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Tritium
Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites
"You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected,' whistleblower says"
The truth about tritium begins to leak out in a new chapter in this AP series on nuclear reactors. The industry has long claimed that tritium is not a problem. The Pickering reactor in Ontario recently dumped 75,000 litres of tritium into Lake Ontario, saying it was insignificant. But tritium can be absorbed through the skin, is most dangerous when ingested, all things that could quite likely happen in a heavily used lake. In addition, as the article states, tritium is leaking from a majority of U.S. reactors, creating a growing health hazard for reactor communities.
AP l Jeff Donn 21 June, 2011
BRACEVILLE, Ill. — Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.
Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants.
Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.
Cleanup of Radioactive Water at Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant Begins
Environment News Service 24 September, 2010
TRENTON, New Jersey, September 23, 2010 - Radioactive tritium that leaked from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2009 into two aquifers below the facility is being removed after months of delay, says the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The Exelon Corporation, which owns and operates the power plant, has agreed to start pumping efforts this week on two monitoring wells in the Cape May and upper Cohansey aquifers, and also has agreed to expand that effort to a third contaminated location by early October.
The goal is to remove the tritium-tainted water to avoid any potential contamination of drinking water supplies, said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin."We have asked Exelon to expedite this effort, to clean up this radioactive material as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure public health and the safety of our drinking water supplies," said Martin.
In June, Exelon documented levels of tritium in the monitoring wells located in the Cohansey aquifer that exceeded one million picuries per liter (pCi/L), as compared with an EPA health-based standard of 20,000 pCi/L.
