Preliminary results of an environmental study of tritium at 11 Exelon Nuclear stations show no active leaks of tritium at any of the generating plants and no detectable tritium beyond the plant boundaries other than from permitted discharges, except for known historical releases at the Braidwood Generating Station in Illinois.

The study is continuing and final results are expected in six to eight weeks.

Additional wells are being installed for long-term monitoring programs across the company and to gather additional data, in particular from two stations that have unusually complex hydrogeology requiring a more extensive array of wells. Those two stations are the Dresden Generating Station in Illinois and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

None of the tritium concentrations registered in the Exelon Nuclear assessment pose a health or safety hazard to workers or the public.

The only station at which tritium is known to have migrated off plant property is the Braidwood Generating Station in Illinois, where past accidental tritiated water spills have been widely reported and a state-approved cleanup has begun.

Exelon’s 11 nuclear energy plants include six operating plants and one closed plant in Illinois, three operating plants in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.

The assessment also determined that:

· No radioactive substances other than tritium and those that occur naturally – such as potassium-40 – were detected above background levels in any of the more than 1,800 ground water samples taken to assess tritium at the stations.

· Low but detectable levels of tritium exist in groundwater within site boundaries of most Exelon plants. All either measured near background levels or were from past leaks or spills and show no signs of moving offsite. These will be monitored continuously. None pose a hazard.

· One plant, the Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey, showed no traces of tritium in the environment.

Tritium is a weak radioactive isotope of hydrogen found naturally in virtually all water in small concentrations and produced in higher concentrations in water used in nuclear energy plants.

Tritium is a normal byproduct of commercial nuclear power production and is discharged into the environment under strict federal guidelines. Eventually, all tritium decays into helium, a natural part of the earth’s atmosphere.

Specific results for the 11 locations will be released at completion of the project.

Link: EXIT Signs Trigger Radiation Monitors, Leak Tritium into Landfills

8/4/2006