Lake Michigan environmental survey : final report / [edited] by John C. Ayers.

start up within the next three years. They are Palisades, Point Beach 1, and
Zion 1 in 1971; Point Beach 2, Cook 1 and Kewaunee in 1972; and Cook 2 and
Zion 2 in 1973. The Bailly station is not scheduled for operation until 1976.
The sources of fission and activation product radioactivity in the primary coolant are given in Table A-12.(26'39) The relative influence of each of
these sources, the power history of the reactor, and several other factors,
determine qualitatively and quantitatively, the radionuclides that will be present in the coolant.(30) Table A-13 lists the fission and activation products
with half-lives greater than 3 days which have been identified in primary
coolants of operating light-water power reactors.(4'26 27'35'38 40) However,
because the waste processing at each facility is unique, it is difficult to
anticipate exactly what quantities will be discharged in liquid effluents.
The following estimates are based on approximate discharges of gross activity from presently operating reactor stations. It is reported(30) that the
two newest and largest PWRs, Connecticut Yankee and San Onofre, discharge approximately 1.lxlO 6 Ci of gross beta-gamma activity and 10 3 Ci of tritium
per MWe-hr of power generation. If these rates of release or radioactivity
apply to the reactors on Lake Michigan, then the total electrical energy
generation by PWR reactors of 18x107 MWe-hr through 1975, will have released
200 Ci gross beta-gamma activity and 180,000 Ci H-3. The 1962-75 contribution
from Big Rock Nuclear Power Plant, a BWR, will be 90 Ci gross beta-gamma and
440 Ci H-3. These projected releases of radioactivity will increase the radioactivity concentration of Lake Michigan by 6x10 uCi/ml gross beta-gamma
activity and 4x10 uCi/ml of H-3. For purposes of this calculation it is assumed that no radioactive decay of radwaste effluents has occurred and that no
activity is lost to sediment or lake outflow. A summary of the inventories of
radioactivity in Lake Michigan for 1953, 1963 (the year of heaviest fallout),
1970, and 1975 is given in Table A-14.

A-27