The News Review:

- New crisis nears as coolant-water supplies dry up
- EPA questions 300 public water supplies
- Gormley says councils must clean up water supplies

New crisis nears as coolant-water supplies dry up
USA Today – Jan 24, 2008
Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the amounts of cooling water they need to operate. Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn’t result in blackouts. They could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region’s utilities may be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other companies. There already has been one brief, drought-related shutdown at a reactor in Alabama over the summer. “Water is the nuclear industry’s Achilles’ heel,” said Jim Warren, executive director of N…
” An Associated Press analysis of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants’ turbines. Because of the year-long dry spell gripping the region, the water levels on those lakes and rivers are getting close to the minimums set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Over the next several months, the water could drop below the intake pipes altogether. Or the shallow water could become too hot under the sun to use as coolant. “If water levels get to a certain point, we’ll have to power it down or go off line,” said Robert Yanity, a spokesman for South Carolina Electric & Gas, which operates the Summer nuclear plant outside Columbia, S.

EPA questions 300 public water supplies
rte.ie – Jan 24, 2008
The claim is made in a report on Ireland’s drinking water published this morning by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report says that in 2006, 8% of public water supplies showed at least one incident of E. coli contamination. Advertisement Speaking on RT Radio’s Morning Ireland, Dara Lynott, director of the EPA office of environmental enforcement, said the level of contamination is unacceptable…
The claim is made in a report on Ireland’s drinking water published this morning by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report says that in 2006, 8% of public water supplies showed at least one incident of E. coli contamination. Advertisement Speaking on RT Radio’s Morning Ireland, Dara Lynott, director of the EPA office of environmental enforcement, said the level of contamination is unacceptable. ‘If you look at what this report is saying, it’s saying that the level of contamination of public water supplies is not up to European standard, Mr Lynott said. ‘It’s not acceptable given that the E.

Gormley says councils must clean up water supplies
Belfast Telegraph – Jan 24, 2008
The latest figures from the Environmental Protection Agency show that more than one-third of private water supplies in Ireland are contaminated with the e-coli bacteria. Eight per cent of the public supply also contains the bug, which comes from human and animal waste. Mr Gormley says public confidence in the water supply is being undermined and he plans to tackle the situation by giving the EPA better resources and extra powers to impose standards. Post a comment Limit: 500 charactersView all comments that have been posted about this article.