August 29, 2007 News+Opinion » D. A. Smith

Nuclear contamination 

Going Nuclear: Groundwater contamination proves one thing

by D. A. Smith
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In recent years, I've noticed a lot of noise being made by the energy industry about workplace safety and the environmental anxieties of Americans electorate. They've been talking nonstop about nuclear power and building new reactors for commercial use — something that hasn't happened in the almost 30 years since Three Mile Island woke America up to the devilish details of nuclear energy production.

I've read the news articles and listened to the talking heads on this topic, and I wonder if anybody actually recalls Newton's Third Law of Motion about reciprocal action.

It turns out somebody does. The State recently acquired through the Freedom of Information Act previously sealed records concerning Chem-Nuclear's operation of the state-owned landfill in Barnwell County that opened in 1971.

The records in question show that groundwater below the nuclear waste dump has levels of radioactive tritium that exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards and compete with the contamination by the neighboring Savannah River Site A-bomb factory.

For those who cut class that day, tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the Earth's upper atmosphere. It is also a by-product in nuclear energy and weapons production and not thought to be as dangerous as plutonium.

However, prolonged exposure to tritium, primarily through contaminated drinking water, is known to cause birth defects and thought to be a cause of some forms of cancer.

Tritium is one of the speediest of radioactive materials and other slower types can follow it into groundwater if landfills are leaching radioactive contaminants.

The Barnwell dump contains 28 million cubic feet of mostly low-level nuclear waste that is not as toxic as atomic byproducts, but old reactor parts are also in that stew.

These old parts are irradiated with plutonium and uranium and could take thousands of years to lose their radioactivity.

According to The State, a 2006 map of monitoring wells showed that one-third had tritium levels exceeding EPA standards of safety. Previous reports also showed detectable levels of carbon-14, uranium-238, polonium-210, and chloroform in the monitoring wells.

The map shows the plume of contamination spreading from a late 1970s leak at the dump to the southwest of the facility.

The EPA standard is 20,000 pico curies of tritium per liter of water.

State records indicate that DHEC officials don't think nearby residents should be concerned because they don't live in the southwest flow of the contaminated groundwater, even though a small community lies directly south of the dump.

Chem-Nuclear says it's in compliance with federal and state law because by the time the tritiated water reaches a monitoring facility on Mary's Branch creek, the tritium levels have dropped below the EPA standard and the state mandate of 500,000 pico curies per liter of drinking water.

Chem-Nuclear says it will test the wells of any of its neighbors and that it has been sealing closed sections of the landfill over the last few years to keep rainwater out of those areas and, ultimately, the groundwater.

Nearby residents don't think that Chem-Nuclear should be invited to test their wells.

Bill Steed has lived south of the landfill since 1978 and told The State, "They have not checked either of my wells."

He's not so sure Chem-Nuclear has his best interests at heart since the information was considered to be proprietary and secret, until The State slapped them with an FOIA request.

Steed added, "It's got to be a concern ... I know that water runs downhill."

Well Mr. Steed, that ain't the only thing.

So, while all the "energy security" blather is designed to capitalize upon a fear of the unknown, just remember what a great job the energy conglomerates did with nuclear power and its attendant waste in the first go-round.

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Yet South Carolina voters and political leaders continually opt to have their state become the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Where's that Yucca Mountain waste headed now that Nevada's citizens nixed it? You guessed it! A state as poor as SC just can't resist the dollars thrown its way when accepting nuclear waste. The south is still ripe for exploitation. "Who cares about my glow-in-the-dark kids, we got new jobs comin'!"

Posted by Frank Castle on August 29, 2007 at 11:53 AM | Report this comment

In 1979 I lived about 25 miles downwind of Three-Mile Island. The release of radiation was miniscule compared to the smell of bullshit coming from MetEd. For every radioactive particle that soared over Lancaster and Reading and Harrisburg there was a ton of prevarication, disinformation and stonewalling. In an effort to cover their cold-hearted profiteering asses, the scumbags at MetEd put hundreds of thousands of people at risk. The failure at Three Mile Island was not primarily one of technology. This is not to say that there was not a serious accident; there was -- (as we found out many years later) a sizable release of radioactive steam; but had TMI blown up in the same way as Chernobyl, the above three cities would have been rendered uninhabitable. The failure in this case was organizational and political. Nuclear power is an efficient, environmentally friendly form of energy. When you can find someone honest and competent to run it, let me know. I'm all in.

Posted by MelvintheBarbarian on August 29, 2007 at 11:04 AM | Report this comment

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