ARCHIVED PHOTO-BROWNS FERRY NUCLEAR PLANT

Radiation Spill in Alabama Causes Concern

On January 7^th, 2015, a worker at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, Alabama discovered a radioactive water leak that resulted in 100-200 gallons of contaminated water mixing with millions of gallons of cooling water. Luckily, this recent radiation spill was not as dangerous or destructive as previous incidents, but people still feared that the Tennessee River would become contaminated.

Authorities have reassured residents that the leak that took nearly 3 hours to contain caused no contamination or danger, and no elevated radiation or tritium levels in the river were found. Glorious news! But is it true? While many residents found relief in this happy report, others still questioned the findings and were left skeptical and scared. Was the data accurate? Is the river really safe? Where can one get more information? And just how often do these types of radiation spills occur?

There may not have been injuries or excessive damage in this particular incident, but anyone familiar with the plant’s history knows that people were not so fortunate in 1975 when an accident caused a fire that burned fervently for 7 hours. It damaged over 1600 controls cables for 3 nuclear reactors and disabled core cooling systems. Then, in 1984, a combination of operator error, safety violations, and design problems forced a 6-year outage at Browns Ferry Unit 2 and cost 110 million dollars in damage. Then, just one year later, instrumentation systems malfunctioned and caused operations to be suspended, along with an astonishing 1,830 million dollars worth of damage!

Unfortunately, accidents happen even with the best preparation and prevention. Sometimes destruction, injuries, and even fatalities are unavoidable. There’s only so much people can do to protect themselves and their families from nuclear power plant catastrophes and radiation spills. In many cases, residents are given only segments of information. What can you do if you want to know more?

While only fractions of facts and information may be revealed to the public during such incidents, there are actions that you as a resident can take and tools that you can obtain to help increase your awareness, knowledge, and most importantly, safety in similar situations. One powerful tool, of course, is knowledge. Read, research, and learn as much as you can about radiation, its sources, and its effects. And if you still want more, you can buy your very own radiation detection equipment and gather your own data!

This may be surprising, but personal radiation detectors are actually easy to find and quite affordably priced! However, if you are considering purchasing a personal radiation detector, Geiger counter, or dosimeter, make sure that you’re getting reliable, high quality equipment. Don’t buy just any old device; do your research first! What’s the point of owning your own radiation detector if it’s not accurate, right? Purchase only from well-known, trusted companies like IntelGadgets.com or SOEKS-USA.com that can prove their products’ accuracy and precision. Plus, you can find a ton of important information there as well. Whatever you do, keep yourself and your family informed and protected!

SOURCES:

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/01/browns_ferry_nuclear_plant_wat.html

http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/leak-at-nuclear-plant-is-no-threat-to-public/article_ed96afa8-9ad4-11e4-855d-cb33c9dc0e56.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor_accidents_in_the_United_States