A cover-up of Monticello explosions throttles full-speed ahead in a long series of cover-ups of nuclear power plant explosions throttles full-speed ahead. Every aspect of this Monticello nuclear power plant leak that could harm the nuclear industry is being covered-up by the nuclear industry and the Press.
Nuclear plants routinely cover-up ongoing explosions and potential future explosions ("Nuclear Power Plant Explosions Keep on Coming - The Monticello Nuclear Plant Joins the List of Exploding Nuclear Plants", click here). These explosions can be stopped if we recognize these dangers and act to stop explosions!
Monticello Nuclear Power Plant
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The Explosion Cover-up
Nuclear plant explosion cover-ups are documented in a long series of 50 Op Eds and peer reviewed engineering publications (.leishearengineeringllc.com/publications.html). Important additional insights are presented here.
Essentially, the NRC Chairman claimed that NRC procedures will control all nuclear power plant explosions. A partial response by the NRC to my nuclear safety concerns follows.
'In summary, the staff evaluated the proposed GI [generic safety issue for consideration] and determined that existing requirements for hydrogen control and mitigation in the containments of nuclear power plants are sufficient to ensure that the concentration of combustible gases in any part of the containment is below a level that supports combustion or detonation that could cause loss of containment integrity in realistic scenarios. The analyses ensure that ignition sources, regardless of their cause, would not result in unacceptable consequences.'
'Nonetheless, in response to the accident that occurred at Fukushima, Japan, in March 2011, the NRC established a task force to identify any other safety enhancements for hydrogen control and mitigation inside containment and other reactor buildings that might be required ("Initial Screening Results For PRE-GI-015, Potential Explosive Hazard of Trapped Hydrogen and Oxygen During Fluid Transients", U.S. NRC, Click Here).' 'Therefore, the NRC already has a program in place that will evaluate whether any additional regulatory requirements are necessary for combustible gas control during a Fukushima type event.'
Since this NRC response was published, I have published 45 papers to refute these dangerous conclusions by the NRC. The NRC has been informed of all of these publications, and the NRC refuses to respond at all.
The Ongoing Explosion Cover-up
The risk of the next Fukushima-type explosion before 2039 is discussed in my other publications, and this Op Ed focuses on smaller explosions that keep on coming - right now. The NRC opines that explosions are under control, but pipes keep on breaking. Pipes do not break because they are old. Pipes break for specific reasons. Small hydrogen explosions in nuclear plants provide this reason.
According to the NRC,
'There are 55 nuclear power plant sites in the United States that are currently operating. Historical records indicate 38 of these sites have at one time or another had leaks or spills that involved tritium concentrations greater than or equal to 20,000 pCi/L. Seven sites are currently reporting tritium in groundwater, from a leak or spill, in excess of 20,000 pCi/L. No site is currently detecting tritium in groundwater in the offsite environment, or in drinking water, in excess of 20,000 pCi/L. Tritium rapidly disperses and dissipates in the environment, and as a result, tritium from leaks and spills is typically not detected outside the facility boundary ("List of Leaks and Spills at Operating U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants October, 2021", .nrc.gov/docs/ML2127/ML21278A082.pdf).'
This list only provides records of the largest leaks, and the many, perhaps hundreds or even thousands, of other leaks are withheld from us, i.e., the cover-up keeps on coming.
The NRC would have us believe that these myriad leaks in nuclear system pipes just magically happen. Based on facts that I have published, I vehemently disagree.
Radiation Dangers
The Monticello plant claims that there is no risk at all.
If the tritiated water remains contained on Monticello company outside of the Mississippi river, perhaps these statements will hold true. More importantly, the NRC and other nuclear regulatory authorities state that there is a risk from tritium exposure.'State agencies have no evidence at this point to indicate a current or imminent risk to the public and will continue to monitor groundwater samples ("Statement on Xcel Energy shutdown of Monticello nuclear plant", click here).'
'The NRC agrees with national and international radiation protection regulatory agencies that any exposure to radiation could pose some health risk. This risk increases with exposure in a linear, no-threshold manner. Lower levels of radiation therefore have lower risks. The health risks include increased occurrence of cancer. Since it is assumed that any exposure to radiation could pose some health risk, it makes sense to keep radiation doses as low as reasonably achievable-known as ALARA. The NRC's radiation dose limits and ALARA requirements minimize the health risk and ensure that no individual exceeds federal health and safety standards.'
In other words, there is always a cancer risk when exposed to radiation sources such as tritiated water. We do not know how to quantify that cancer risk, since cancer and cancer deaths are still so poorly understood. This lack of scientific understanding is not a justification for claiming that we are safe from tritiated water. Even so, some insights on tritium from the NRC are warranted.
- 'Tritium is present naturally in the environment and the radiation produced by natural tritium is identical to the radiation produced by tritium from nuclear power plants.
- The tritium dose from nuclear power plants is much lower than the exposures attributable to natural background radiation and medical administrations.
Humans receive approximately 50 percent of their annual radiation dose from natural background radiation, 48 percent from medical procedures (e.g., x-rays), and 2 percent from consumer products. Doses from tritium and nuclear power plant releases account for less than 0.1 percent of the total background dose (NCRP, 2009). As an example, drinking water for a year from a well with 1,600 picocuries per liter of tritium (comparable to levels identified in a drinking water well after a significant tritiated water spill at a nuclear facility) would lead to a radiation dose (using EPA assumptions) of 0.3 millirem (mrem). That dose is:
- at least 2,000 to 5,000 times lower than the dose from a medical procedure involving a full-body CT scan (e.g., 500 to 1,500 mrem from a CT scan)
- 1,000 times lower than the approximate 300 mrem dose from natural background radiation
- 50 times lower than the dose from natural radioactivity (potassium) in your body (e.g., 15 mrem from potassium)
- 12 times lower than the dose from a round-trip cross-country airplane flight (e.g., 4 mrem from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and back).'
Initially, when the release was first detected, radioactivity was measured at 5 million picocuries per liter in the groundwater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter [4 mrem per year] ("What we know about the Monticello nuclear plant tritium leak", click here; "Xcel Energy Monticello Power Plant Tritium Leak", click here.
At present, there is no recognized danger from this particular tritium leak, but the facts suggest that concern is certainly warranted. Tritium is reaching the Mississippi. What we are being told is certainly suspicious.
Xcel Energy, Monticello Power Plant Tritium Leak
In March of 2023, a 2022 leak breached the Press when another leak occurred at Monticello. At that time, the problem was downplayed since the leak had not reached the Mississippi River ("Radioactive water leaks at Minn. nuclear plant for 2nd time", click here).
"Ongoing monitoring from over two dozen on-site monitoring wells confirms that the leaked water is fully contained on-site and has not been detected beyond the facility or in any local drinking water," the company added.
The Monticello plant, adjacent to the Mississippi River, is roughly 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Asked why it didn't notify the public sooner, the Minneapolis-based utility giant said: "We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an immediate threat to health and safety. In this case, there was no such threat."
'Excel wasn't the only entity with knowledge of the situation. The company said it alerted the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state authorities on November 22, the day the leak was confirmed ("Nuclear Plant, Minnesota Officials Hid 400,000-Gallon Leak of Radioactive Water for Months", click here ). Also, state agencies [had] no evidence at this point to indicate a current or imminent risk to the public and will continue to monitor groundwater samples ("Statement on Xcel Energy shutdown of Monticello nuclear plant", click here ).
A plume of radioactive water that has lingered under Xcel Energy's nuclear plant in Monticello may have seeped into the Mississippi River, the utility said Thursday but the amount is so low, it hasn't been detected in the river.
However, a July statement changed this opinion completely.
In a statement Thursday, Xcel said that tritium a mildly radioactive form of hydrogen had been detected in low levels in a monitoring well 30 feet from the edge of the Mississippi. The Environmental Protection Agency's health limit for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter; the sample taken from the well along the river showed 1,000 picocuries, according to Xcel.
State health and environmental regulators said in their own statement that no tritium had shown up in river testing just downstream of the Monticello plant.
The situation "does not present a threat to public health, and there are no immediate impacts to the safety of drinking water or private wells," Andrea Cournoyer, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Pollution Agency, wrote in an email ("Leaked radioactive water may have reached Mississippi River, state says no danger to public", click here).
The potential radiation danger seems to be be increasing over time. Monticello is now planning to build an underground wall ("Company that leaked radioactive material will build barrier to keep it away from Mississippi River", click here). Even if the immediate radiation dangers are controlled, nuclear plant explosions should be understood.
I am very concerned by the fact that small uncontrolled explosions damage nuclear power plants. If the nuclear industry refuses to address such explosions, how can the dangers of such small explosions possibly be understood.
What Needs to be Done to Thwart Explosion Cover-ups?
NRC procedures to control explosions are obviously failing. To shore up these procedures and stop small explosions, requirements should be put in place to install high-frequency pressure transducers in reactor systems to measure any explosions or water hammers that occur in nuclear power plants. In the absence of such reliable information , any nearby seismometers should be used during the Monticello leak investigation. Seismometers. measure shock waves, and may have measured explosion detonation waves during Monticello operations - prior to the recent piping leaks. We should not allow the NRC and the nuclear industry to cover-up one more set of explosions in a nuclear power plant!
(Article changed on Aug 24, 2023 at 5:06 PM EDT)
