Bass. Photo by Patrick Lewis
Editor’s note: Video footage of this section of the press conference is at the end of this post.
Gov. Peter Shumlin backpedaled today on his assertion that Vermont Yankee was the source of trace amounts of Strontium-90 found in the flesh of a small mouth bass taken from the Connecticut River last June.
In the wake of the Vermont Department of Health’s announcement yesterday that the radioactive isotope had been measured in the “edible” portion of a fish captured nine miles upstream from the plant, the Department of Health and Vermont Yankee asserted that there was no scientific evidence implicating the Vernon nuclear power plant as the source of the Strontium-90.
“We don’t know exactly where [the Strontium-90] came from,” said the governor at his weekly press conference today in the fifth floor conference room of the Pavilion building.
A statement released yesterday by the governor’s office quoted him as saying, “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.”
The Vermont GOP issued a rebuttal today that mirrored Shumlin’s logic. Republican Party Chair Pat McDonald said: “This type of rhetoric is just one more example of how Governor Shumlin has put his political agenda above the interests of Vermont.”
Officials take fish from two locations: One site, Vernon Pond, is where fish are collected to analyze the effect of Vermont Yankee’s discharge into the pond; the other location is about nine miles upstream from the plant where Route 9 crosses the river north of Brattleboro.
According to the Department of Health website, “Fish caught near the Vermont Yankee discharge are most likely to be exposed to Vermont Yankee-related radioactivity, while fish caught upstream of the plant are most likely not to have been exposed to these radioactive materials. However, fish may move around and nine miles upstream may not be enough distance to keep a particular fish from swimming down to the Vermont Yankee discharge area.”
Shawn Good, a fisheries biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, said small mouth bass are nomadic, and the species can travel 40 miles to 50 miles over the course of a lifespan. The 9-mile distance between Vermont Yankee and the upstream location where the Strontium-90 contaminated fish was found is “absolutely within plausible range of a small mouth bass,” Good said.
When pressed about the connection in his statement yesterday between Entergy and trace levels of Strontium-90 in the fish, Shumlin said, “The connection is simply this: that we have found fish that have strontium in them within nine miles of the plant. We also know that the plant’s been leaking, so one of the possibilities is that there is a direct correlation between the fish and the leak. We don’t know that, but what we do know is that Entergy Louisiana has not invested the dollars that in my judgment that they should have in removing the contaminated nuclear water that’s sitting under the plant that now leaked almost two years ago, and we don’t know how long it’s been leaking. So I’m asking them to be a little less diligent about protecting their shareholders and be more aggressive in protecting Vermonters.”
Shumlin, a Windham County native, said he fished the Connecticut River in his youth, but he wouldn’t be dropping a line in the river now.
Health Commissioner Harry Chen said the detected levels were low and that he would have no problem eating a fish contaminated with low levels of Strontium-90. “In terms of the levels in the fish,” he said, “I personally would eat the fish, so we differ in that.”
The Department of Health’s announcement states that the sample had 58 picocuries per kilogram (pCi/kg) – a measurement of radioactivity based on disintegrations per minute – 11 pCi/kg over the lower limit of detection of 47 pCi/kg.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation measured background levels of Strontium-90 in a 2007 study of blue crabs and fish in the lower Hudson River. That study found the edible portions of fish and crabs to have about 8 pCi/kg.
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I’m still unclear as to why VY simply doesn’t test fish from the Battenkill, the Willowbee, the Mettowee and Lake Champlain. If fish from these various all tested positive for strontium then Entergy’s position would be well taken. If they did not, however, then the obvious answer would be that the plant is the source.
Inasmuch as Entergy has not taken this initiative on its own, then perhaps we already know the answer.
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Governor Peter Schumlin DOES have the interests of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut residents now that he has made the leaking nuclear power plant at Vernon a very public issue. Considering that 2.5 million people in Massachusetts and I do not have the information about many people in Connecticut are using the Connecticut River as a source of potable water, I would not venture a guess what the legal ramifications would be if many people downstream were to be adversely affected. I now find out that the original plan for VY called for cooling towers and later they wheddled concessions to use the Conn. River instead. It has been a LONG process of wheeling and dealing to cut costs and increase their environmental impact. All along the Vt government has made many concessions to let VY increase their impact because nuclear power is, as Albert Einstein so famously stated, a hell of a way to heat water. Why did he say that? One of the smartest men on earth have said it isn’t a good idea because of the dangers. So in the interest of making and wasting electrical power, we take chances with our health. I don’t believe the people of Vermont will let this nonsense continue any longer. Thank you Peter Schumlin for continuing to raise the bar on VY. I have the greatest respect for a man, like Paul Revere, who will warn us of the aggressions of tyrannical power. I am also very aware of the battle we wage to protect our health.
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Shumlin’s statements are made to inflame instead of inform, a bad practice of any leader. Demagogues do it.
Strontium-90 is very likely due to atomic bomb tests during the 40s, 50s and 60s. It was spread throughout the Midwest and the eastern US. Caused cancer throughout the population and still does.
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Whether or not nuclear testing from over 50 years ago is the source can be easily assessed from taking the first posters advice. Why hasn’t Entergy done that?
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If I read the report right from the VT dept of health it states that SR 90 was found in a fish in 1971 on the CT river in the same area. That would be the year befor Vt Yankee started operation wouldn’t it?
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Why would the state test just the Connecticut River fish; on orders from Shumlin Associates to advance a political agenda?
George Bush got us into the Iraq war to advance a political agenda, instead of going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
When he was campaigning, Shumlin said Vermont could get 30% of its energy from PV solar.
Here is how much that would cost.
6 billion kWh/yr x 0.30/ (8,760 hr/yr x Vermont average capacity factor 0.12 = 1,712,329 kW at $5,000/kW = $8.56 billion.
None of that energy would be there on cloudy days, and at night, and when snow or ice is on the panels, and on partially cloudy days the energy level would be vary during the day.
His statement is beyond reason; it was made to advance a political agenda.
It so happens several of his associates have renewables companies in Vermont and have been “briefing” him on what to say. So it goes, says Kurt Vonnegut.
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“If fish from these various all tested positive for strontium then Entergy’s position would be well taken. If they did not, however, then the obvious answer would be that the plant is the source.”
That’s not even close to being anything approaching logic. If fish from other places than the Connecticut River do not have Strontium 90, then VY is obviously the source??? Are you kidding me???
BTW, perhaps you did not get the memo that even Shumlin has backed off the claim that VY must be the source.
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“But in at least one of the quarters in each year from 2002 to 2005, Vermont Yankee told the NRC in its annual report on radioactive leaks that it had released some strontium-90, a radioactive substance linked to cancer and leukemia.”
“AP: Vermont Yankee had several past radioactive releases into the environment”, Burlington Free Press, 08/04/2011 … http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110804/NEWS02/110804037/AP-Vermont-Yankee-had-several-past-radioactive-releases-into-environment
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Memo to Hysterical Left:
Before you reflexively blame VY (Shumlin’s and Schnieder’s “Louisiana Entergy”) for the Strontium 90 in the fish, you kinda, gotta, sorta have to have some scientifically valid basis for asserting that VY is actually the source. Let’s see . . . Nobody’s done that. The Shumlin Administration’s own people say you can’t reach that conclusion and even the VY Hater-in-Chief has backed off the accusation. But that doesn’t faze Schneider one bit. Since VY has acknowledged some releases of strontium 90 prior to 2005, they are obviously the source of THIS strontium 90 in THIS fish!
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Edd, I’m no rocket scientist, and apparently neither are you, but if the only fish that test positive for strontium 90 are this in the Ct River, near a nuclear power plant that has leaked strontium 90, then I would think even you might consider dropping the inflamed name calling and come to grips with the Fac’t that the radiation might just be coming from a plant that has leaked radiation.
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Maybe we could assume that the fish were the “big ones that got away”. I know fish are slippery little suckers that sometimes defy even the best of anglers.
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Strontium-90 does not occur naturally; it is a product of nuclear fission and is produced by nuclear reactors or during the explosion of atomic weapons. The “background” strontium 90 readings is the result of nuclear fallout from atomic weapons testing in the 50s and 60s. Tests were conducted on children’s’ teeth collected by dentists to create a database to study the extent and degree of contamination from atomic weapons testing. Children are more susceptible to Strontium – 90 update and it tends to migrate to bone structures. The source is VY. Again the major concern and issue here is not where but the fact that it is now part of our food chain. The source is VY and no amount of Strontium 90 is acceptable. This is not a political issues, it is a serious public health issue for the region, not just Vermont.
“Strontium-90 mimics the properties of calcium and is taken up by living organisms and made a part of their electrolytes as well as deposited in bones. As a part of the bones, it is not subsequently excreted like cesium-137 would be. It has the potential for causing cancer or damaging the rapidly reproducing bone marrow cells.”
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nucene/fisfrag.html
“How can strontium-90 affect people’s health?
Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a “bone seeker.” Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.”
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html#environment
I would agree that more testing needs to be done to determine the extent of the contamination from Vermont Yankee around the region not just the Connecticut river.