Rising tritium levels alarm state officials. No worries, according to plant spokesman

[pscot]

MONTPELIER -- Vermont Yankee officials zeroed in Friday on pipes that connect the "off-gas pit sump" -- a concrete vault -- to a radioactive waste building as the possible source of a tritium leak at the Vernon nuclear power plant.
"It's certainly a possibility," Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said.

Samples from the underground vault showed high levels of tritium -- 2.7 million picocuries per liter. Williams later said in a news release that plant engineers do not believe the sump pump itself is a likely source of high levels of the radioactive material found in groundwater, but rather the source may be the piping between the sump and the "rad-waste facility."
The state Health Department called the finding "significant" toward finding the source of the leak. The area will be excavated, Health Department officials said, and the sump pump has been turned off.
"The team does not believe the sump itself is a likely source. However, the sump pump discharges into buried piping connected to the radwaste facility," Williams said.

A state health official, meanwhile, said the rising levels of tritium being discovered at test wells at the site are increasingly serious. One reading rose to 834,000 picocuries per liter Friday. The federal safety standard for consumption is 20,000 picocuries per liter.

"We really didn't expect it to be as high as it is. That makes it a little bit of a different story," William Irwin, state radiological health chief, told the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Friday morning. "This is very serious."

Irwin said it suggests to him that the leak is coming not from a small container with low levels of tritium. "It seems to be a large volume of water and may be a high concentration," he said. "It makes it even more important to find this leak fast." Irwin took issue with Yankee's characterization of the reading as "good news," as the company described it Thursday.

Williams, the Vermont Yankee spokesman, said the company described it that way because "it's good news for the investigation" into the source of the leak. "If we had seen equal concentrations across all wells that would not represent progress. Here we have identified a well with a clear indication of being closer to the source," he said.

Irwin said what would particularly alarm him is tritium or other radioactive isotopes found in area drinking wells. Officials at the 38-year-old nuclear plant have started monitoring on-site drinking water wells and the Connecticut River daily. Tritium hasn't been found in either.
Tritium has been linked to cancer when ingested in large amounts.

Also Friday, state Attorney General William Sorrell said his staff has given Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp.'s top lawyer a list of information wanted for an investigation into whether company officials lied to the state about the plant's underground pipes. Sorrell said he expects to know next week whether the company will supply information voluntarily or whether the state will have to fight for it in court.
Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 651-4887 or [email protected]

[WhiteTara]

1. and they want more of these monsters.

:scared:

[Go2Peace]

2. The full information on these incidents is often hidden

Either by the company that runs the facility, or sometimes even by public officials.