Radioactive Cobalt Is In Cove

["CLAUDE A. FLORY" <FLORYCA@GWSMTP.NU.COM>]

Local paper picked up on trace amount of Co-60 found in cove adjacent to
Millstone (see below).  If the measurements are accurate, it amounts to about
0.1 to 0.4 pCi/gram of sediment to a 6 inch depth.  We communicated the results
of our shellfish samples to Allan Jacgues, the businessman who leases the
shellfish beds.  Barely detectable activity has been seen in some clams,
oysters, mussels, and lobsters collected in Jordon Cove and other areas around
Millstone.  Oysters collected in the quarry, our discharge canal, routinely see
plant related activity.  Barely detectable activity has also been seen in some
seaweed and sediment in the vicinity of the plant. 

Several comments on the article:

1) "...the finding is significant because it shows that traces of radioactive 
materials from Millstone have contaminated the environment 
beyond the plant boundaries."

The finding should not be significant because the trace amounts found are not
unusual.  

2) "In 1974 and 1975, Millstone 1 released nearly 3.9 million curies of 
radioactive gases; and in the three years between 1976 and 1978 
the plant released more than a half million curies per year."

These curies are short-lived noble gases which have no relationship to the
Co-60 found in the sediment samples.  Since Unit 1 installed an off-gas
processing system in the late 70's the gaseous release have dropped
dramatically.  'Millions of curies' is a phrase heard often from the activists.
 Millions of anything is enough to scare anybody unless it's the lottery.  This
quote from the Yale scientist makes me wonder about his supposed neutrality.

3) "Radionuclides such as cobalt-60 accumulate at higher 
concentrations at each successive level up the food chain, and 
they persist in the environment, said Paul Guenter, a spokesman 
with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, 
D.C., a nonprofit group that works on nuclear power and radiation 
issues.  

``That, coupled with the fact that there's no known threshold for a 
safe dose of radiation means that these do constitute ongoing and 
bioaccumulative biological hazards,'' he said.  "

You can see what we're up against.

Claude Flory
Senior Scientist
Northeast Utilities
floryca@nu.com
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Radioactive Cobalt Is In Cove 

The Hartford Courant March 5, 1999  

Longstanding radioactive contamination from the Millstone nuclear 
power station has been found in a cove on Long Island Sound that 
only recently was opened for shellfishing.  

Small amounts of cobalt-60, a radioactive form of cobalt that 
comes from reactors and is not found in nature, were discovered 
inadvertently in Jordan Cove next to Millstone Point by Yale 
University scientists studying the movements of sediment in the 
cove.  

There is no immediate health risk from the contamination, but the 
finding is significant because it shows that traces of radioactive 
materials from Millstone have contaminated the environment 
beyond the plant boundaries.  

A spokesman with Northeast Utilities, which owns Millstone, did 
not dispute that cobalt-60 is present in the cove and that it came 
from the power plant, but he said the amount was not harmful.  

The Yale scientists found the nuclear-fission byproduct scattered 
throughout virtually the length of the cove, at 15 of the 16 locations 
studied.  

The cobalt-60 is believed to have been discharged into the cove in 
the 1970s because of the depth at which the radionuclide was 
found in the seabed. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports also 
show that the most substantial radioactive discharges from 
Millstone occurred about that time, said Gaboury Benoit, an 
environmental chemistry professor at the Yale University School of 
Forestry and Environmental Studies. Benoit led the sediment 
research in Jordan Cove.  

In 1974 and 1975, Millstone 1 released nearly 3.9 million curies of 
radioactive gases; and in the three years between 1976 and 1978 
the plant released more than a half million curies per year, 
according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission figures Benoit 
reviewed in preparing his study.  

``We considered the possibility it could be related to [nuclear] 
submarines but that's not likely,'' Benoit said.  

The nearness to Millstone, which is next to Jordan Cove, and the 
direction of flow in the area - west to east - are other reasons that 
Millstone is believed to be the source, Benoit said.  

His scientific paper on sediment in Jordan Cove is to be published 
this month in a publication called Estuaries.  

He cautioned that the intent of his research was not to characterize 
radioactive contamination. All that can be drawn from the study on 
that issue is that the sediments in the cove contain low levels of a 
radioactive isotope from Millstone. Based on cobalt-60's 5.3-year 
half life - the time it takes for half of a radioactive substance to lose 
its activity - all traces should be gone two decades from now.  

More study is needed to determine whether the cobalt-60 entered 
bottom-dwelling fish, such as flounder or shellfish, and whether 
eating such fish would pose a long-term health threat, experts say. 
 
``The real risk is what happened in the food chain,'' said Dr. Mark 
Cullen, director of Yale University's occupational and environmental 
medicine program. He is not involved in the Jordan Cove study.  

Allan Jacques, who began leasing shellfish beds in Jordan Cove off 
Millstone Point from the town a few years ago, said it is his 
understanding that the cove is clean; it is open for recreational 
shellfishing, as approved by the state.  

The shellfish beds were reopened a few years ago after remaining 
closed for reasons unrelated to Millstone for about 20 years, 
Jacques said.  

He has yet to take his first commercial harvest from the leased 
beds, Jacques said.  

``Obviously, I'm interested in the results and I certainly wouldn't 
want to sell any shellfish that are tainted,'' he said.  

``I'm not going to flip out or blow a whistle,'' he said, when told of 
the cobalt-60 findings. ``It does not surprise me.''  

Northeast Utilities does not test sediment in Jordan Cove, but does 
test shellfish, said Terrence McIntosh, a Millstone spokesman. The 
utility tests the sediment near where waste water and cooling water 
are discharged from the nuclear plants.  

``We don't dispute the fact that there is cobalt-60 or that it comes 
from reactors,'' he said.  

However, he emphasized that ``the levels found are so small as to 
not constitute any harm.'' He said that, during the 1970s when the 
cobalt-60 was initially discharged, a person eating large quantities 
of fish or shellfish in one year, and swimming and boating in the 
area year round would have received less than a chest X-ray's 
worth of radiation.  

Others take a different view of the hazards that existed 20 years 
ago, and say there is still some potential hazard.  

Radionuclides such as cobalt-60 accumulate at higher 
concentrations at each successive level up the food chain, and 
they persist in the environment, said Paul Guenter, a spokesman 
with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, 
D.C., a nonprofit group that works on nuclear power and radiation 
issues.  

``That, coupled with the fact that there's no known threshold for a 
safe dose of radiation means that these do constitute ongoing and 
bioaccumulative biological hazards,'' he said.  

Some officials and community leaders in the Waterford area 
expressed surprise and disappointment at the discovery.   

``That's a new one on me,'' said state Rep. Andrea Stillman, D- 
Waterford. ``That's unfortunate, but I'd be eager to hear more about 
it.''  

Others said they hoped that Bruce Kenyon, president and chief 
executive officer of Northeast Utilities' nuclear operations, would 
make good on promises to do the right thing when it comes to the 
corporation's environmental practices.  

``This is certainly not good news,'' said Ron McKeown, director and 
founder of Friends of a Safe Millstone, a group that encourages the 
safe, environmentally sound operation of the Millstone nuclear 
complex.  

``Bruce Kenyon has lived up to all the promises he has made in the 
last year and one of those promises was to do the right thing 
regarding the company's environmental pledge. He has closed the 
plant as and when needed and we expect he will take decisive and 
corrective action as and if needed'' in Jordan Cove, McKeown said.  

Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist and independent consultant 
on radioactive waste issues, said the finding of cobalt-60 likely 
indicates that metal tubes that enclosed nuclear fuel in the reactor 
leaked. Byproducts of fission leaked into the cooling water and 
then were released as gas to the air or with the water.  

The state Department of Environmental Protection is taking a wait- 
and-see approach to the discovery.  

``We're working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and with 
Northeast Utilities to determine the levels that were observed by 
the researcher,'' said Dwayne Gardner, a DEP radiation control 
physicist who said he had not had a chance to review Benoit's 
report.  

Gardner said low levels of cobalt- 60 have been found just outside 
Millstone's discharge point, in an old quarry that opens to Long 
Island Sound.
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