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Groundwater threatened by nuclear plants: public justifiably suspicious

while nuclear plants have permits that allow them to emit material into surface water and the air, they do not have permits that let them release material to groundwater, which is where the tritium is going……………

Has Trust Leaked Away With the Tritium?  NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD, April 20, 2010, A panel of experts convened on Tuesday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss how the agency should approach tritium leaks at reactors suggested that the biggest risk that nuclear operators faced was the erosion of public trust……….James P. Riccio, a nuclear expert at Greenpeace, says that while nuclear plants have permits that allow them to emit material into surface water and the air, they do not have permits that let them release material to groundwater, which is where the tritium is going……………

Public officials also voiced criticism. William Buscher, manager of the hydrology and compliance unit in Illinois’s state Environmental Protection Agency, said that part of the problem was with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approach, which he said was to wait for leaks and then fix them rather than trying to prevent them, and to leave contaminated soil in place until a reactor was ready to be torn down at the end of its life.

A nuclear plant’s neighbors “have a right to put in a well and have it not affected by someone else’s dirty nest,’’ he said. Two twin-unit power stations in Illinois have had tritium problems.

“It is my opinion that the regulatory culture of the N.R.C. needs to be reexamined and remolded,’’ he said.

Paul Gunter, the nuclear expert at a group called Beyond Nuclear, criticized the regulatory commission for having allowed the industry to design and carry out an inspection campaign to look for leaks. “The agency has basically turned over the oversight to the industry,’’ he said. (The group recently produced a report on leaks.)

April 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology