nuclear-news

1 THIS MONTH

http://kcpw.org/blog/local-news/2012-01-27/victims-of-nuclear-testing-radiation-

  http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3413882.htm   Is the world facing a groundwater crisis?

of the week   http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/

EVENT

February 18 Hindsdale, Chicago American Association of University Women - nuclear disaster preparedness  H.OB.aauw.reservations@gmail.com.

March 2012 is “March Against Nuclear Madness” and Beyond Nuclear has created a new March Against Nuclear Madness Facebook page.

Nuclear power and water – theme for February 2012

Too much water.  It is a laugh that nuclear power is touted as a solution to global warming More likely, global warming is the death knell for nuclear power.

Very many nuclear reactors are located along coastlines, where they are vulnerable to storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis. With climate change and rising sea levels, these events are becoming more frequent and more extreme.

So far, we have considered water only as it relates to only the normal operations of nuclear reactors.  Even then, nuclear reactors have leaks, especially as they age, allowing radioactive substances to disperse into water systems.

Uranium mines are vulnerable to flooding. When this happens, the disaster is an economic one, as well as environmental. Canada’s Cameco company and Energy Resources of Australia have found this out to their cost. Both uranium companies are still in financial plight due to the Cigar Lake (Canada) floods of 2006, and 2008, and the Ranger mine (Australia) floods of 2011.

But Fukushima has shown the world how a natural climate event can disrupt nuclear power.  In the event of a nuclear accident the effects of nuclear power on water are hugely damaging, catastrophic.

Some figures and facts on nuclear/uranium and water.

URANIUM MINING  Water use in a typical uranium mine is approximately 200 to 300 gallons per minute, In water-short Australia, BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam uranium mine has been for years taking 35 million litres of water each day from the underground aquifer, at no cost whatever.  When BHP digs its new biggest hole in the world, it will pay a small fixed price for removing even greater amounts, exceeding 42 million litres.

NUCLEAR REACTORS 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.

200 billion gallons of water withdrawn from America’s water supply each day for every terawatt of electricity produced by nuclear reactors,

At least 20 USA nuclear plants have admitted leakage of radioactive tritium into the groundwater.

Spills and leaks are common at In Situ Leach  mines. The South Australian  Department of Primary Industry and Resources lists 59 spills at Beverley mine from 1998 to 2007.