Tritium Leak At Vermont Nuclear Plant Grows

mdsolar writes "The tritium leak into ground water at Vermont Yankee has now tested at 775,000 picocuries per liter, 37 times higher than the federal drinking water standard. 'Despite the much higher reading, an NRC spokeswoman said Thursday there was nothing to fear. "There's not currently, nor is there likely to be, an impact on public health or safety or the environment," the NRC's Diane Screnci said in an interview. She had maintained previously that the Environmental Protection Agency drinking water safety limit of 20,000 picocuries per liter had an abundance of caution built into it. ... The National Academy of Sciences said in 2005 that any exposure to ionizing radiation from an isotope like tritium elevates the risk of cancer, though it also said with small exposures, the risk would be low. ' At what level should the NRC shut down the troubled plant?"

Comments

2.7 million picocuries

[mysqlrocks]

Actually, the latest reading was 2.7 million picocuries: http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/87126/

Re:2.7 million picocuries

[Animats]

That's good. That reading is a sump inside the plant. It's about the level of the process water, so it's near the leak. They're getting close.

The hazardous readings are all within the plant perimeter. Additional monitoring of off-site wells has been started (ten locations are normally monitored by the State of Vermont, but monthly) and those aren't showing any significant radioactivity.

Re:2.7 million picocuries

[agnosticnixie]

No, that's because incults who don't realize that the OS counts in binary and the makers in metric (which IBM already did in the 80s) sue.

actually, the levels only doubled

[YesIAmAScript]

The article says the levels in the well from before doubled and are still below the federal level. Levels at another existing well dropped. And a new well was drilled to try to find the leak and it has a much higher concentration of tritium.

Unless you're drinking from the new well (and no one is, it's a test well), this doesn't really affect you at all. It's not like you're getting 37x as much radiation now (at least as far as the data we have says). And it's part of the process of finding the leak and fixing it.

Re:actually, the levels only doubled

[YesIAmAScript]

Of course it doesn't stay in those wells, that's how it was found in the other well too. And it's surely in other wells even further away, just at lower concentrations.

That's why they're looking for the source of the leak by drilling more wells. Once they find the leak they can fix it.

Some say they should shut down the plant while they find the leak. Which is an interesting concept. Do you know how they find leaks in underground pipes? They put in radioactive tracers and then detect for it.

http://www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad/uses.htm

So, as long as the levels of radiation at wells outside the plant are low enough it's safe to keep running the plant while the leak is found.

Also, radiation doesn't build up in your body. There is a model for body damage from radiation that counts cumulative exposure over a long period. But that isn't because the radiation stays in your body the whole time, it's because the damage from the radiation takes a long time to repair so it's useful mathematically to sum it up over time.

Either way, the radiation levels have not increased 37x. The danger has not increased 37x. There's not even information (at this time) that the leak has grown at all, they're just measuring at a new spot. This would be like jumping in a pool at the shallow end and saying it's 3 feet deep, then walking to the deep end and saying the pool got deeper. It was 6 feet deep at that end before, you just didn't measure it in that spot before.

I hope they get this problem fixed soon.

What a bunch of numbskulls.

[the eric conspiracy]

We get far more exposure from radon outgassing from the granite countertops in our kitchens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html

Let's pay attention to something we can actually get exposed to.

Re:we do not apply limits

[HiddenCamper]

Actually they did act. They noticed the rates increasing. They added more wells and kept testing to locate the problem. They are self-policing and reporting using their corrective action process. Going over a limit will get them a hefty fine, but all things considered when a problem just pops up like this you dont know where its at and you have little control over it. They are doing the right things.

Re:They need to stop this fast...

[MoonBuggy]

Naturally, they're banned in the US, because they're atomic.

I'm going to have to give you a [citation needed] for that one, on the basis that United Nuclear (a US company) are still selling them.

Re:They need to stop this fast...

[limaxray]

Any American gun owner can tell you that tritium is NOT banned in the US - tritium makes for great night sights and is a common addition for home defense weapons.

Re:I won't lie- This concerns me

[vtcat]

Exactly- It wasn't a PR guy, it was Jay Thayer, VP of operations, among others. Backtracking and in trouble: A detailed timeline on who said what on Vt. Yankees Also, instead of 0 underground pipes, there are 40. And they've found Cobalt-60 and Zinc-65 in a "trench". Nice

Re:Wow...

[HiddenCamper]

BWRs are only 1 stage for cooling. The water in the reactor is the water that passes through the condenser. PWRs use 2 loops. Vermont is a BWR. Tritium levels could be higher in there because of the massive amount of free neutrons flying around in the reactor. double neutron absorption in the water could cause it.