Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
I'd bet the buried pipe was carrying cooling water for the condenser (actually a third loop if you will) that turns the spent steam back into condensate quickly. Cooling water is returned to it's source, usually a river or lake, as clean as it came out, and after passing through the cooling tower, just a little warmer.
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That leaking pipe was extremely clean water. No radiation. No contaminants. Cleaner than anything found in the Hudson.
Always take 'fears' about Indian Point with caution. Unlike other nuclear plants, even the slightest problem in Indian Point gets hyped and heavily reported. BTW, Indian Point is owned by a state corporation - not power companies.
Keep it in perspective. Reports of a hole in containment dome in the First Energy's Davis Besse reactor outside Toledo that also had a potential Three Mile Island problem. It gets about as much press as a broken (clean) water pipe in Indian Point. But First Energy had a history of lying repeatedly and often - even about the NE blackout that they created. A broken water pipe in a First Energy plant should attract your attention. Because if it did get reported, then it is probably serious.
Other nuclear plants have events. But leaking water that would only make the Hudson River cleaner gets too much press only because it is Indian Point.
Of far greater worry is all that spent uranium sitting in cooling ponds at every nuclear plant with no place to put it. So much fuel that many reactor sites must build more pools. But that far more serious problem gets no press.