Massachusetts plant reports tritium contamination

By on February 1, 2014
Earth and Atmosphere News


Radioactive tritium was found in levels three times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommend safe drinking water thresholds in a monitoring well near Massachusetts’ Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, according to a report from the Cape Cod Bay Watch.

Representatives from Entergy, the company that owns the power plant, said they found 69,000 pCi/L of tritium in a monitoring well near one of the plants catch basins.

The basin collects radioactive water from the plant. The leak may have been caused by break in a neutralizing sump discharge line which feeds into the catch basin.

The EPA recommends no more than 20,000 pCi/L of tritium be in drinking water.  Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, which can accumulate over time in the body if ingested.

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