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Did you see that tritium is in the news again this morning? Thank You it's not my problem, though it is Entergy's problem.The news in today's papers is about a two-day "unusual event" that started on November 2. At Entergy's Indian Point nuclear power plant, a problem in a generator caused Unit 2 to shut down. Consequently, the steam release valves were intentionally opened. That was appropriate; it is part of normal shutdown routine. But then the valve stuck open and remained open for 42 hours while 600,000 gallons of tritium-laced steam were released over the Hudson Valley.
As you can imagine, the people of the valley and of New York City are pretty upset. Neil Sheehan has stressed that the level of tritium in the steam was below the allowable federal level for drinking water. But what is the safe level for inhaled tritium? Sheehan hasn't said, and I bet he doesn't know.
Meanwhile, according to the New York Daily News, the Entergy officials at Indian Point, in an attempt to calm the public, said that the company "wasn't concerned about the amount of radioactivity released into the atmosphere."
Well, that's comforting.
I think, Lord, it's time for me to re-pray my January 8, 2008...
...TEN HANDY EVACUATION SAFETY AND SANITY TIPS
1. To beat the traffic, evacuate the day before an emergency.
2. Radiation exposure is especially harmful to children. Build up your children's immunity by programmaticly giving them x-rays beginning shortly after birth.
3. Dress your child in a haz-mat suit for Halloween, just in case that's a bad day for us.
4. Always pack your child's lunch box with holy water.
5. Ask your doctor whether cancer is always as serious as you've been led to believe.
6. Remember that, even if your children are in a school in Guilford, Vernon or Brattleboro, no force in creation can stop a good parent like you from cowboying your way through police lines to get to them once they have been cordoned away from you and proclaimed a public health risk to others.
7. Appreciate the way that evacuation puts your life problems in perspective.
8. Try not to read too much into the little details like how in heaven's name you will ever rebuild your life even if you and everyone you love survive.
9. If you actually work at the Vermont Yankee plant, every day ask yourself, "Hmmm, does this coffee taste a little too potassium iodide-y?" Lousy coffee is a morale buster. During an evacuation, a bright outlook will go a long way.
10. Remember that heart disease is actually our nation's number one killer.
Amen,
Fake-Rob
3 comments:
geniential - like genius only tangential..
you forget how good tritium doesn't taste...
but all the folks at TMI had this strange odd
let's call it strodd metallic taste.
Tritium - so simple an isotope of hydrogen... goes into the human body and stays for 100- 200 days,,,back beyond the time of balloon boy gate in media talk,,,, and it morphs, changes in the body.... but don't tell toomanyones,,,,
how comforting you make this all.
i will now go get my VY calendar and read the last 6 pages.
fill out the card and make sure the dog has 3 days of kibble.
pack a few undies and socks, maybe a bottle of water? right by the front door.
get duct tape and 6mm plastic cause we can shelter in place. is that like running in place?
Workers: NRC permits doses to workers of 5/rem/per year. A worker who received that dose every
year he or she worked, never going over the limit, would receive a dose of 250 /rem. NRC's own risk
figures say 1 in 8 workers so exposed would die from cancer induced by that dose. BEIR VII says
~twice that number --- ~1 in 4 --- would get cancer from that exposure. NRC may say risks of 1 in 4
or 1 in 8 are small; hard to say so with a straight face to the quarter of workers who would get cancer
from exposure to the "permissible" dose. Unions should demand hazard pay. ( from Pilgrim watch comment to NRC on GEIS revision).
not funny.
Laughing Mama
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