Leukemia-causing radioisotope Sr-90 detected leaking into soil at Vermont Yankee

Entergy Nuclear has now admitted that the bone-seeking radioisotope Strontium-90 has been discovered in soil near underground leaking pipes at its Vermont Yankee atomic reactor on the bank of the Connecticut River. Several years ago, Sr-90 was also detected leaking from the high-level radioactive waste storage pool at Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point atomic reactors on the bank of the Hudson River in New York State. Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates warns that Sr-90, which is highly soluble in water, can concentrate in bones and cause leukemia, and thus is the most hazardous radioisotope yet discovered leaking into the environment at the 38 year old reactor just across the Connecticut River from New Hampshire, and just several miles upstream from Massachusetts. Other leaking elements discovered into the site's groundwater and soil include tritium, cobalt-60, cesium-137, manganese-54 and zinc-65. Raymond Shadis of the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution is very skeptical that Entergy Nuclear's assurances that all Sr-90 contamination at Vermont Yankee has now been accounted for and cleaned up.

Nuclear industry leader pulls out of health study

In a May 10, 2010 letter, Dr. Richard Meserve recues himself as Chair of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) from all committee activity related to a massive national health study that is taking shape around nuclear power facilities in the United States. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has requested that the NAS conduct a health study around past, present and future nuclear power facilities.   As Beyond Nuclear identified in an April 29, 2010 letter requesting that the NAS conduct a conflict-of-interest review, Dr. Meserve currently serves on the Board of Directors for Luminant Corporation which owns the Comanche Peak nuclear power station in Texas and Pacific Gas and Electric which operates the Diablo Canyon reactors in California.  Dr. Meserve also serves on an advisory board to UniStar Nuclear Corporation (Constellation Energy and Electricite de France) which has applied to the NRC to build new reactors around the United States.

The time for a full-scale bona-fide health study on the impacts of radiation exposure to communities downwind and downstream of US nuclear power facilities is long overdue. The responsibilities to assure that this colossal undertaken is fair and an independent study are immense. Given the growing political promotion of nuclear power currently underway, the study’s development, execution and interpretation will no doubt be a tug-of-war. The effort for an independent health study on the impacts from nuclear power facilities raises many of the same questions that have dogged the nuclear industry from the exposure of “down winders” in St. George, Utah to atomic testing fallout, the communities around the Three Mile Island accident, entire countries affected by the Chernobyl explosion and the Massachusetts cancer study around the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. Among the myriad of questions and tasks, one continuing focus will need to be on how this same NAS policy will engage the review and vetting of hundreds of potential committee members for final committee selection on this unprecedented radiation health study.  The recusal of Dr. Meserve’s with his obvious “impaired objectivity” is a good first step and welcome sign. However, the task to watchdog this massive government effort in the public interest is only beginning.