Radioactive contamination linked to the Miami-area Turkey Point nuclear power plant is entering Biscayne Bay, a new study (pdf) shows.
The findings of the University of Miami study were released this week by Miami-Dade County, and showed increased salinity as well as “tritium levels up to 215 times higher than normal in ocean water,” the Miami Herald reports.
The problem is that the water used to cool the Florida Power & Light (FPL) plant is not being contained to the canal system it set up for that purpose.
The study “shows conclusively that the cooling canal water is polluting and contaminating Biscayne Bay,” Miami Waterkeeper Rachel Silverstein told local news NBC6.
That contamination, according to Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), “is threatening South Florida’s drinking water supply and Biscayne National Park.”
The problems at the plan began years ago, as the Herald continues: “After the 2013 plant expansion to increase power output by 15 percent, the canals began running dangerously high,” and it then got the OK “from nuclear regulators to operate the canals at 104 degrees, the hottest in the nation.” FPL attempted to address the high temperatures by pumping fresh water into the canals, but that just worsened and expanded a saltwater plume.
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