Populations around U.S. nuclear plants soar

[somone]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-06-27-Nuclear-plants-population-evacuation_n.htm

Populations around U.S. nuclear plants soar

BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) — As America's nuclear power plants have aged, the once-rural areas around them have become far more crowded and much more difficult to evacuate. Yet government and industry have paid little heed, even as plants are running at higher power and posing more danger in the event of an accident, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Populations around the facilities have swelled as much as 4 times since 1980, a computer-assisted population analysis shows.

But some estimates of evacuation times have not been updated in decades, even as the population has increased more than ever imagined. Emergency plans would direct residents to flee on antiquated, two-lane roads that clog hopelessly at rush hour.

And evacuation zones have remained frozen at a 10-mile radius from each plant since they were set in 1978 — despite all that has happened since, including the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan...

[NYC_SKP]

1. The distance we should keep from the nearest nuclear power plant is well established:

It's about 93 million miles.

:P

Have a sunny day!

K/R

:hi:

[ensho]

2. and have and will cancer rates soar too

seeing as how a large percentage of the plants daily leak poisons

[AndyTiedye]

4. They Sure Did in the Town I Grew Up In When the Nuke Went In

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. I hadn't thought of this aspect before. K&R n/t

[mopinko]

5. probably also attracting workers.

people in rural areas are desperate for jobs.

[Phoonzang]

6. I'm 15 miles from a nuclear plant and 16 miles from another. That's outside of the 10-mile radius

so I'm ok right?...right?

Edit: Oh just noticed I'm 28 miles from another and 42 miles from another. So...4 within 50 miles. Buuut still out of the 10 mile radius. So...still fine!

[TheMadMonk]

7. And to counter your point, I will note that no one put a gun to their...

...heads to force these people to build there.

And in the event of an emergency, those antiquated roads remain perfectly adequate for evacuation, since in any situation where they would not be, no amount of blacktop would prove sufficient, since the contents of the reactor would be in people's laps almost BEFORE they knew there was a problem to run from.

[G_j]

8. Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43475479/ns/us_news-environment/t/radioactive-tritium-leaks-found-us-nuke-sites

Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites

'You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected,' whistleblower says


Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites - US news - Environment - msnbc.com

The Associated Press
updated 6/21/2011 5:48:09 AM ET 2011-06-21

BRACEVILLE, Ill. — Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants.

Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.

While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.

At three sites — two in Illinois and one in Minnesota — leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard.

..more..