Our Own Fukashima Here at Home?! VA Plant may be in trouble!!!

Tritium trouble? Nuke fears rise with quake, self-policing

On Monday, August 29, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that the quake may, in fact, have produced force that exceeded the North Anna plants specifications and that the Commission is sending a special Augmented Inspection Team to assess the damage.

Initial reviews determined the plant may have exceeded the ground motion for which it was designed, says the release, which also assures that no significant damage to safety systems has been identified.

Thats small consolation to one prominent nuclear watchdog, who says its not whats above ground that gives him the greatest concern.

Central to the issue is miles of buried pipe under the plant that carry radioactive water, says Paul Gunter, director of a nonprofit group called Beyond Nuclear.

Gunter cites recent problems with underground pipes at nuclear plants in Illinois and Vermont, where millions of gallons of water contaminated with the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium seeped into groundwater, even as the power companies that owned the plants denied for years that it was happening. The result of those leaks and their public concealment by the Exelon and Intergy power companies–at the Braidwood Station plant in Illionis and at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant–was not additional government oversight as one might expect, says Gunter, but merely the creation of two voluntary programs that allow the power companies to inspect their own pipes and groundwater and then report the findings to the Commission.

Here is an industry that has hidden these leaks that is now self reporting and overseeing itself to the NRC, says a disgusted Gunter.

Indeed, at North Anna, newly arrived government inspectors wont be conducting their own tests of the miles of underground pipes. And the assumption that those pipes didnt sustain damage during the earthquake, which knocked two Louisa County schools out of commission and caused cracks in the Washington Monument some 90 miles away, might be laughable to Gunter if he werent convinced of potentially grave public danger.

Is this a surprise!????!

Speechless.

:shk:


See also: VA Nuclear Plant Loses Power After Quake...NRC WARNED some systems not seismically designed.

Earthquake caused massive nuclear storage casks to move in Virgina

And lets not forget about this:

Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

And none of these sites suffered earthquakes.

reply to post by loam


You know, I have read those threads that claim TPTB are trying to depopulate the world in order to promote their own agenda. I have always kind of laughed them off. But now.....I really believe they are trying to kill us. This is absolutely unbelievable! The world's governments are so corrupt, nothing would surprise me anymore. All this money spent protecting us from terrorism, and our own infrastructure will be what does us in!

With universities full of PhD's in nuclear engineering, you think the author could dig a bit deeper than Paul Gunter to flush out this story.

Take a look at my user name, and that will tell the whole story.

It's only a matter of time before it happens on a grand scale, anyone can see this, with some critical thinking.

Huge disaster + No power = doom

Some things are better left uninvented.

Originally posted by Nucleardoom
Take a look at my user name, and that will tell the whole story.

It's only a matter of time before it happens on a grand scale, anyone can see this, with some critical thinking.

Huge disaster + No power = doom

Some things are better left uninvented.

It's the design that is flawed, A self sustaining reaction is bad news. our current technology of all our BWR and or LWR reactors are 50+ year old technology. If we are to continue with Nuclear power weather Thorium based or other, they need to be designed so they need a catalyst (outside source to sustain reaction.)to maintain reaction. There's lots of modern designs on the drawing board. Its the Group of people that own and operate our nuke plants that need a kick in the arse!

Study the vast array of IV gen reactor designs out there. Lots of new and improved designs over our dangerous BWR and lesser critical LWR's.

reply to post by loam


Gasp. Seriously. I guess I won't be boating/swimming/camping in Lake Anna for a while, and it's quite a nice spot.

Thanks for keeping up on this.

reply to post by SirMike

Originally posted by SirMike
With universities full of PhD's in nuclear engineering, you think the author could dig a bit deeper than Paul Gunter to flush out this story.

What relevancy does his particular background have to the verifiable FACTS mentioned in the article?

Well, I freaking hope this is only some kind of bad joke. Are they really trying to nuke all of down?
What the funk is wrong with these people? No, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WRONG. Why does everyone need money and power? What is with all this control? I see no point. I dont have much and I dont need much and I am satisfied. I do not need to be leader of huge corporation, I do not need to be a famous person, I do not need to have loads of money. And that is what I call high ego. But actually controlling and actually slowly wiping out whole world? I cant even imagine how high their ego must be.

Well this isn't good. Will be saying my prayers and taking my Vitamins.

It's the design that is flawed, A self sustaining reaction is bad news. our current technology of all our BWR and or LWR reactors are 50+ year old technology. If we are to continue with Nuclear power weather Thorium based or other, they need to be designed so they need a catalyst (outside source to sustain reaction.)to maintain reaction. There's lots of modern designs on the drawing board. Its the Group of people that own and operate our nuke plants that need a kick in the arse! Study the vast array of IV gen reactor designs out there. Lots of new and improved designs over our dangerous BWR and lesser critical LWR's.

reply to post by Pegasus2000


I completely agree, in layman's terms these things need an on/off switch which, under current designs, is impossible due, in part, to decay heat and the resulting reliance on vast amounts of water to cool them along with constant power to drive the cooling water pumps. A catalyst design is the key to having control over the reaction and would provide the unbelievably absent on/off switch that current reactors lack. Control rods are not switches.

Unfortunately all the best new reactor designs in the world can't fix this unreal nightmare we are in.

Reactors that are 40+ years old that already leak. Many of which they want to keep in service rather than decommission. Ticking time bombs.

Decommissioning these reactors is a long process, so new tech can't help in the short term with so many doomsday machines still in service.

Then there is the issue of nuclear waste. What do you do with the never ending accumulation of toxic waste from these things? I could be wrong, and by no means am I an expert on new reactor designs, but wouldn't some waste material still be produced? I'm sure there has to be some type of toxic junk by-product from even the newer designs.

I'll finish with a quote from - O Brother Where Art Thou?

"We're in a tight spot"

If these plants are starting to become such a problem lets get the ball rolling on fusion.

Like seriously. Our planet is too unstable for this.

Originally posted by Nucleardoom
Take a look at my user name, and that will tell the whole story.

It's only a matter of time before it happens on a grand scale, anyone can see this, with some critical thinking.

Huge disaster + No power = doom

Some things are better left uninvented.

Exactly! The outcome is already decided and our fates are already sealed.

And Fukushima, the single worst manmade disaster known to history, will look like child's play compared to the unimaginable doom we will meet when the sun takes down the electrical grid with a huge flare.

reply to post by jdb51

All this money spent protecting us from terrorism, and our own infrastructure will be what does us in!

lol - or cry.

But no - sometimes they're not purposefully trying to kill us. They just don't care. ...If it's ever us or profits, we're toast.

S&F& loam

I don't believe it is a deliberate ploy to depopulate the planet through nuclear radiation. These people have children also and they do not want to make the planet uninhabitable.

What we are witnessing is the result of corporate greed, plain and simple. The consequences of building so many nuclear reactors in so many different locations around the world is becoming very evident now. The first nuclear power plant was built in 1956. We now have more than 400 nuclear power plants worldwide. They are all a ticking time bomb, it is too late to avert the distasters that await us.

It is time to pray.

Agreed. Corporate greed has no limits on what it will do to destroy humanity, because it is all about "living in the now" without concern for what happens when the greedy b*stards are dead and gone. Money > existence itself.

Tritium "leaks" at nuke plants are very common, usually it is a deliberate venting as opposed to a genuine leak. Tritium being both hydrogen and radioactive is very nasty when it absorbs into steel and other metals and converts to helium, it causes cracking and phase changes making the alloys brittle. Therefore it is usually "vented" periodically to prevent it from causing serious damage to the reactors. Tritium makes weak radioactivity that is harmless outside the body, but is nasty if large amounts are absorbed over time. Tritium in ground water would be a bad thing if it were a large quantity, but the naturally occurring radium in ground water over time is by far much, much worse.

reply to post by loam


Virginia Quake's jolts were double nuke plant's design!!!

:shk:

I just saw this article and wanted to post it to this thread as an update to the situation.

Radioactive groundwater found at North Anna plant

hamptonroads.com...

Dominion Virginia Power is seeking the source of leaking radioactivity at its North Anna nuclear power plant after an elevated level of tritium was detected in groundwater.

Company spokesman Rick Zuercher tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the plant's two reactors aren't the source of the leak.

The company told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday that tritium in water taken from an on-site sampling well was more than twice the federal standard for drinking water. The company says the contaminated water is not leaking off-site.

Dominion Virginia Power also told the commission that there's no evidence the leak is related to last year's 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

The commission says the radiation isn't a hazard to the public.

I honestly don't believe them when they say that the earthquakes they're having in that area didn't cause a breach in the nuclear power plant in Louisa. My sister lives in this town and she said they had the power plant closed for a long time and only just started it back up about a month ago (I believe).

The whole problem is that this power plant had its safety sensors removed in the eighties or so, so they could save money. How removing something that had already been installed saved money is beyond my level of comprehension. I think the entire town needs to get a good attorney and sue its government for negligence and harming the environment as well as its residence who were unknowingly living in close proximity to a power plant that was operating without its safety features.

Well I camp and fish Lake Anna at least a few times a year, and have been twice since the quake. I will be going back sometime in the Spring I suspect. So far I have not seen any three eyed fish or anything but I will let you all know as soon as I do.

there are other nuclear powered plants that are leaking too...www.businessinsider.com... BI_Select_031711