Nine Mile Point Nuclear Power Plant
Located in the state of New York, the Nine Mile Point plant first became operational in 1969. Its has two Boiling Water Reactor Units, which use water from Lake Ontario for their cooling needs. The oldest nuclear plant in the US, it is still active today.
Before asbestos was recognized as a potentially lethal group of minerals, its insulating powers were preferred by any industry where extreme heat was generated. Nuclear power plants, including Nine Mile Point, used asbestos extensively for the insulation of pipes, pumps, and other items which had to resist high temperatures.
As a consequence, people who worked at Nine Mile Point may be in danger of having developed mesothelioma, also known as asbestos cancer, which is a fatal condition, in most cases.
Nine Mile Point facts
• One of the most dramatic emergency situations of any US nuclear plant took place at Nine Mile Point in 1991.
• The company that owes Nine Mile Point is called Constellation Energy, which belongs to the Constellation Generation Group, an energy supply company operating in 11 American states.
• In 2008, the plant’s owners formed a joint venture called Unistar Nuclear, and filed for permission to build a third Unit at Nine Mile Point. Authorization has not yet been granted.
• The two original Units at Nine Mile Point have permission to run until 2029 and 2046.
The dangers of asbestos contamination
The scientific community exposed the link between mesothelioma, lung cancer, and a respiratory disease named asbestosis in the 1970s. At the time, thousands of cases surfaced, of people who had worked in asbestos-rich environments, such as the Nine Mile Point nuclear plant, and were suffering from these conditions.
Asbestos affect health when its fibers are inhaled, later sticking to the lungs, to end up developing cancer and asbestosis. Sadly, all of the diseases connected to asbestos involve a high death risk.
Brought on by asbestos exposure in almost 100% of the cases, MESOTHELIOMA is a type of cancer that forms in the lining of the lungs, the heart, and the abdominal region.
ASBESTOSIS is only developed following asbestos exposure. It is caused by scar tissue building in the lungs, as a consequence of asbestos inhalation. This diminishes breathing capacity and causes circulatory problems. Asbestosis is often fatal.
Although LUNG CANCER can have other causes, asbestos fibers can also be responsible for it, especially when the victim happens to be a smoker. A combination of asbestos exposure and smoking statistically raises the chances of contracting lung cancer by up to 90%. Unaware of this fact, asbestos-exposed workers who continued have been dramatically affected by the industry´s failure to reveal the hazards of asbestos exposure.
The reason it took so long to identify the causes of these asbestos-related conditions is that since the moment asbestos particles enter the human organs up to when the symptoms appear, several decades can pass. Some people have, actually, only experiences symptoms 50 years after first being exposed to asbestos.
If you have ever been employed at the Nine Mile Point plant or any other plant of the kind, you are at an elevated risk of having been fatally exposed to asbestos. Even if you don’t have any symptoms, you should get checked out, to make sure you are not developing an asbestos-related condition.
Even today, 10,000 people die in America every year from one of these asbestos-related diseases. These numbers are expected to rise in the near future.