Minn. and Vt. have nuke plant events

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http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


Minn.

Situation Update No. 1
On 20.01.2010 at 16:03 GMT+2

A half-dozen tools containing radioactive material have gone missing at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported the incident Tuesday, a day after Xcel Energy, the plant's operator, informed the agency. The agency reported that the missing tools were discovered last month during an inventory of the plant in Red Wing. Although the tools contain levels of radioactivity that exceed some NRC regulations, an agency inspector found them "not to be of concern from a radiological standpoint." Operators of the Prairie Island nuclear power plant twice violated federal nuclear safety rules in 2008, but the violations did not pose a safety threat to the public or plant workers. State regulators last fall approved Xcel's request to increase power and radioactive waste storage at the plant. The utility plans to spend $600 million to upgrade the plant so it can handle higher pressure and temperatures that could add 164 megawatts to its 1,000-megawatt capacity.
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Vt.

Situation Update No. 1
On 20.01.2010 at 08:05 GMT+2

Elevated tritium levels were found in a second well at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon on Tuesday. This well is 500 feet north of the first well that was identified last week with an elevated tritium level. The new sample measured 9,540 picocuries a liter, stated Rob Williams, Yankee spokesman, in an e-mail to the media. A second sample has been drawn and is being analyzed. The first well that tested positive for tritium is located 30 feet from the Connecticut River, just east of the plant. So far, no samples taken from the river have shown elevated tritium levels, said Williams. The second well is located about 100 feet west of the river. The wells are two of a group of three that were dug in 2007 to specifically check for tritium in shallow groundwater, about 250 feet down. In the next few days, well drillers will be on site to dig seven new wells to trace the footprint of the plume of contaminated water, said Williams. Since the first sample was taken from the first well, the measured levels have increased from 17,000 to 22,300 picocuries, a 31 percent increase. The Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for drinking water is 20,000 picocuries. For groundwater, it’s 30,000 picocuries. "The existence of tritium in such low levels does not present a risk to public health or safety whatsoever," stated Williams. There has been no elevated tritium level found in any drinking water well samples or in Connecticut River water, according to Williams and Bill Irwin, the state’s chief of radiological health.

The state was informed about the second well early Tuesday morning, said Irwin, the state’s chief of radiological health, who said Yankee has accelerated its plan to drill seven new sampling wells on site. If need be, he said, Yankee will keep on drilling wells until the footprint of the plume has been determined. The public can expect to hear that those new wells will test positive for tritium. "With each well sampled, we’re going to have a number of positive results that are going to encircle the plume to help us get a better idea of the dimensions of the plume," said Irwin. Once the extent of the plume has been determined by the wells, Entergy can concentrate on finding the source of the leak, if it hasn’t been found sooner. "We are going to be hopeful that actions are taken to eliminate the sources of the tritium contamination," said Irwin. Tritium leaks at nuclear power plants aren’t all that unusual, said Sheehan, but the levels vary widely, from those found recently at Yankee up to 4.4 million picocuries discovered at Oyster Creek in New Jersey in early 2009. At Indian Point, on the Hudson River, tritium levels were measured at 300,000 picocuries per liter. The source of the tritiated water was determined to be cracks in the plant’s spent fuel pool. Mitigation of tritiated water could include pumping the tritiated water into a storage tank, letting the tritium decay until it reaches allowable levels and returning the water to the environment, said Sheehan. But pumping the contaminants out of the ground can have unintended consequences, he said, such as spreading plumes of contamination to areas that do not currently have any contamination. Another option would be to leave it right where it is, he said. "The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years," he said. "If the plant is relicensed, the tritium would have decayed away by the end of the license." If not relicensed, the plant would be placed in SAFSTOR and there would be another 50 or more years for the tritium to decay.
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1. kicking back to pg. 1

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