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 The Department of Energy (DOE) has produced radioactive materials for nuclear bombs; designed, built, and tested nuclear weapons; and developed reactor and other technologies with little concern for the environmental harm those activities cause. The inevitable result is that all DOE sites are polluted. Nevertheless, DOE remains far more interested in protecting its pollution-causing activities than in correcting the harm they have already done.
DOE is not meeting its legal and ethical responsibility to clean up the legacy of more than 60 years of radioactive and toxic contamination. Instead, DOE is promoting nuclear activities that will create additional pollution and threaten the health of future generations. Currently, water near some DOE facilities, such as Paducah, KY, and Pantex, TX, remains unfit to drink. Some of the nation’s major water sources, including the Columbia River, Snake River Aquifer, and Ogallala Aquifer, are threatened.
After declaring the Yucca Mountain project dead, the Obama Administration called for a "Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future" to determine what should be done with US high level nuclear waste. The Blue Ribbon Commission has issued its draft report. A final report will be issued in January |
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| | | published Friday, January 22, 2010 | 2115 Views :: 1 Comments | |  |
Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
January 21, 2010
Top Stories
“The Hidden and Not-So-Hidden Costs
of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee”
Background: Despite assuring the State of Vermont for more than a year that it had no buried pipes carrying radioactivity, Entergy Nuclear’s Vermont Yankee reactor has revealed it is leaking radioactive tritium, almost certainly from underground pipes that it now admits do exist. In fact, Vermont Yankee has even announced the discovery of “highly radioactive water,” 50 times more radioactive than would be allowed in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen has made clear that Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee has indeed lied about the existence of buried pipes over the course of many months.
Our View: Entergy Nuclear has betrayed the trust of the lawmakers, regulators, and citizens of Vermont. Simultaneous with its revelation of radioactivity leaks on site, Vermont Yankee spokespeople engaged in a predictable campaign to downplay the health and safety risks of tritium. However, tritium can impact the human body right down to the DNA level, and can cross the placenta from mother to fragile fetus. At such intimate levels, tritium can and does damage human health, leading to cancer, genetic damage, birth defects, and other maladies. The National Academy of Science has reported consistently over the decades that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how low the dose, still carries a health risk. As reactors age – and Vermont Yankee is nearly 40 years old – its systems, structures and components degrade, worsening tritium leaks from buried piping. Vermont Yankee’s license should not be extended 20 additional years.
What You Can Do: If you live outside Vermont, contact Vermont’s Governor, Jim Douglas, and let him know that the safety, security, health and environmental risks of Vermont Yankee could carry with them radioactive stigma effects, impacting Vermont’s tourism industry and agricultural products. If you live inside Vermont, contact your legislators and urge that they vote against the 20 year license extension at Vermont Yankee when the issue comes up for legislative action in the next few months.
Beyond Nuclear on the Road
The grassroots Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA) has invited Beyond Nuclear staff persons Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps to tour the Green Mountain State from Jan. 26-28, to present testimony at the Vermont State Legislature, and to speak at public forums, including one co-sponsored by the Vermont and New Hampshire chapters of the Sierra Club. While Paul will address buried pipes and tritium leaks, and Kevin the “back end” of the uranium fuel chain (radioactive waste), they will be joined by Serpent River First Nation anti-uranium mining activist Lorraine Rekmans from Ontario, who will address the “front end” of the nuclear fuel chain (uranium mining and milling) and its environmental justice impacts on Native Americans. This Uranium Fuel Cycle speaking tour kicks off VYDA’s “The Hidden and Not-So-Hidden Costs of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee” speakers series. Please spread the word, and attend if you can! |
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The Department of Energy is seeking comments to determine the scope of the planned Environmental Impact Statement dealing with the "Disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) Low-Level Radioactive Waste."
Watch this space and this page for resources helpful in composing your own comments.
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