Nuclear plant problems have happened across the planet, and aging facilities across USA still pose a major threat

Remember the catastrophic nuclear meltdown in March 2011 at Fukushima, Japan, after an earthquake and tsunami?

Along with similar disasters at nuclear power plants at Chernobyl, Ukraine, and Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the destruction of reactors at Fukushima continues to threaten the environment. For more than 12 years, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has continuously poured cold water onto melted uranium and plutonium to keep those elements from overheating. That water, and the groundwater that runs through the reactor’s ruined foundation, poses an ongoing threat to surrounding communities and to fisheries. 

In August, TEPCO began dumping millions of gallons of this radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. When that began, Robert Richmond, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii, told the BBC that he is “very concerned that Japan would not only be unable to detect what’s getting into the water, sediment and organisms, but if it does, there is no recourse to remove it.”

In other words, the ongoing contamination of the Pacific will be irreversible. 

Perhaps the wastewater from Fukushima is of little immediate concern to Americans unless they live in Hawaii or possibly Alaska. Hopefully, the radioactive tritium will be diluted long before any currents reach our West Coast. Meanwhile, the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., was blocked from dumping radioactive waste into Cape Cod Bay by state environmental protection regulators in July. The Pilgrim reactor is the same General Electric design as Fukushima, and has been an ongoing environmental threat to Boston and much of densely populated New England for decades.

Much closer to home is the aging nuclear reactor (seen above in a public domain U.S. Government photo posted in wikimedia commons) which is operated by Xcel along the Mississippi River near Monticello, Minn. Xcel, an electric utility which was formerly known as Northern States Power, serves the Sioux Falls area as well as much of Minnesota.

This reactor, which is also the identical General Electric design, has been in operation since 1971, so it is overdue for decommissioning. Its corroded pipes are buried underground, and have never been inspected. However, Xcel detected radioactive tritium in November 2022 in monitoring wells, a leak into surrounding groundwater that was 250 times the legal concentration for safe drinking water.

Unfortunately, Xcel neglected to inform the sometimes toothless Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of this leak until March of this year. There is no suggestion that the reactor will be shut down soon, but it poses an ongoing threat to the Mississippi, which provides drinking water to millions of Americans. 

Nuclear energy is still promoted as a climate-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Before we allow very expensive investment in a new generation of nuclear reactors, it is well-advised to consider the long-term impact on the environment from all phases in the nuclear fuel cycle.

Here in South Dakota, old uranium mining sites near Edgemont and near Buffalo are still contaminated. America has yet to find a safe and appropriate place or method for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste that has been generated by our power plants.

Proposed sites in the Nevada desert and in the Permian Basin of west Texas have met with local opposition, for good reason. In the meantime, we hope and pray that nuclear power plants in Massachusetts, Minnesota and elsewhere will not experience meltdowns like Fukushima and Chernobyl.

Jay Davis is a retired Rapid City attorney