nuclear-news

- Dep of Parliamentary Services research note, 4 December 2006, no. 12, 2006–07, ISSN 1449-8456 Water consumption figures:

Nuclear: 2.3 L/ kWh
Solar (PV): 0.110 L/ kWh
Wind: 0.004 L/ kWh
(American Wind Energy Association estimate & US DOE)

A typical 1000-megawatt pressurized-water reactor (with a cooling tower) takes in 20,000 gallons of river, lake or ocean water per minute for cooling, circulates it through a 50-mile maze of pipes, returns 5,000 gallons per minute to the same body of water, and releases the remainder to the atmosphere as vapor. A 1000-megawatt reactor without a cooling tower takes in even more water–as much as one-half million gallons per minute. The discharge water is contaminated with radioactive elements in amounts that are not precisely known or knowable, but are biologically active.

Some radioactive fission gases, stripped from the reactor cooling water, are contained in decay tanks for days before being released into the atmosphere through filtered rooftop vents. Some gases leak into the power plant buildings’ interiors and are released during periodic “purges” and “ventings.” These airborne gases contaminate not only the air, but also soil and water. http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/routineradioactivereleases.htm

NUCLEAR REACTORS  -IONISING RADIATION to GROUNDWATER   In USA the nuclear industry has contaminated groundwater with radioactive tritium at nuclear power plant sites all across the country.  Nuclear plants that have admitted leaking tritium into the groundwater include:

• Braidwood, Byron, Dresden and Quad Cities in Illinois;
• Indian Point and Fitzpatrick in New York;
• Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim in Massachusetts;
• Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania;
• Callaway in Missouri
• Catawba in South Carolina
• Oyster Creek in New Jersey
• Hatch in Georgia
• Palo Verde In Arizona
• Perry in Ohio
• Palisades in Michigan
• Point Beach in Wisconsin
• Salem in Delaware
• San Onofre in California
• Seabrook in New Hampshire
• Shearon Harris in North Carolina
• Watts Bar in Tennessee
• Wolf Creek in Kansas
• Connecticut Yankee in Connecticut
• Vermont Yankee in Vermont

URANIUM MINING – OPEN CUT or UNDERGROUND    It is very difficult to find figures on the amounts of water used.  All mining is water intensive, but uranium mining is the greatest guzzler Water is extensively used to suppress airborne dust levels, to try to reduce the radioactive clouds that would otherwise emanate constantly  from the uranium tailings.

IN SITU LEACHING – Uranium Mining Process  in-situ leaching uses a hydrogen peroxide mixture to strip the uranium from the rock, which kills tissue and destroys cells in human and animal life. The addition of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate called oxygenates causes uranium and other radioactive substances and trace metals to be liberated from the rock into the groundwater.

.. judges have too often taken the stance that they are judges who know nothing of the mining industry and accept the data of corporations, claiming the corporations are in the know.

..the water taken from the extremely pristine Westwater Canyon Aquifer near Crownpoint for uranium mining and used for flushing out chemicals would not be replaced in our lifetimes.

It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to transform aquifer water back into a drinkable condition.  Virginia Against Uranium Mining: Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water