New test shows no tritium sewer leak from Indian Point

New test shows no tritium sewer leak from Indian Point
By GREG CLARYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 2, 2007)
BUCHANAN - New tests at Indian Point show that radioactive tritium is not leaking into the village sewer system and that earlier readings were incorrect, nuclear plant officials said yesterday.
The possible infiltration of radioactive material into village pipes raised concerns last month as the plant continues to work to contain tritium and strontium-90 leaks first discovered in 2005 and 2006.
Indian Point owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast has yet to receive any strontium-90 test results, but experts in and out of the company have said there is little likelihood of finding that isotope without finding spiked levels of tritium as well.
"The false positives (found earlier) were most likely the result of interference due to some organic materials and chemicals commonly found in sanitary sewers," said Donald Mayer, the Indian Point official in charge of the groundwater contamination investigation. "When analyzing at very low levels, occasional false positives can occur."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed yesterday that Indian Point had reported those results, but the agency has collected its own samples and is awaiting the results.
"We don't have any reason to doubt (Indian Point's) results," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "But as always, we will verify their data."
State health and environmental officials said yesterday that they expect to conduct their own tests as well in the near future, though they gave no specific date yesterday.
Indian Point officials said that because of the intense public interest in the groundwater contamination problems since the leaks were discovered, they released the tritium information in early May, days after an on-site lab found the supposedly elevated tritium levels.
The company's labs at Indian Point are not sufficiently equipped to filter out environmental factors that might have contributed to artificially higher readings, Mayer said, and Indian Point's tritium levels were undetectable when analyzed by an outside firm's lab with more sophisticated methods.
Mayer said that the company collected more than a dozen sewage samples at different times and also tested Buchanan's treatment plant, and the presence of tritium was negligible.
Buchanan Mayor Dan O'Neill had said when the May results became public that he was eager to see more testing done, and yesterday he was glad that happened.
"I'm obviously relieved that there was no tritium and that the reading turned out to be a false positive," said O'Neill, who added that he had been called by Entergy with the news before the announcement. "No matter how insignificant the levels are, it's always better if there's no amount present."
O'Neill said the environmental and health effects from nuclear power plants are minimal compared with plants that burn fossil fuels to create electricity.
"But you still would rather never have any negative impacts, especially on the host community," he said.
Lisa Rainwater, who heads Riverkeeper's campaign to close the nuclear plants, noted that the spring had been particularly busy for Indian Point. Since April 1, there have been unplanned shutdowns of the nuclear reactors, a lowered safety rating and new sirens that still were not working by a second federally imposed deadline of April 15.
"It's one good piece of information to come out of Indian Point after weeks and weeks of bad," Rainwater said. "We hope they'll continue to routinely monitor the situation and test regularly in order to be sure the latest test is in fact accurate."
Mayer said Indian Point plans to monitor the sewage flow for tritium on a monthly basis from now on and also will check for other isotopes if workers see the tritium levels rise.
Reach Greg Clary at gclary@lohud.com or 914-696-8566.
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As always, Lisa Rainwater misses entirely, the thousands of megawatts coming out of IPEC as very "good news" every second of every day, along with the near-billion dollars of financial uplift to the region, which has also been steadily pouring out of Indian Point as Ms. Rainwater pickets, makes erronious statements, issues negative viewpoints, and thus makes her usual overdrawn "contribution" to our local life. Moreover, the community of upstanding citizens manning Indian Point has been coaching little league baseball, mentoring young people, serving in our armed forces, and contributing to local charities, even contributing to Ms. Rainwater's rudderless Riverkeeper charity, as Corporate Entergy funds green initiatives with millions, freely given.(How many initiatives does Riverkeeper fund around here?) But this is not "good news" to Ms. Rainwater, she prefers her closed, isolated Public Relations bubble universe, and her increasingly irrelevant minority rant, to any view of how things really are around the Hudson Valley. (Ms. Rainwater lives in Washington Heights, Manhattan).Posted by: la_88 on Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:17 pm
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About tritium
- Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12 years. It is naturally produced in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike air molecules and as a byproduct in nuclear reactors that produce electricity. Exposure to it and other radiation increases the risk of developing cancer.- Strontium 90 is a fission byproduct of uranium and plutonium, with a half-life of 29 years. Large amounts were produced in the 1950s and 1960s during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency