New York Could Be The Next Flint

New York Could Be The Next Flint

The 2016 Presidential Primaries have for the most part been about silliness. What a shame because there are so many valid issues we could be discussing. Many differing opinions, but an open discussion of the issues is valid.

While the lead in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan did at least get a mention at the Sanders-Clinton debate, it seemed to fall upon deaf ears on the Republican side.

And even more silent is what is happening at the Indian Point Nuclear Plant. The New York Times ran this opinion piece the other day Indian Point: Past Its Expiration Date and I think what is going on here is worth discussing.

The article mentions:

"Ossining, N.Y. — LAST month, samples showed a spike in the amount of radioactive tritium being discharged from Indian Point Energy Center into the groundwater near our homes along the Hudson River. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered several state agencies to carry out an inspection of the nuclear plant just 45 miles north of midtown Manhattan; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also sent inspectors."

Problems at the Indian Point facility is nothing new, but attention to the fact that two reactors at Indian Point are past their expiration dates, one was 2013 and the other 2015, merits attention. Now this may be OK for your can of tomatoes in the pantry, but aging and malfunctioning reactors should get a little more scrutiny. I'm not sure Indian Point passes the "sniff" test.

And the fact that the NRC waits three years to decide if a license should be renewed is ludicrous, especially given the track record at the facility. We seem to put more emphasis on driver's license renewals.

If you have read this far perhaps you would be interested in reading an update on Fukushima. It is sad really that this disaster just doesn't qualify as news any longer.

When you read:

"The cleanup effort is staggering in scale, and unprecedented. Japan’s leaders hope to restore for human habitation more than 100 cities, towns and villages scattered over hundreds of square miles. The government has allocated more than $15 billion for this work."

It feels like something out of a work of fiction except it is real and not many people seem to be paying attention.

 

"The waste is placed in bags, which are periodically collected and brought to provisional storage areas (kari-kari-okiba), before being moved to more secure, though still temporary, storage depots (kari-okiba). Officials at the Ministry of the Environment have said up to 30 million tons of radioactive waste will eventually be moved to yet another, third-level interim storage facility near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. But no significant construction has begun. In fact, the authorities haven’t even managed to convince all the relevant absentee landowners in the area to sell the necessary plots."

"The waste is placed in bags, which are periodically collected and brought to provisional storage areas (kari-kari-okiba), before being moved to more secure, though still temporary, storage depots (kari-okiba). Officials at the Ministry of the Environment have said up to 30 million tons of radioactive waste will eventually be moved to yet another, third-level interim storage facility near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. But no significant construction has begun. In fact, the authorities haven’t even managed to convince all the relevant absentee landowners in the area to sell the necessary plots. "

Move along people, nothing here to see.