Oklahoma’s own corporate sugar daddy recently got the green light from Pennsylvania state officials to begin hydraulic fracturing a well located about a mile away from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, Penn., along the Ohio River.
While there is no proven link between seismic activity and hydraulic fracturing — otherwise known as “fracking” by people without time for six syllables — some states have banned the practice near fault lines, just to be safe. In the past, injection wells have been blamed for some earthquakes.
So why is it a good idea to frack a mile from a nuclear plant? Because there are no rules against it and it’s at least 500 feet away from any building, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
In case “Pennsylvania” and “nuclear power plant” sound familiar in close proximity to one another, it’s because the worst nuclear incident in American history occurred at a location there: Three Mile Island.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2012.