AHEAD OF FLORIDA'S PRIMARY, MIAMI'S NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IS LEAKING

[MADem]

Source: NEWSWEEK

s Republican presidential primary candidates gather in Miami on Thursday night for their final debate before the Tuesday primary, South Floridians are learning that radioactive material is seeping into Biscayne Bay, the 35-mile lagoon that stretches along the state into the Atlantic Ocean.

A county-ordered report released this week found levels of the radioactive isotope tritium in the bay to be 200 times higher than normal, leading to suspicions that the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Homestead, Florida, which was built in the 1970s and supplies juice to 900,000 Floridians, is leaking.

While such a level of tritium is not harmful to humans, the problems at the power plant, on wetland that is vulnerable to rising sea levels, evokes the worst-case specter of another seaside nuke plant—Fukushima.


“I think the Fukushima scenario is very reasonable, and it terrifies me,” says Cindy Lerner, mayor of Pinecrest, Florida, which sits 14 miles north of the plant. “I was never anti-nuclear. But when Fukushima happened, the U.S. government issued an alert to all U.S. citizens, that if they were within a 50-mile radius to get outta Dodge.” Lerner says if a Fukushima-type event happened at Turkey Point, she’s concerned because the current evacuation plan is limited to a 10-mile radius......

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/biscayne-bay-florida-nuclear-power-plant-leaking-435721

---

Much more at link.

[giftedgirl77]

1. This alert the government put out.

Were they advising that everyone within a 50 mile radius just move? I really hope I'm misunderstanding.

[MADem]

3. No--that alert was for Fukushima--the USG told all AMERICANS in Japan to get out of the area ASAP.

“I was never anti-nuclear. But when Fukushima happened, the U.S. government issued an alert to all U.S. citizens, that if they were within a 50-mile radius to get outta Dodge.” Lerner says if a Fukushima-type event happened at Turkey Point, she’s concerned because the current evacuation plan is limited to a 10-mile radius.

[giftedgirl77]

5. That makes sense.

I thought I had missed something major & I'm from Miami & my moms in Tampa so nuclear is a very big deal.

[forest444]

4. Short of a meltdown, they probably won't.

It seems to be more important for them to make believe there's "nothing to see here folks" than to actually save lives, God forbid.

This is especially so if the advisory is up to Governor Medicare Ripoff to declare.

[giftedgirl77]

6. That's why I was so confused.

[forest444]

10. There are apparently NO public advisories (!), giftedgirl.

Nothing from the NRC: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html

Nothing on the Miami Herald. There's this from the Miami New Times (from two days ago): http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/turkey-point-nuclear-plant-is-pumping-polluted-water-into-biscayne-bay-8304252

Please stay safe.

[giftedgirl77]

11. Thanks

[Divernan]

17. Current emergency evacuation plans are only designed for a 10 mile radius around nuc. plants.

And evacuation plans, typically expected to be used in the event of major hurricanes and accompanying storm surges, are extremely problematic for Florida because the population is so heavily concentrated within 10 miles of coast line.

Back in the late 90's I attended a presentation by the head of Florida's emergency management agency (the state's version of FEMA), who talked about hurricane response. He said that due to the state's geography and demographics, it was impossible to evacuate much of their population. When he spoke, the evacuation plans were based on the state's population of 13 million. Now the state has over 20 million permanent residents - throw in all the tourists to that mix as well. In 2015, Florida hosted a record 105 million visitors, the fifth consecutive year that a record was set.

1990 12,937,926
2000 15,982,378
2010 18,801,310
2015 20,271,272

With the exception of Orlando, all of the state's 10 largest cities are in counties directly bordering either the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. In 2012, 75% of the population lived within 10 miles (16 km) of the coastline. Miami and the Tampa/St. Pete area have population densities of over 5,000 per square mile.

Much of Florida has an elevation of less than 12 feet (3.7 m), including many populated areas. Therefore, it is short term susceptible to storm surges from hurricanes and increasingly threatened by rising sea levels associated with global warming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida

[mindwalker_i]

2. That's pretty rad!

Pardon the dated slang.

[AlbertCat]

14. Pardon the dated slang.

It has a pretty long half-life.

[mindwalker_i]

20. This post is decaying rapidly

It just gets beta from here.

[jpak]

7. but...but...solar haz a sad in teh FL

Thanks to the GOP...

yup

[houston16revival]

8. Uranium Suntan

will be a great tourist attraction!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Dear God, Idiocracy really is coming true. For realz.

Secretary of Defense: "And what about the nuc-- nucular reactor in Florida? It's broke and leaking or something's happening."
Secretary of Energy: "I thought it was in Georgia."
Secretary of Defense: "Georgia's in Florida, dumb ass."

[brett_jv]

21. Put some Brawndo on it!

That plant just needs some electrolytes ...

[ananda]

12. Whoa!

That's bad.

New York has a leaking plant too.

It's time to take these sites down.

[eggplant]

13. Unfortunately they do that all by themselves. n/t

[valerief]

15. Florida should be the leading solar energy state, too. Because of greed,

Last edited Fri Mar 11, 2016, 03:23 PM - Edit history (2)

Miami will become Miamishima.

[MADem]

16. I agree--it IS the Sunshine State.

They need to develop solar systems that are very hardy, that can survive a hurricane.

[Divernan]

18. These aging plants are already 20 years past their "best by" dates.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2015/11/29/390222.htm

Aging U.S. Nuclear Plants Pushing Limits of Life Expectancy
By Jonathan N. Crawford | November 29, 2015

The U.S. is set to become the first nation to decide whether it’s safe to operate nuclear power plants for 80 years, twice as long as initially allowed.

The majority of the nation’s 99 reactors have already received 20-year extensions to their original 40-year operating licenses. Now, operators led by Dominion Resources Inc. want to expand the time frame further, potentially creating a precedent for an aging global fleet at a time when the economics of the industry are undergoing dramatic change.

“The reality of life is the risks go up” as plants age, said Dave Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge, Massachusetts- based advocacy group. “If you don’t respond with more aggressive risk management, then you’re inviting disaster.”

Corrosion, Leaks
“There are a number of safety issues with pushing these technologies twice beyond their original projected life span,” Tyson Slocum, Washington-based director of energy at Public Citizen, said by phone on Nov. 18. “You’ve seen a number of issues from Davis-Besse to Vermont Yankee where aging components triggered a variety of leaks.”

FirstEnergy Corp. found that corrosion nearly penetrated a steel reactor cap in its Davis-Besse nuclear station in Ohio in March 2002, while Entergy Corp. reported a small radioactive leak from pipes at its Vermont Yankee plant in January 2010. The company and the NRC said at the time that the leak didn’t pose a health risk.

[MADem]

19. Yes, indeed--we see corroded pipes in Flint, why do we imagine it won't happen to

nuke plants, too?