No doubt the global fish kills mentioned in my previous post are at least in part due to what happened at Fukushima and the ongoing release of radioactive material into the groundwater of the region and into the sea:
http://science.time.com/2011/04/05/fukushima-dumping-into-the-sea/
At one of the nuclear power plants where I worked, a failed valve caused the release of excess acid into the main cooling water system. Before the failure was discovered, the extremely low pH of the water nearly ate all the way through the titanium tubes in the plant's main condenser. Since there was nowhere else to put the large volume of metal-tainted water (or so they said), it was diluted and dumped into one of the Great Lakes.
Most nuclear plants have a similar fubar they don't like talking about. And the logic behind such decisions is often something like this:
"Which would cost more: doing it the right way, or paying the fine if we get caught doing it the wrong way?"
I actually heard a plant manager ask that question (at a different plant than the acid dumper mentioned above).
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