Nuclear equipment to move on Apalachicola Environmental groups worry about dredging By Bruce Ritchie DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Two reactor vessel heads from the Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala., are loaded onto a barge on the Chattahoochee River on Thursday. GORDON, Ala. - Environmentalists are concerned that a barge moving radioactive equipment down the Apalachicola River from a nuclear plant in Alabama poses a health risk even though plant officials say it doesn't. A barge containing two huge reactor vessel heads is expected to leave Alabama Power's Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan and move down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers beginning Saturday. It should reach Apalachicola Bay on Wednesday. Representatives of the Southern Co., which owns Alabama Power, said the shipment is completely safe. But representatives of environmental groups along the Apalachicola River said they're concerned about the risk if the barge has an accident or sinks. "Accidents happen," said David McLain, senior policy director for the Apalachicola Riverkeeper group. "And I will be concerned so long as there is that potential." The shipment also rekindles the debate over dredging the Apalachicola River for barge shipments. State fisheries biologists say dredging has ruined areas of the river and its tributaries where fish live. The number of loaded barges moving upriver each year has dropped from more than 200 in 1993 to fewer than 10 per year since 2000. The corps said last year it spent $1.6 million to dredge the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint system in 2001, the last year it dredged the rivers. A Southern Co. representative said dredging is important because it helps ensure that the river can be used for hauling large equipment. As far as safety is concerned, company officials said they are following the proper procedures to ensure there is no health threat. About the reactors Vessel heads function like a lid on a pressure cooker, company officials say. And they become radioactive because they are the top of the reactor where a nuclear reaction takes place that produces heat that is used to create steam and generate electricity. Most of the old vessel heads are packed in steel containers that are 11/2 to 3 inches thick. An exposed portion of each of the heads is coated to ensure potential contaminants are sealed in, said Tom Moorer, an environmental project manager with Southern Nuclear Operating Co., a Southern Co. subsidiary that operates the Farley plant. The vessel heads develop a low level of radioactivity over time, company officials said. A person standing 20 feet from the vessel heads would have to stand there 100 hours to receive the same level of radiation that they would be exposed to naturally in a year. Marilyn Blackwell, who lives along the river in Wewahitchka, said she's concerned the coating could become radioactive and could peel off if there were an accident. Neither the coating nor the steel container would carry any radioactivity, Moorer said. He said if there were an accident during the shipment, the vessel heads would not contaminate the water or air around them. "We are confident this is a benign shipment," Moorer said. "There is absolutely no danger to the public." There is a plan for dealing with emergencies during the shipment, but that plan is confidential under federal law, Moorer said. The barge is headed for Houston, where the equipment will be loaded onto trucks and hauled to Utah for disposal in a landfill. Moorer said the shipment was too large to be shipped over land from Alabama because bridges and underpasses east of the Mississippi River are too small. McLain said he was suspicious the transportation interests would use the shipment as justification for continued dredging of the river. Dredging in the past by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has left huge sand piles that block the river floodplain and clog creeks where fish breed, biologists say. Florida last year denied the Corps' request for a new dredging permit. Moorer said the dredged river is important to the company for occasionally shipping heavy equipment. He said only about 15 to 20 miles of river below Wewahitchka have spots that are in need of dredging. "If you have an effective (dredging) program, you could maintain this waterway with very little dredging," Moorer said. Dredging the river for shipping doesn't justify the cost to taxpayers or the environmental harm that it causes, McLain said. "From a perspective of the resource we are bound to protect, he is absolutely wrong," McLain said. Contact reporter Bruce Ritchie at (850) 599-2253 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Originally published January 6, 2006 Live Oak Production Group Elam Stoltzfus, Producer 25362 NE Charles Pippen Road Blountstown, FL 32424 850-674-2902, 850-899-0883 cell [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.liveoakproductiongroup.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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