Radioactive tritium that leaked from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2009 into two aquifers below the facility is being removed after months of delay, says the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The Exelon Corporation, which owns and operates the power plant, has agreed to start pumping efforts this week on two monitoring wells in the Cape May and upper Cohansey aquifers, and also has agreed to expand that effort to a third contaminated location by early October.
The goal is to remove the tritium-tainted water to avoid any potential contamination of drinking water supplies, said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin.
Oyster Creek, situated in Lacey Township, Ocean County, New Jersey, is the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the United States. The 619 MWe boiling water reactor plant first came online on December 1, 1969, and is licensed to operate until April 2029.
Tritium occurs as a by-product of nuclear power plant operations, and tritium leaks are not uncommon at nuclear power plants nationwide.
In June, Exelon documented levels of tritium in the monitoring wells located in the Cohansey aquifer that exceeded one million picuries per liter (pCi/L), as compared with an EPA health-based standard of 20,000 pCi/L.
That contaminated water will be pumped into drums and transferred to a holding tank on site. Eventually it will be diluted into the large volumes of water used daily for cooling the power plant.
The dilution is expected to bring the tritium levels below detectable standards. This will be confirmed with surface water monitoring in the discharge canal, with the results to be shared with the public.
The tritium plume appears to be moving toward Oyster Creek’s discharge canal, but no samples taken from the discharge canal have indicated the presence of tritium.
To avoid similar leaks, Exelon has said it will move all pipes handling radioactive water either above ground or into concrete vaults
– from alternet.org