Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Leaking Highly Radioactive Tritium 3/8/16
Channel: MsMilkytheclown1
Date: 08/03/2016

A radioactive isotope linked to water from power plant cooling canals has been found in high levels in Biscayne Bay, confirming suspicions that Turkey Point’s aging canals are leaking into the nearby national park.
Highlights: 
Radioactive ‘tracer’ detected at up to 215 normal levels near canals
~~~
County commission set to discuss cooling canal problems Tuesday
~~~
Threat from pollution to public, marine life not addressed in report
~~~
According to a study released Monday by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, water sampling in December and January found tritium levels up to 215 times higher than normal in ocean water. The report doesn’t address risks to the public or marine life but tritium is typically monitored as a “tracer” of nuclear power plant leaks or spills.

The study comes two weeks after a Tallahassee judge ordered the utility and the state to clean up the nuclear plant’s cooling canals after concluding that they had caused a massive underground saltwater plume to migrate west, threatening a wellfield that supplies drinking water to the Florida Keys. The judge also found the state failed to address the pollution by crafting a faulty management plan.

This latest test, critics say, raise new questions about what they’ve long suspected: That canals that began running too hot and salty the summer after FPL overhauled two reactors to produce more power could also be polluting the bay.

“How much damage is that cooling canal system causing the bay is a question to be answered,” said Everglades Law Center attorney Julie Dick, who had not had a chance to review the report. “There are a lot more unknowns than knowns and it just shows how much more attention we need to be paying to that cooling canal system.”

County commissioners, who have kept a close eye on the canals and objected to the state’s management plan, ordered the additional monitoring of bay water last year. The commission is scheduled to discuss the canals, along with another study by University of Miami hydrologist David Chin examining problems linked to adding more water to the canals, at a meeting Tuesday.

FPL officials declined to comment Monday evening.

Over the last two years, problems with the canals have worsened exponentially. After the 2013 plant expansion to increase power output by 15 percent, the canals began running dangerously high. FPL officials blamed problems on an algae bloom that worsened after the canals were temporarily shut down during the project. But when a summer drought hit in 2014, temperatures spiked. At least twice, when temperatures soared to 102 degrees, the utility was nearly forced to power down reactors.

After obtaining permission from nuclear regulators to operate the canals at 104 degrees, the hottest in the nation, FPL officials began plotting a course to fix the canals by pumping in millions of gallons of fresh water from a nearby canal as well as increasing the amount of water drawn from the Floridan aquifer.

But the growing saltwater plume triggered regulatory scrutiny. After the county complained, the state ordered a new management plan, called an administrative order, to address problems. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection declined to cite FPL for violating state water laws and instead crafted a plan that critics said gave the utility license to continue to pollute. The plan, hastily approved two days before Christmas, was quickly challenged by county officials, as well as environmentalists and rock miners.

The county settled its challenge in October after FPL agreed to a series of actions to clean up the plume that included constructing a barrier made up of extraction wells. The utility also agreed to try to use salty water from the Floridan aquifer, rather than freshwater from the nearby canal intended for Biscayne Bay, or treated wastewater from a nearby county sewer plant.

The decree also called for increased monitoring that in the fall gave the first indication the canals had leaked into the bay when monitoring detected elevated levels of ammonia and phosphorus...

Turkey Point Tritium Level 215 Times Above Normal Radiation Biscayne Bay Miami, FL 623 CPM https://youtu.be/DDYZU1xBSGg
FPL nuclear plant canals leaking into Biscayne Bay, study confirms http://tinyurl.com/jj7f5jp

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article64667452.html#storylink=cpy

Recent sampling of water in Biscayne Bay found higher than normal levels of tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope produced by nuclear reactors and used to track water leaking from Turkey Point’s cooling canals. 

Subscribe to StrontiumMilks on YouTube here: http://tinyurl.com/oa6mway

Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Is Pumping Polluted Water Into Biscayne Bay http://tinyurl.com/jeyf55z

Miami’s oceanfront nuclear power plant is leaking http://tinyurl.com/zg8wxr8