Sunday, May 16, 2010

MSNBC rereports the AP: Tainted nuke plant water reaches major NJ aquifer (but don't worry, it'll be fiiiine!)

Tainted nuke plant water reaches major NJ aquifer

By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
updated 4:42 p.m. ET May 7, 2010

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Radioactive water that leaked from the nation's oldest nuclear power plant has now reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey, the state's environmental chief said Friday.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station to halt the spread of contaminated water underground, even as it said there was no imminent threat to drinking water supplies.

Right, so the second paragraph of the article reports something that seems to contradict what is reported in the first paragraph and in the headline of the piece. Further confusion comes later in the article:

The tritium leaked from underground pipes at the plant on April 9, 2009, and has been slowly spreading underground at 1 to 3 feet a day. At the current rate, it would be 14 or 15 years before the tainted water reaches the nearest private or commercial drinking water wells about two miles away.

Huh? But the beginning of the article said that an aquifer that supplies southern Jersey's drinking water had tainted water in it.

Shoddy, confusing journalism aside, if Tritium or radioactive water is leaking or has leaked from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, something needs to be done NOW, before it reaches wildlife or worse--southern Jersey's drinking water supplies!

What the hell is going on here? Why are there any questions even being asked? A nuke plant has leaked!! WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED TO HAVE HAPPEN before we shut it down???

Why are so many people-in-charge willing to risk human lives and livelihoods these days???

Thanks to DemocracyNow.org for having Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA on their show to talk about the climate bill or I'd probably never have heard about this story.

Posted via web from thepete's posterous

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