A 10-gallon-per-minute leak sprung on Oct. 19, 2007 in rusted piping that carried water to the Byron nuclear plant in Illinois, the AP reports.

AP IMPACT began running a series of investigations into the safety of nuclear energy this week. The first part was titled “U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules” and stated: “Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

“Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.”

Part two of the AP IMPACT series was titled “Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites” and found: “Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

“The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.”

HARVEY WASSERMAN, solartopia at me.com
Wasserman edits http://nukefree.org and is author of “Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, AD 2030” (which includes an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).

See the report from Nebraska Watchdog on the Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, Nebraska, which is surrounded by floodwaters.

Business Week reports: “Last fall, the Obama administration announced plans to install solar panels on the roof of the White House by spring. Spring has come and gone, and the panels have yet to see the light of day.”