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Tritium Leak At Vermont Nuclear Plant Grows

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-to-step-up-your-broccoli-consumption dept.

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?"

5 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. 2.7 million picocuries by mysqlrocks · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    --
    Bradley Holt
  2. actually, the levels only doubled by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
  3. What a bunch of numbskulls. by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:They need to stop this fast... by MoonBuggy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. Re:I won't lie- This concerns me by vtcat · · Score: 5, Informative

    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