Concrete crumbling at nuclear storage site (Idaho, from 3 Mile Island)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: UPI

WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Concrete storage containers in Idaho holding damaged nuclear fuel rods from the 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island are crumbling, a regulator warned.

The Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, leading to the worst nuclear disaster in the United States.

Damaged fuel rods from the Three Mile Island plant are stored at a facility for the U.S. Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a letter to the Energy Department called for an outline of the corrective measures needed to ensure the integrity of the concrete storage containers used to house the damaged fuel rods.




Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2011/04/18/Concrete-crumbling-at-nuclear-storage-site/UPI-10041303134643/

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[maddogesq]

2. Ahh fuel rods: The gift that keeps on giving. Sheesh.

Wind and solar!
Wind and solar!
Wind and solar!

Can I get an amen!!!

[druidqueen]

3. AMEN

[Old and In the Way]

4. Amen!

Wind and solar are inherently labor intensive which is a good thing for our economy (jobs). They are decentralized which is a good thing for our national security infrastructure. They are independent of ME energy cartels...which is a good thing for our economic security. We could finance this out of our defense budget savings which underwrites Big Oil's security to get the energy product out of the ME into US refineries and western markets.

[plumbob]

9. Amen!

On the other hand, these rods are so green that a forest will probably spring up right where they leak.

Right?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. And hydro. The completely predictable power source. nt

[maddogesq]

12. They had a really nice show about all alt. power today on PBS.

The talked about all sources, including hydro.

They showed this thing in the UK (Ireland, I think) where the turbines were under water and the seals liked to scratch their backs on the control tower. It was just too cool for school.

[sybylla]

5. Three Mile Island. The gift that keeps on giving.

If my adorable, chemical engineering son doesn't get over his poo-pooing of nuclear energy issues after what's happened so far this year, I might just have to haul his backside out to the woodshed.

[damntexdem]

6. But we can't afford to store them securely.

Expected GOP rant.

[truedelphi]

7. A week after I moved to Calif. in '81, two middle

Aged guys were in a restaurant booth across from mine, laughing themselves silly. Apparently some ten years earlier they had been hired to cast barrels of radioactive waste off the shores of this state. They thought it was so funny that the barrels were dilapidated, and they were cracking jokes about how the fish in the Farallone Island area where they dumped this stuff were probably all glowing in the dark.

I have no belief whatsoever in the nuclear industry bringing us anything but higher utility bills, and death in the form of cancer. Nothing about it has changed, except the agencies paid for by the nuke industry are even better at distorting the reality surrounding the dangers of radiation.

[jpak]

8. and who is paying for this - and who will pay for the required "fix"

not the owners of TMI Unit 2

nope

[IDemo]

11. The site sits over the Snake River Aquifer

Background and Current Situation: Southern Idaho is on a high desert plain. But beneath 10,000 square miles of this desert flows the Snake River Aquifer. The aquifer contains as much water as Lake Erie, which could cover the entire state to a depth of four feet. It flows west from the shadow of the Tetons to Thousand Springs, where it rushes from the volcanic canyon wall to join the Snake River itself. There it supports a thriving aquaculture industry; 69 per cent of the trout farmed in the US are raised on this short stretch of the Snake River. Something like a million acres are irrigated with Snake River Aquifer water, including those that grow nearly a third of US potatoes. More important, the aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for nearly 300,000 people.

The Idaho National Laboratory sits on the upstream end of the aquifer in eastern Idaho. Water beneath the Site reaches the Magic Valley, one of the state’s most productive and populous regions, in a few decades. INL’s chemical and radioactive pollution has contaminated the aquifer. In fact, INL injected billions of gallons of waste directly into the aquifer. Most of the pollution cannot be removed and will disperse in Idaho’s drinking water. One cleanup effort uses microbes to consume TCE. Another ongoing effort is to vacuum organic solvent vapor from the soil at the burial grounds before it reaches the aquifer.


http://www.snakeriveralliance.org/OurWork/Introduction/WhatsAtRisk/tabid/193/Default.aspx

[Javaman]

13. This is exactly like Rocky Flats...

back in the late 80's there was a grand jury investigation into the improper disposal of nuclear fuel. They were doing this same type of "containment" type storage with the rods back then. The concrete had decayed to such a point, it was riddled with holes like swiss cheese and was brittle to the touch.

The irradiated material leaked out and into the ground water.

morons.

On Edit:
Here's a link via the DailyKos regarding the LA Times article.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/01/07/84076/-Ex-FBI-agent-claims-nuclear-coverup:-the-Rocky-Flats-story