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Tritium Update
May 10, 2007
Tritium has long been known to be in the groundwater beneath the Indian Point plants, most likely from a one-time leak of the Indian Point 2 fuel pool that was repaired by the previous plant owner in the 90's. Entergy has installed more than 35 monitoring and sampling wells since September of 2005 when it was first detected. Entergy also has been inspecting the inner liner of the IP2 pool but has not found an active leak. The IP1 pool has been known to leak for many years prior to the purchase of the plants by Entergy and is the source of strontium-90. Entergy plans to begin removing the fuel from that pool next year and then empty the water from it to stop leakage for good.
Tritium has apparently seeped into the plants sewage pipes, though just a small amount (about 8,000 picocuries), which likely is getting to the Village of Buchanan's sewage treatment plant (limit for sewage is 10 million picocuries; drinking water standard is 20,000 picocuries;). Entergy is analyzing samples to see if there is any strontium-90 in the sewage. Strontium-90 does not travel with water as readily as tritium which is a form of water; instead strontium-90 tends to cling to soil and metals.
All appropriate local officials were notified of the sample result from the sewage system on Tuesday; the results having been reported to Entergy by the lab the night before. There is no health risk associated with this finding, according to the NRC and NYS DEC and DOH.
As said before, Entergy is fully committed to ensuring that there are no safety or health risks from the tritium in the groundwater beneath the Indian Point plants. And that includes the very small amount of tritium that is well within safety limits that we now see has apparently seeped into the sewage system piping. No tritium has been seen above background levels in any other samples taken outside the plants' property. It has not been determined if the tritium is coming from the groundwater itself or from one of the site's drainage systems. We will continue monitoring the situation and will continue providing information to the public even though, as the responsible New York State environmental and state and local health agencies have said, there is no safety risk or health hazard associated with these findings.
Contact:
Jim Steets
(914) 272-3545 - office
(914) 671-0457 - cell
jsteets@entergy.com
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