[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The pristine waters off Cape Cod could become radioactive for as long as a month after a new study found that nuclear waste being dumped from the tony peninsula has a 'high probability' of lingering.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted the study to find out how likely it would be that discharged wastewater from the Pilgrim Nuclear PowerStation in Plymouth, Massachusetts would spread into Cape Cod Bay, whose surrounding communities include multimillion-dollar mansions.
'Our numerical simulations suggest it is unlikely that the bulk of plume waters will leave the Bay in less than a month,' said the study's leader Irina Rypina.
The dumping comes as part of the power station's decommissioning, and the study found that its wastewaters could drift near the shores and coastal waters of Dennis, Wellfleet, and Provincetown.
'If the release were to happen in the spring and summer, a small portion of a plume might leave the bay in less than a month, passing north of Provincetown and then flowing southward along the outer Cape,' the study said.
'We found virtually no out-of-the-Bay transport in winter and fall and slightly larger, but still low, probability of some of the plume exiting the Bay in spring and summer,' Rypina said.
In response to the study, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who chairs the Senate's Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, said that the findings confirm concerns expressed by the residents of the Cape.
According to Markey, residents have been questioning the wisdom of dumping plant wastewater into the Bay 'for years.' 
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