"Radioactive fish sample found in Vermont; Taken upriver from N-plant site" by Dave Gram, Associated Press / August 3, 2011
MONTPELIER - Vermont health officials said yesterday that a radioactive substance had been found in a fish sample taken from the Connecticut River 9 miles upstream from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
Two youngsters went fishing in the Connecticut River across from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. (Jason R. Henske/Associated Press/File)
I pray they are tossing them back.
The substance, strontium 90, is a byproduct of nuclear fission that has been linked to cancer and leukemia.
Oh, GREAT!!!
William Irwin, the state’s chief radiological health officer, said that the sample was unusual in that the strontium 90 was found in the fleshy, edible portion of the smallmouth bass sample. Irwin said the substance more often turns up in fish bones....
Spread the word: do NOT EAT the CATCH out of the CONNECTICUT RIVER!!
Irwin said the Health Department would do further investigation to see if more evidence could be gleaned tying the radioactivity to the Vermont Yankee plant. He said the finding could have been related to background levels in the environment resulting from above-ground atomic bomb testing in the 1960s and ’70s or from the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
You are not serious about that, are you? Certainly those have all dissipated by now.
Anything relatively recent that might be the cause?
He said it was doubtful the substance was from the Fukushima disaster in Japan this year, because that would not have had time to work its way through the environment and build up in fish tissue yet.
Well, you know, it HAS BEEN SPEWING for SIX MONTHS NOW!
Related: High radiation still plaguing Japan plant
Yeah, they had another melt through!
Of course, if it is not them who could it be, who could it be?
Governor Peter Shumlin, a frequent critic of Vermont Yankee and a supporter of closing the plant when its initial 40-year license expires in March, appeared to discount any source aside from Vermont Yankee.
“Today’s troubling news from the Vermont Department of Health is another example of Entergy Louisiana putting their shareholders’ profits above the welfare of Vermonters,’’ Shumlin said in a statement. “. . . I am asking my Health Department to keep a close eye on test results moving forward to determine the extent of any contamination that has reached the environment.’’
Related: Vermont Yankee bid to stay open denied
Entergy spokesman Larry Smith said in a statement that there was no evidence to suggest that Vermont Yankee was the source of the substance.
Of course, they have LIED, 'er, misled us before!
“We have 31 monitoring wells on site that are tested regularly,’’ Smith said “No ground-water sample from any well at Vermont Yankee has ever indicated the presence of strontium 90 or any other isotope other than tritium. We do not know why the governor would suggest Vermont Yankee is the source, but there is no factual basis for that suggestion.’’
Smith’s statement did not mention the plant’s announcement in May of 2010 that strontium 90 had been found not in ground water, but in soil samples taken from the plant’s grounds.
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Related: Around New England: No Veracity in Vermont
Around New England: Vermont Votes Yankee Down
Wanna go fishin'?
Also see:
Vermont high school draws the line at pajamas, slippers
UVM president Daniel Fogel stepping down sooner than planned
Foul play is suspected in Vt. disappearance
- BURLINGTON, Vt. Thieves damage church to get at items (Boston Globe)
- COLCHESTER, Vt. Benefits event for N. E. military retirees (Boston Globe)
- DUMMERSTON, Vt. 2 charged in shooting death of woman (Boston Globe)
- BURLINGTON. Vt. Task force running down arms networks (Associated Press)
