Vernon, Vt. – January 31, 2010 – Testing at Vermont Yankee  for levels of tritium has exceeded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) level for mandatory notification says Entergy spokeman Rob Williams.

On Sunday, a regulatory reporting limit was reached as engineers received confirmed results from a  monitoring well with levels up at 32,000 picocuries per liter.  Engineers and technicians at Vermont Yankee continue to work at identifying the source of tritium that was found in a shallow groundwater monitoring well several weeks ago.  Recently, the tritium concentration in the well had been ranging between approximately 17,000 and 28,000 picocuries per liter.

A second sampling and analysis of water from that well shows that the level in that well is now down to 28,400 picocuries per liter. However, since the analyzed levels exceeded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) reporting limit of 30,000 picocuries per liter, Vermont Yankee is required to file a formal written notification to the NRC within 30 days.  The report must specify the findings, measures taken to identify the source and any necessary corrective actions.

According to the EPA, Tritium is a radioactive variation of the chemical element hydrogen (radioactive hydrogen-3 or 3H) and has a half-life of about 12.5 years, which means that half of the radioactive atoms will decay naturally in that time. Of the three primary types of radiation, alpha, beta and gamma, tritium emits a very low energy beta radiation. Tritium is naturally occurring in the upper atmosphere(cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere can convert a minor fraction of hydrogen into deuterium and tritium), it is normally present in background levels in the environment, predominantly due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1960s.

Entergy’s press release says that there has been no elevated tritium level found in any drinking water well samples or in Connecticut River water and that existence of tritium in such low levels does not present a risk to public health or safety.  Williams says that the variations with a slight upward trend is as expected by plant engineers.

-Vermont Daily News report