.

That study found that three-quarters of the country's nuclear reactor sites have leaked radioactive tritium from buried piping that transports water to cool reactor vessels, often contaminating groundwater. According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the industry has limited methods to monitor underground pipes for leaks.

"We have 104 reactors in this country," says Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of MIT's d'Arbeloff Laboratory for Information Systems and Technology. "Fifty-two of them are 30 years or older, and we need immediate solutions to assure the safe operations of these reactors."

Asada says one of the major challenges for safety inspectors is identifying corrosion in a reactor's underground pipes. Currently, plant inspectors use indirect methods to monitor buried piping: generating a voltage gradient to identify areas where pipe coatings may have corroded, and using ultrasonic waves to screen lengths of pipe for cracks. The only direct monitoring requires digging out the pipes and visually inspecting them -- a costly and time-intensive operation.

Now Asada and his colleagues at the d'Arbeloff Laboratory are working on a direct monitoring alternative: small, egg-sized robots designed to dive into nuclear reactors and swim through underground pipes, checking for signs of corrosion. The underwater patrollers, equipped with cameras, are able to withstand a reactor's extreme, radioactive environment, transmitting images in real-time from within.

The group presented details of its latest prototype at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
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Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

Source: AP via MSNBC
Date: ???
by: JEFF DONN

'You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected', whistleblower says

BRACEVILLE, Ill. — Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.
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Addition: Local news report on Braidwood, IL nuclear plant which had pipes leaking tritium.

5/6/2011 | Nuclear plant workers release unknown amount of radioactive tritium into Mississippi River

Source: NaturalNews.com Date: Friday, May 06, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Workers at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant in Port Gibson, Miss., last Thursday released a large amount of radioactive tritium directly into the Mississippi River, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and experts are currently trying to sort out the situation. An investigation is currently underway to determine why the tritium was even present in standing water found in an abandoned unit of the plant, as well as how much of this dangerous nuclear byproduct ended up getting dumped into the river. Many also want to know why workers released the toxic tritium before conducting proper tests.
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