NUCLEAR NOTES

It is well known (to some) that coal-fired plants release as much or more radioactivity into the atmosphere as nuclear plants. Now comes news [Sci. News 8/10/91] that wood burning releases up to 100 times more. Trees absorb and accumulate air pollutants, including fall-out cesium and strontium. Industrial wood burning produces 900,000 tones of ash; residences and utilities add another 530,000. Nuclear plants are required to treat refuse as nuclear waste if it contains 1% of the strontium in some wood ash. If wood burners had to dispose their ash accordingly, it would cost them $30 billion annually. Of course, not all the strontium is in the ash. Much of it goes into the atmosphere with the smoke.

On July 31, unit TMI-1 broke the world record among light-water reactors (which excludes the Canadian CANDUs) for stay-ing continuously on line for 478 days. By Sept. 20, when it is due to be refueled, this will be 538 days. This is the reactor that was un-damaged and capable of running after the TMI incident, but whose 5-year closure forced by power-hungry politicians caused over 200 premature deaths in the coal cycle of the substitute power.

Seabrook, too, finished its first year on line with an 80% capacity factor (80% of peak power averaged over the year at 24 hour a day). It also had several stoppages, which are not unusual in a new plant during its "debugging period."

When a transformer burnt out at the N.Y. Nine Mile plant, the control room was left without power for 20 minutes because the back-up power supplies (batteries and diesel generators) did not start automatically. Presumably this was due to poor main-tenance, and if so, it was a human failing, not a failure of nuclear technology, which is better protected against human error than any other.