Vermont Yankee groundwater well tests positive for radioactive isotope for the first time

Vt. Yankee well tests shows radioactive isotope

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A small amount of radioactive material was found in a test of groundwater wells at the Vermont Yankee nuclear facility, the plant confirmed Thursday.

The problem at the 38-year-old reactor is similar to those cropping up at nuclear plants around the country, with the discovery of a radioactive isotope called tritium in a monitoring well.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said Thursday the plant confirmed a report provided a day earlier by an independent testing laboratory hired to check samples from 32 groundwater monitoring wells on the site.

Williams said it was the first time a groundwater sample at the plant had tested positive for tritium.

Both Williams and William Irwin, radiological health chief for the Vermont Department of Health, said there was no threat to the public health and safety from the level of tritium reported. They said the 17,000 picocuries of radioactivity per liter of water measured at Vermont Yankee was 3,000 less than the 20,000 picocurie safety limit set for drinking water by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

But Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry engineer who has consulted with the Legislature on issues related to Vermont Yankee, on Thursday called the discovery of tritium on the plant site “a big deal.”

“It’s a sign that there’s a pipe or a tank leaking somewhere” at the plant, Gundersen said. “It’s highly unlikely that the highest concentration in the ground would happen to be at the monitoring well,” he added.

Irwin said, “A sample is just a sample. It does not give a complete picture.”

Irwin and Williams said Vermont Yankee staff will be working to find the source of the tritium leak.

The tritium monitoring program was begun in 2007 after the isotope began turning up at nuclear plants in the Midwest and at the Indian Point nuclear station on the Hudson River in New York state.

Williams said the wells were being checked for tritium every three months and that the checks would increase with the present investigation.

Also Thursday, Williams said plant officials were monitoring the oil level in a pump used to control the power level in the reactor, which had dropped low enough to set off an alarm that Gundersen likened to a dashboard warning light.

The problems cropped up as debate heated up in Montpelier over whether Vermont Yankee should be given a 20-year extension on its license, currently set to expire in 2012, when it reaches the 40-year mark.

The Vermont Legislature is the only one in the country given authority under state law to vote on whether a nuclear license extension should be granted. The question also goes before the state Public Service Board and federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Vermont law requires that lawmakers make their decision before the state board does.

In his State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Jim Douglas urged lawmakers to support the license extension, which would then leave the question up to the other regulatory bodies.