Tag: tritium

  • The Cancer Epidemic: Nuclear Power and Waste, by Susu Jeffrey

    The Cancer Epidemic: Nuclear Power and Waste, by Susu Jeffrey

    Sometimes before I give a speech, I ask the audience to stand up if they or someone in their family has had cancer. Eighty percent of the audience gets up.

                                               ─John LaForge, Nukewatch

    The Cancer Epidemic: Nuclear Power and Waste

    By Susu Jeffrey/ Original to Wings of Change/ March 24, 2025

    The Monticello Nuclear Power Plant is located along the east bank of the Mississippi River about 35-miles northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prairie Island’s double nuke generating plants, plus about 50 giant dry casks storing spent N-fuel, are on a floodplain island in the Mississippi River. The waste is sited 44 to 51 miles southeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

    There are no plans to move the waste off-island because it is very hot, heavy and there is no alternative destination. In fact 34 more concrete encased steel casks are projected. A national hot radioactive depository is historical fiction.

    Monticello’s Fukushima-plant design stores spent superheated nuclear fuel waste above the reactor before moving it into an unknown number of horizontal storage containers.  Think of these waste container sites as permanent radioactive N-waste dumps. Paperwork is one thing, pipes are another.

    The greater Twin Cities 3.7 million people are in the nuclear “shadow” (within 50 miles) of all three nukes. The Mississippi River serves 20 million people with drinking water, way beyond the Minnesota state population of 5.7 million. Minnesota’s aging nukes are a national threat. For approximately the next six generations radioactive tritium will be degrading in the pathway wherever those molecules wander.

    The Monticello nuke is based on a 1960s GE design that was licensed in 1970 for 40 years and went online in 1971, a year with two radioactive cesium spills. In 2010 the license was renewed for another 20 years to 2030. Xcel Energy has again asked for an extension for another 20 years until 2050. It is a corporate financial security move already approved by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) but not (yet) by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) which holds final approval.

    In November 2022, a 50-year-old underground pipe leaked 829,000 gallons of tritium-contaminated wastewater that “likely” reached the Mississippi River, according to an Xcel draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The corporation failed to make public the radioactive spill for four months. After a May 15, 2024 public hearing in Monticello where citizens testified  “We don’t trust you. You lie,” a NRC executive “clarified” Xcel’s “miscommunication.”

    Senior Environmental Project Manager, Stephen J. Koenick admitted some tritium had been measured in the Mississippi. Tritium bonds with water and cannot be separated out. Water obeys gravity running downhill, in the case of Monticello, from the plant to the Mississippi. The runaway tritium will be radioactive for ten half-lives or about 123 years according to John LaForge of Nukewatch, a veteran nuclear watchdog, statistics collector and longtime challenger of Xcel’s expansionism.

    There’s no telling where Xcel’s radioactive molecules will land among the 50 percent of men and 33 percent of women currently estimated to host a cancer invasion during our lifetimes (National Public Radio 2/17/2025). There is tremendous popular, fear-driven support for the oncology industry. The good news is that while cancer numbers are up so is the cancer survival rate. However, at nuke weapons, power, and the virtually forever waste sites “accidents” happen along with ongoing radioactive decay. Radioactivity cannot be contained.

    If the Monticello nuke was licensed for 40 years and is re-upped to work for 80 years, from 1970 until 2050, is that wise decision-making with 1960s technology? Is that like a person living 140 years instead of our allotted three score and ten as mentioned in the Bible? Classic cars are 20 to 45 years old; 1960s cars are considered vintage. Nevertheless an octogenarian nuke is considered the norm now by the nuclear/government consortium.

    Piecemeal fix-it parts for geriatric machinery or people is a lucrative business. Locating a  leaking tritium pipe underground, between buildings, removal and replacement is a non-negotiable emergency at nuclear plants with miles and miles and miles of piping. Upkeep expenses figure in utility rate hikes.

    Joseph Mangano, Ernest Sternglass etc. did a follow up study on eight downwind U.S.  communities in the two years after a nuclear reactor closure. A remarkable 17.4 percent drop in infant mortality was found. “We finally have peer-reviewed accurate data attaching nuclear power reactors to death and injury in the host communities,” New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said of the 2002 report in the Archives of Environmental Health.

    Monticello nuke is a single General Electric boiling water reactor similar to the Fukushima, Japan nuke that exploded in March 2011 due to tsunami floodwaters following an earthquake. In other words the nuke was a giant teapot which could not contain the steam expansion of super-heated boiling water to turn the turbines to produce electricity. Of course water can be transformed into steam at a lesser temperature than 550-degrees Fahrenheit, for example 212°F is the boiling point of water.

    Trumpeter swans gather in the open Mississippi water during winters. The river water is heated by discharges from Monticello.

    Monopoly Capitalism or Public Service?

    Clearly Monticello was designed to make money. In November 2024, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wrote that Xcel has “aggressively” pursued multi-year rate hikes while earning large profits. According to Xcel propaganda the nuke is “the biggest employer and largest local taxpayer” and generates an estimated $550 million in economic activity each year in the region. Unlike profits, cancer care statistics before and after Monticello nuclear operations are not part of Xcel’s evangelism.

    Monticello is managed by national NRC standards and a state governor-appointed Public Utilities  Commission (PUC) of yes- women and men. Hearings to re-set the rules about electricity rates or extending the legal life of the plant are often well-attended by Xcel union workers (on the clock, sitting in the back) and nuclear-free proponents in front wearing signs. It is political theater.

    Repeatedly the corporation wins its rate and longevity “asks.” The asks get rewritten and resubmitted until a reasonable “compromise” is reached. In 2025 residential customers will pay $5.39 more per month, down from the original ask of $9.89, according to Minnesota Public Radio noting that greater increases are on the horizon for EVs and data-center capital improvements. These solemn charades make the news and keep the mock in democracy. After all isn’t electricity is a public good?

    Cancer

    St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital advertises heavily with videos of big-eyed, bald children cancer patients reminiscent of the late Margaret Keane’s paintings. In a study of published studies of 136 nuclear reactor sites, elevated leukemia disease in children was documented in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Japan and Canada in the European Journal of Cancer Care in 2007. This is not a new story.

    The danger of mental retardation of fetuses exposed in the womb was reported in The New York Times, page A1 on 12/20/1989. Tritium crosses the placenta. In addition to the health  costs of breathing and ingesting exhausts from a nuclear power plants is the problem of what to do with long-lived waste. The nuclear profit god is a terrorist.

    Susu Jeffrey is a poet and writer living in Minneapolis. She has opposed nuclear weapons/nuclear power since her arrest at Seabrook, New Hampshire in 1977.

    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media

    Please join me on Wings of Change. It’s only the beginning as we still have so much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is pleased and excited to be a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others. 

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”
    — Howard Zinn

  • The Cancer Plague: Nuclear Power and Waste, by Susu Jeffrey

    The Cancer Plague: Nuclear Power and Waste, by Susu Jeffrey

    The Cancer Plague: Nuclear Power and Waste / Original to Wings of Change
    By Susu Jeffrey / August 18, 2025

    “Sometimes before I give a speech, I ask the audience to stand up if they or someone in their family has had cancer,” says John LaForge of Nukewatch. “Eighty percent of the audience gets up.”

    The Monticello nuclear power reactor is on the Mississippi River about 35-miles northwest of Minneapolis. Xcel’s twin Prairie Island reactors, plus about 50 giant dry casks storing waste reactor fuel, are all in the floodplain of the Mississippi. This waste is sited 44 to 51 miles southeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

    There are no plans to move the waste off-island because there is no alternative destination. In fact, 34 more concrete encased steel casks are planned. There is no national hot radioactive waste repository. Think of these waste container sites as permanent radioactive waste dumps.

    The greater Twin Cities’ 3.7 million people are in the nuclear “shadow” (within 50 miles) of all three nukes. The Mississippi River serves 20 million people with drinking water, way beyond the Minnesota state population of 5.7 million. Minnesota’s aging nukes are a national threat. For approximately the next six generations, radioactive tritium will be a part of the drinking water wherever those molecules wander.

    The Monticello nuke was licensed in 1970 for 40 years, and went online in 1971, a year it had two radioactive cesium spills. In 2010, the license was renewed for another 20 years until 2030. Xcel Energy has even been granted an extension for another 20 years until 2050. It is a corporate financial security move not yet approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission which holds the final consent. Paperwork is one thing, pipes are another.

    In November 2022, a 50-year-old underground pipe leaked 829,000 gallons of tritium-contaminated wastewater that reached the Mississippi River, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Xcel failed to make public the radioactive spill for four months. After a May 15, 2024 public hearing in Monticello where citizens testified “We don’t trust you. You lie,” an NRC executive “clarified” Xcel’s “miscommunication.”

    Senior Environmental Project Manager, Stephen J. Koenick admitted some tritium had been measured in the Mississippi. Tritium bonds with water and cannot be separated out. Water obeys gravity running downhill, in the case of Monticello, from the reactor to the Mississippi. The runaway tritium will persist in the environment for ten half-lives or about 123 years.

    SWANS AT MONTICELLO SWIM IN POISONED WATER

    The trumpeter swan gets its name from its loud sonorous call — and the spot on the Mississippi River near the Monticello nuclear power plant is often filled with them in winter. Tim Post | MPR News file*

    No telling where Xcel’s radioactive molecules will land. Men have a one in two chance of being diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes; for women the chance is one in three (National Cancer Institute, 2/9/2022). There is tremendous popular, fear-driven support for the oncology industry.

    The good news is that while cancer numbers are up so is the cancer survival rate. However, at nuke weapons, nuke reactors, and the virtually forever waste sites, “accidents” happen along with on-going radioactive decay. Radioactivity cannot be contained. When I was a newspaper reporter in Brevard County, Florida, where Cape Canaveral is located, I learned that nuclear waste cannot be rocketed off into space because it’s too hot, too heavy, and the rockets too faulty.

    Nuclear Safety Regulations Changing

    Among Pres. Trump’s cost-cutting moves is a weakening of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s exposure standards. Staff would be cut and regulations “revised” virtually cutting off the commission’s independent status. The Monticello nuke was licensed for 40 years and was rubber stamped to work for 80. Octogenarian nukes are considered “safe enough” now by the nuclear/government consortium.

    Piecemeal fix-it parts for geriatric machinery or people are a lucrative business. Locating a leaking tritium pipe underground, between buildings, removing and replacing it is a non-negotiable emergency at nuclear reactors with miles and miles of piping. Upkeep expenses figure in utility rate hikes.

    Joseph Mangano and Ernest Sternglass did a study of eight downwind U.S.  communities in the two years after a nuclear reactor closure. A remarkable 17.4 percent drop in infant mortality was found. “We finally have peer-reviewed accurate data attaching nuclear power reactors to death and injury in the host communities,” New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said of the 2002 report in the Archives of Environmental Health.

    Monopoly capitalism or public service?

    Clearly the Monticello reactor was designed to make money. In November 2024, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wrote that Xcel has “aggressively” pursued multi-year rate hikes while earning large profits. In 2024 Xcel reported $1.94-billion net earnings, a profit margin up 14% from 2023.

    According to Xcel propaganda, the nuke is “the biggest employer and largest local taxpayer” in Monticello, MN, and generates an estimated $550 million in economic activity each year in the region. And like profits, cancer rates are up notably among people under 50 and rising faster among women than men the American Cancer Society reports.

    Repeatedly, the Xcel corporation wins its rate hike and re-licensing “asks.” These asks get rewritten and resubmitted until a “compromise” is reached. In 2025, residential customers will pay $5.39 more per month, down from the original ask of $9.89, according to Minnesota Public Radio, which also noted that greater increases are on the horizon for EVs and data center capital improvements.

    Cancer

    St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital advertises heavily with videos of big-eyed, bald children cancer patients. In a review of published studies of 136 nuclear reactor sites in the European Journal of Cancer Care in 2007, elevated leukemia disease rates in children were documented in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Japan, and Canada. This is not a new story.

    The danger of mental retardation of fetuses exposed in the womb was reported in The New York Times (page A1 on 12/20/1989). Tritium crosses the placenta. In addition to the health costs of breathing and ingesting exhausts from nuclear power reactors, there is the problem of what to do with and how to contain its long-lived waste. The nuclear profit god is a once and future terrorist.

    Please sign now: A petition calling for the closure of the Monticello nuclear reactor!  Here is the link:

    https://chng.it/bY8KBrYKyZ
    * The Trumpeter Swans have been a tourist attraction at the Monticello nuclear reactor plant in the past. With the discovering of the tritium poison leak they can no longer gather in the poisoned water.

    Susu Jeffrey is a poet and writer living in Minneapolis. She has opposed nuclear weapons/nuclear power since before her arrest at Seabrook, New Hampshire in 1977.

    In this critical time in our country hearing the voices of truth and engaging in honest discussion for critical issues is all the more important while censorship (and outright lies) along with attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support the WingsofChange.me website and Rise Up Times on social media as we to bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media. Access is alway free, but if you would like to help:
    Wings of Change FeatherWhatever you are able donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions.

    One place to begin is with reason and truth, and how fundamental they are to creating critically engaged citizens and communities. 

    —Henry A. Giroux