Does anyone know about a nuclear problem in Connecticut today?

[intheflow]

I clicked on the real time world disaster map to see what's happening in the world, and lo and behold, it looks like we've had a "nuclear event in the United States on 2007-12-30." It says it happened at Millstone at 5:31 this morning.

I mostly rely on this map for tracking weather events; I know from concurrent news items that it's accurate on weather. But this is the first time I've see the nuclear sign on the US, and since I can't find anything on the news wires, I can't confirm if this is true. It obviously isn't so bad people are dying. But it still doesn't look good.

Anyone know what/if anything has happened?

[krispos42]

1. Nothing in the Hartford Courant about it...

http://www.courant.com/

[proud patriot]

2. Let's hope it's a mistake and not

a day early .

[postulater]

3. One of the tabs said this"

Millstone Power Station is trying to find the source of a leak of tritium, a radioactive element that was first discovered leaking a month ago at the nuclear power complex. Pipes that scale a water storage tank at the Unit 3 reactor at Millstone may be leaking water laced with small amounts of tritium, a byproduct of the fission process. It's a naturally occurring form of hydrogen found in reflective watch faces, road signs and other items. Tritium is a low-energy isotope that emits a weak form of radiation and does not travel far through the air, though it can be absorbed in the skin. Millstone owner Dominion has ruled out the reactor core and the spent fuel pool as sources of the tritium leak, which was first discovered Nov. 27. The company is focusing on pipes that travel along the outside of a tank. "We've looked in other places and found no (leak) of tritium, and that's the only place nearby that could be the source," Pete Hyde, a spokesman for Dominion, said. Dominion has hired a contractor that will begin work next month to examine pipes and drill wells to determine how far, if at all, the tritium leak has spread. The radioactive element is bubbling up in low levels in groundwater beneath a foundation drain sump well where water collects after it is drawn from the reactor, Hyde said.

So far, the leak has not spread in groundwater to any of 41 monitoring wells at Millstone, said Hyde and Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Levels of the isotope at Millstone exceed drinking water standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but are far below standards for water not intended for drinking, Sheehan said. Sheehan characterized the leak as minor but said similar leaks over the past few years -- at the Braidwood Station in Illinois and Indian Point in New York -- prompted the industry to respond more rapidly to tritium leaks with voluntary reporting to federal regulators. Officials are concerned that continued leaks of water laced with tritium could migrate through the groundwater and eventually off site into neighboring residents' wells. The state Department of Environmental Protection is paying attention to Millstone's work, and the inability so far to isolate the leak, DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said. Staff from DEP's radiation division have been at Millstone, discussing the matter with Dominion officials, he said. "We're definitely watching it and are in touch with (Dominion) on their findings," he said.)

[intheflow]

7. Thanks. I was thinking those tabs were generic

descriptors of all events, not specific events. Sometimes I'm not so quick on the uptake. :dunce:

Still, it's disturbing. I'm not at all comforted by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency under this administration saying there's no problem with groundwater contamination. There was Agent Orange groundwater contamination in Mississippi after Katrina, and the Navy said there was no risk to groundwater. Then a month or two later, they'd say they'd found more contamination in a nearby wetland--but there was no risk of groundwater contamination. Then a month or two later...

*Edited b/c spellcheck doesn't pick up typos of real words.

[defendandprotect]

10. So some Naval facility in NO had Agent Orange on the loose --- ?

[intheflow]

13. Not NOLA,

in Gulfport, MS, from the Gulfport Seabee Center. Each reporting would only be a paragraph deep in the first section of the paper. People who lived in the neighborhoods affected (mostly African American, definitely poor) often didn't even know it. I never heard it reported on the local tv news. :(

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. in this brave new whirled, it is spelled, "NUCULAR"

I suspect if you search it that way, you may find it.

[Olney Blue]

5. I didn't know this map existed. How is the data collected?

[intheflow]

9. The hosting organization is

National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications, Emergency and Disaster Information Services (EDIS) out of Budapest Hungary. But if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see they work in cooperation with the USGS and NOAA, among other world agencies.

[MANative]

6. Nothing on the local news here in CT

They usually splash Millstone issues all over the place if there is something. No reports on the 6pm news. Did a quick scan of the local news websites, and they had nothing.

[gateley]

8. Wow - what an amazing site! I wonder if we should check non-US media?

[catnhatnh]

11. If for no other reason (and help me out here DU physics majors)....

Tritium loss is worrisome because I read somewhere that an injection of tritium is used in nuclear devices to boost yield...as in a nuclear "fizzle" occurs when the tritium injection is below threshold or mis-timed.Something about a Tom Clancy novel and about how hard it was to gain the neccesary amounts of tritium without access to a reactor???

[Redstone]

14. You're going to rely on TOM CLANCY NOVELS for your scientific information?

Three words of advice: Don't do that.

Six words to explain why you shouldn't do that: No Fact Checking by the Publisher.

redstone

[Redstone]

12. Ah, no, hardly a disaster. Nor even a problem. A little bit of tritium detected,

but hardly enough to worry about. (And we live about 18 miles from the nuke plant in question And yes, I have kids. And yes, I lived about 80 miles from TMI in Pennsylvania when it went down, and had a "go bag" and a full gas tank in the car for weeks.)

It was indeed in the Hartford newspaper.

But a disaster? Someone's blowing it way out of proportion.

Redstone

[intheflow]

15. My sweetheart is in Wallingford.

My heart thumped out of my chest when I saw the symbol. I knew it wasn't a full-out diaster, but a leak like that could lead to bigger problems down the road. Still, it's good to know you feel safe closer to the epicenter than he is. :hi: