Florida Power & Light Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Leaking Dangerous Levels of Radiation into Biscayne Bay

It was built in 1972... designed to operate for 40 years. The nuclear regulatory commission extended that to 60 years. The new technology should've replaced it... but instead new safer and more efficient reactors are not being built. Why?

Japan.

Also built in the 70's... and caused by a natural disaster. The objection to modern nuclear plants is ideological/political.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/10-states-run-nuclear-power-169050

I disagree. I think it is the utilities themselves who have made the decision. Illinois leads the nation in Nuclear, and the truth is the Natural gas Peaker plants and windmills are filling the state......it comes down to profit and risk for shareholders more so than some political argument. I am down river from a forty year old plant which draws cooling water from the plant.......we have great fishing, and I would have no problem with more Nuclear if the rates in Illinois would drop, but the reality is natural gas has completely changed the game when in combination with wind. My last trip for my shot saw massive new windmills south of Chicago near Pontiac Illinois.....I was shocked as far as the eye could see. The utilities are making sound long term risk assessment and cost analysis......it is a no brainer......as long as wind and cheap natural gas are available, there will be few New Nuclear brought on board......Georgia's plant will be the last one built for a decade.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel and a finite resource despite it's recent abundance. I'm pleased that other technologies are coming online and being developed... but modern nuclear should be part of the equation... and demagoguery harms that logic.

I have always been a proponent of Nuclear. A fellow boy scout four years my senior, went to Annapolis, and eventually captained a carrier. His specialty was nuclear. He retired from the service and was snapped up by the industry, and he also argues that our future will be nuclear, but he realizes that it is just too costly over the next generation as the fracking and wind has changed the nuclear equation. No board of directors is going to put a nuclear plant in at great expense to have higher rates when wind and gas are viable options. I simply do not see any consensus of anti nuclear forces. I think there is bipartisan support for continued Research for safer and smaller plants, but it is like the cheap days of coal........just will not see that NG spigot close anytime soon. They have just started fracking in Southern Illinois over the nearly depleted oil fields and the fracking has opened the state up to higher energy product output......politics are secondary to economics, and those windmills are sprouting up everywhere in cornfields......I remember Mr. Markle arguing five years ago how costly and non effective those windmills are.......well it is big corporations and utilities who are pouring capital into renewables because it is profitable, and lowers utility costs while they have great maintenance records and blend perfectly in the grain fields of the midwest. The whole bird issue is silly now as the windmills are massive and turn slow.....you would have to be one slow bird not to be able to dodge a twenty mile an hour rotation, when you dodge a sixty mile an hour car.

Looks like the EPA failure...AGAIN.

New analysis confirms FPL’s Turkey Point is Polluting Biscayne Aquifer and Biscayne National Park
Miami-Dade County Commissioners, Mayor, public and experts discuss new information
and demand enforcement, improvements

Miami, Fla. (March 8, 2016) – Contaminated water originating from the cooling canal system at Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) Turkey Point facility is reaching Biscayne Bay, threatening South Florida’s drinking water supply and Biscayne National Park. The findings and analysis by the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management (DERM) was released by Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office late yesterday in an official memo to the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. At today’s Board meeting, another recent report ordered by the Commission and prepared by the University of Miami (UM) regarding these discharges was discussed as an official agenda topic. Discussion of enforcement options occurred, including possible issuance of a Notice of Violation (NOV) to FPL.

The water-intensive Turkey Point site includes two nuclear reactors and is located in Miami-Dade County near Homestead, about 25 miles south of downtown Miami. The facility is one of Florida’s biggest daily water users and discharges at least 600,000 pounds of salt and other contaminants directly into the Biscayne Aquifer on a daily basis. The Biscayne Aquifer is a “sole source,” federally designated aquifer that serves more than 3 million people.

A host of public speakers representing diverse community interests including the national parks, local environmental organizations and businesses demanded that the Commission act immediately to force FPL to stop this contamination and to research and implement options to actually fix these serious problems. When the Board took up the agenda item, Commissioner Rebeca Sosa commented at length along with fellow Commissioners sharing their concerns and desire for solutions during a lengthy dialogue with Mayor Gimenez and DERM Assistant Director Lee Hefty.

At the meeting, representatives from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) highlighted the severity of this contamination and offered recommendations. These solutions included pursuing affordable clean energy options that are far less water-intensive, such as solar, instead of FPL’s pursuit of two additional nuclear reactors at the beleaguered plant.

“This study confirms that FPL miscalculated the impact uprating Turkey Point’s reactors to generate more power would cause. So this self-inflicted emergency has caused uncontrollable temperatures and an algal bloom and very high salinities. And FPL’s self-prescribed remedy for this emergency, sanctioned by the Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management, has now moved that plume into the surface waters of a National Park further violating the law,” said Laura Reynolds, representing SACE. “Why can’t we make FPL downrate this system to bring it back into balance? They continue to make record profits while our water supply gets loaded with at least 600,000 pounds of salt daily and our national park is polluted and drinking water is threatened.”

Separately, upon learning about this new analysis, State Representative José Javier Rodríguez (D-Miami) issued a statement and sent a letter calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to “step in and take emergency remedial action following a Miami-Dade County report revealing levels of radioactive materials in Biscayne Bay at levels 215 times higher than those in the ocean. Rep. Rodriguez has expressed frustration at what he believes is the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s repeated failures to protect the public from FPL’s actions at Turkey Point.”

The analysis publicly released yesterday stated, “The results for tritium provide the most compelling evidence that water originating from the Cooling Canal System is reaching these tidal surface waters connected to Biscayne Bay.” Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that is produced at nuclear power plants and is being used as a tracer given the cooling canal system has higher levels of tritium than what is found in the natural environment.

PkrBum wrote:The objection to modern nuclear plants is ideological/political.

You are correct. Nuclear technology has greatly advanced in recent years. They have been testing a new nuclear fuel made from uranium oxide mixed with beryllium oxide that allows a reactor to run more efficiently with less uranium. Such fuel supposedly renders a reactor incapable of having a melt down.

Beryllium-uranium fuel research shows promise
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF-Beryllium-uranium_fuel_research_shows_promise-0402118.html