Nuclear Reactor Cooling Systems Devastate Marine Life and Ecosystems
"José A. Speroni"
jsperoni at enviroweb.org
Thu Mar 8 08:22:00 EST 2001
The following was provided by the Safe Energy Communications Council.
LICENSED TO KILL: How the nuclear power industry destroys endangered
wildlife and ocean habitat to save money. New Report Shows Once-Through
Nuclear Reactor Cooling Systems Devastate Marine Life and Ecosystems:
WASHINGTON (February 22, 2001) - A landmark report issued today by
three nuclear watchdog groups and the nation's largest animal
protection organization charges that the nuclear power industry,
contrary to its environmentally friendly public relations image, has
knowingly destroyed animals and delicate marine ecosystems, and has
routinely killed endangered species over the past three decades due to
the widespread use of an ecologically harmful cooling technology.
The report, "Licensed to Kill: How the Nuclear Power Industry Destroys
Endangered Marine Wildlife and Ocean Habitat to Save Money," further
documents a lack of oversight by governmental regulatory agencies,
particularly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
that may border on collusion. "Tragically, under the present regulatory
system, the nuclear power industry's needs almost always prevail over
the interests of marine life," said Scott Denman, Executive Director of
the Safe Energy Communication Council (SECC). "Instead of applying
sanctions when a nuclear plant kills more than its allotted quota of
endangered species, NRC almost always supports industry attempts to
raise the limits on the number of animals that can be killed or
captured during reactor operation," Denman added.
"The nuclear power industry is essentially licensed to kill by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accommodate company profit margins.
Regulators are constantly pressured by the nuclear industry to stretch
the rules and not enforce such laws as the Endangered Species Act and
the Clean Water Act," said Michael Mariotte, NIRS Executive Director.
The report documents the nuclear power industry's use of the
ecologically harmful, but relatively inexpensive once-through cooling
technology responsible for devastating marine ecosystems from New
England to California.
Once-through cooling technology is used exclusively in 48 nuclear
reactors with 11 additional reactors employing the technology in
conjunction with cooling towers and canals. These reactors, situated on
coastal waters, major rivers, and lakes can draw in as much as a
billion gallons of water per reactor unit a day, nearly a million
gallons a minute, in order to dissipate the extraordinary amounts of
waste heat generated in the fission process. The initial devastation of
marine life and ecosystems stems from the powerful intake of water into
the nuclear reactor. Marine life, ranging from endangered sea turtles
and manatees down to delicate fish larvae and microscopic planktonic
organisms vital to the ocean ecosystem, is sucked irresistibly into the
reactor cooling system, a process known as entrainment. Some of these
animals are killed, either through impingement (animals are caught and
trapped against filters, grates, and other reactor structures), or, in
the case of air-breathing animals like turtles, seals, and manatees,
drown or suffocate.
"Nuclear power stations are routinely allowed to destroy alarming
percentages of fish stocks and larvae entrained through cooling water
intakes," said Bob Alvarez, Executive Director of the STAR Foundation,
based on Long Island Sound. "In contrast, the commercial fishing
industry must submit to strict regulatory standards including fines and
license suspension for illegal takes." The report notes that an equally
huge volume of wastewater is then discharged at temperatures up to 25
degrees F hotter than the water into which it flows. Indigenous marine
life suited to colder temperatures is consequently eliminated or, in
the case of endemic fish, forced to move, disrupting delicately
balanced ecosystems.
Moreover, the new, warmer ambient water temperatures often encourage
warm-water species to colonize the artificially maintained warm-water
zone. When the warm water flow is diminished or halted because of
maintenance, cleaning, or repair work on the reactor, these species are
often "cold-stunned;" many subsequently die of hypothermia. Species
affected include endangered sea turtles, marine mammals, fish, and sea
birds. In addition, the heated water is discharged with such force that
surrounding seabeds are often scoured to bare rock, leaving a virtual
marine desert bereft of life on the ocean floor. "Although responsible
for enforcing compliance with intake and discharge permits at reactors
under the terms of the Clean Water Act, the EPA has largely failed to
establish national performance standards," said Paul Gunter, Director
of the Reactor Watchdog Project at NIRS and a report author. "When
faced with the opportunity to enforce "best available technology"
standards, the EPA has buckled to industry pressure and left the marine
environment to pay the price." Similarly, state water and wildlife
authorities fall prey to nuclear industry pressure tactics and
falsifications. In numerous incidents, nuclear utilities have falsified
data and concealed and withheld information from environmental
regulators that would have revealed the true extent of the
environmental damages wrought by their reactor operations.
In perhaps the most egregious example, the California utility, Pacific
Gas & Electric (PG&E), for many years, provided state water authorities
with skewed data that omitted known marine damage by its Diablo Canyon
reactors. PG&E claimed that the plant's intake and discharge of
billions of gallons of seawater a day did little harm to the
surrounding marine community. In reality, the plant's operation had
devastated marine ecosystems for miles up and down the coast and was
responsible for the near obliteration of already threatened black and
red abalone populations in the area. Finally threatened with legal
action by regulators, PG&E nevertheless managed to undermine the
state's cease-and-desist order by promising to outspend the authorities
on legal appeals, effectively tying up any lawsuit in litigation for
years. State authorities backed down from stopping the damaging thermal
discharge and agreed to a settlement that includes a cash amount of
just $4.5 million and other half-measures that will allow the PG&E and
Diablo Canyon to continue its business-as-usual practices to the
detriment of the marine environment.
"The nuclear industry plans to roll back environmental protections to
create a new bottom line," said Linda Gunter, SECC Communications
Director, one of the report's authors. "The industry cries poverty when
asked to install less destructive systems and again when told to
mitigate the environmental damage," continued Gunter. "While nuclear
utilities advertise themselves as environmentally friendly, in reality
they are sacrificing the marine environment and its inhabitants on the
altar of company profits."
This report done in collaboration with Nuclear Information and Resource
Service (NIRS), Safe Energy Communication Council (SECC), Standing for
Truth About Radiation (STAR) and Humane Society of the United
States (HSUS).
To see the report's Executive Summary:
http://www.safeenergy.org/wildlife.htm
Jose A. Speroni, Med.Vet. E-mail: jsperoni at enviroweb.org
C.E.I.H. ar784 at lafn.org
C.C. 18 cj313 at ncf.ca
(7100) Dolores ICQ: 41190790
Buenos Aires Phone: +54(2245)44-2350
REPUBLICA ARGENTINA Fax: +54(2245)44-0625
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The CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS E INVESTIGACIONES HERPETOLOGICAS
gratefully acknowledges the support received from:
Birgit Schmettkamp Verlag (Germany), Mantella Publishing (UK)
Research Information Systems, Inc. (USA), Reptilia (Spain)
Clark Development Company, Inc. (USA), FTP Software, Inc. (USA)
Key Tronic Corporation (USA), Colorado Memory Systems, Inc. (USA)
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