Sewage wasn't radioactive, Entergy says

Saturday, June 2, 2007 Poughkeepsie Journal
Sewage wasn't radioactive, Entergy says
BUCHANAN - The lab results that showed radioactive tritium in sewage from the Indian Point nuclear power plants last month were incorrect "false positives" and follow-ups have determined that there is no contamination, the plants' owner said Friday.
Entergy Nuclear also said it has found no tritium above normal levels at the sewage plant in Buchanan or anywhere else outside Indian Point property.
When the positive result was announced May 9, there were fears some of the tritium-contaminated groundwater beneath Indian Point had somehow found its way into the pipes that lead to the Buchanan sewer system.
Entergy said Friday its lab and an outside lab had reanalyzed the sewage sample that yielded the positive result and found no above-normal trace of tritium.
The level of tritium originally reported was tiny - 8,000 picocuries per liter, while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's standard for sewage is 10 million picocuries per liter. A picocurie is a measure of radiation.