BRACEVILLE, Ill. — Radioactive
tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power
sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an
Associated Press investigation shows.
The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as
federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across
the nation.
Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at
least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety
issues at aging nuclear power plants.
Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations
exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of
times the limit.
While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have
migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water
supplies.
At three sites — two in Illinois and one in Minnesota — leaks have
contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not
at levels violating the drinking water standard.
At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer
and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic
Ocean.
Story: GAO: leaks at aging nuke sites difficult to detect
Previously,
the AP reported that regulators and industry have weakened safety standards for decades
to keep the nation's commercial nuclear reactors operating within the rules.
While NRC officials and plant operators argue that safety margins can
be eased without peril, critics say these accommodations are inching
the reactors closer to an accident.
Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer
risk, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Federal regulators
set a limit for how much tritium is allowed in drinking water. So far,
federal and industry officials say, the tritium leaks pose no health
threat.
But it's hard to know how far some leaks have traveled into
groundwater. Tritium moves through soil quickly, and when it is detected
it often indicates the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes
that are often spilled at the same time.
For example, cesium-137 turned up with tritium at the Fort Calhoun
nuclear unit near Omaha, Neb., in 2007. Strontium-90 was discovered with
tritium two years earlier at the Indian Point nuclear power complex,
where two reactors operate 25 miles north of New York City.
The tritium leaks also have spurred doubts among independent
engineers about the reliability of emergency safety systems at the 104
nuclear reactors situated on the 65 sites.
That's partly because some of the leaky underground pipes carry water
meant to cool a reactor in an emergency shutdown and to prevent a
meltdown. More than a mile of piping, much of it encased in concrete,
can lie beneath a reactor.
Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly
through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants. Each of the
known releases has been less radioactive than a single X-ray.
The main health risk from tritium, though, would be in drinking
water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tritium should
measure no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water. The
agency estimates seven of 200,000 people who drink such water for
decades would develop cancer.
Still, the NRC and industry consider the leaks a public relations
problem, not a public health or accident threat, records and interviews
show.
"The public health and safety impact of this is next to zero," said
Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the industry's Nuclear Energy
Institute. "This is a public confidence issue."
Leaks are prolific
Like rust under a car, corrosion has propagated for decades
along the hard-to-reach, wet underbellies of the reactors — generally
built in a burst of construction during the 1960s and 1970s. As part of
an investigation of aging problems at the country's nuclear reactors,
the AP uncovered evidence that despite government and industry programs
to bring the causes of such leaks under control, breaches have become
more frequent and widespread.
There were 38 leaks from underground piping between 2000 and 2009,
according to an industry document presented at a tritium conference.
Nearly two-thirds of the leaks were reported over the latest five years.
Here are some examples:
- At the three-unit Browns Ferry complex in Alabama, a valve was
mistakenly left open in a storage tank during modifications over the
years. When the tank was filled in April 2010 about 1,000 gallons of
tritium-laden water poured onto the ground at a concentration of 2
million picocuries per liter. In drinking water, that would be 100 times
higher than the EPA health standard.
- At the LaSalle site west of Chicago, tritium-laden water was
accidentally released from a storage tank in July 2010 at a
concentration of 715,000 picocuries per liter — 36 times the EPA
standard.
- The year before, 123,000 picocuries per liter were detected in a
well near the turbine building at Peach Bottom west of Philadelphia —
six times the drinking water standard.
- And in 2008, 7.5 million picocuries per liter leaked from
underground piping at Quad Cities in western Illinois — 375 times the
EPA limit.
Subsurface water not only rusts underground pipes, it attacks other
buried components, including electrical cables that carry signals to
control operations. They too have been failing at high rates.
A 2008 NRC staff memo reported industry data showing 83 failed cables
between 21 and 30 years of service — but only 40 within their first 10
years of service. Underground cabling set in concrete can be
extraordinarily difficult to replace.
Under NRC rules, tiny concentrations of tritium and other
contaminants are routinely released in monitored increments from nuclear
plants; leaks from corroded pipes are not permitted.
The leaks sometimes go undiscovered for years, the AP found. Many of
the pipes or tanks have been patched, and contaminated soil and water
have been removed in some places. But leaks are often discovered later
from other nearby piping, tanks or vaults.
Mistakes and defective material have contributed to some leaks.
However, corrosion — from decades of use and deterioration — is the main
cause. And, safety engineers say, the rash of leaks suggest nuclear
operators are hard put to maintain the decades-old systems.
Story: Safety rules loosened for aging nuclear reactors
Over the history of the U.S. industry, more than 400 known
radioactive leaks of all kinds of substances have occurred, the activist
Union of Concerned Scientists reported in September.
Several notable leaks above the EPA drinking-water limit for tritium
happened five or more years ago, and from underground piping: 397,000
picocuries per liter at Tennessee's Watts Bar unit in 2005 — 20 times
the EPA standard; four million at the two-reactor Hatch plant in Georgia
in 2003 — 200 times the limit; 750,000 at Seabrook in New Hampshire in
1999 — nearly 38 times the standard; and 4.2 million at the three-unit
Palo Verde facility in Arizona, in 1993 — 210 times the drinking-water
limit.
Many safety experts worry about what the leaks suggest about the
condition of miles of piping beneath the reactors. "Any leak is a
problem because you have the leak itself — but it also says something
about the piping," said Mario V. Bonaca, a former member of the NRC's
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. "Evidently something has to be
done."
However, even with the best probes, it is hard to pinpoint partial
cracks or damage in skinny pipes or bends. The industry tends to inspect
piping when it must be dug up for some other reason. Even when leaks
are detected, repairs may be postponed for up to two years with the
NRC's blessing.
"You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years,
and they've never been inspected, and the NRC is looking the other way,"
said engineer Paul Blanch, who has worked for the industry and later
became a whistleblower. "They could have corrosion all over the place."
Nuclear engineer Bill Corcoran, an industry consultant who has taught
NRC personnel how to analyze the cause of accidents, said that since
much of the piping is inaccessible and carries cooling water, the worry
is if the pipes leak, there could be a meltdown.
___
East Coast issues
One of the highest known tritium readings was discovered in
2002 at the Salem nuclear plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township, N.J.
Tritium leaks from the spent fuel pool contaminated groundwater under
the facility — located on an island in Delaware Bay — at a concentration
of 15 million picocuries per liter. That's 750 times the EPA drinking
water limit. According to NRC records, the tritium readings last year
still exceeded EPA drinking water standards.
And tritium found separately in an onsite storm drain system measured 1 million picocuries per liter in April 2010.
Also last year, the operator, PSEG Nuclear, discovered 680 feet of
corroded, buried pipe that is supposed to carry cooling water to Salem
Unit 1 in an accident, according to an NRC report. Some had worn down to
a quarter of its minimum required thickness, though no leaks were
found. The piping was dug up and replaced.
The operator had not visually inspected the piping — the surest way
to find corrosion— since the reactor went on line in 1977, according to
the NRC. PSEG Nuclear was found to be in violation of NRC rules because
it hadn't even tested the piping since 1988.
Last year, the Vermont Senate was so troubled by tritium leaks as
high as 2.5 million picocuries per liter at the Vermont Yankee reactor
in southern Vermont (125 times the EPA drinking-water standard) that it
voted to block relicensing — a power that the Legislature holds in that
state.
Activists placed a bogus ad on the Web to sell Vermont Yankee,
calling it a "quaint Vermont fixer-upper from the last millennium" with
"tasty, pre-tritiated drinking water."
The gloating didn't last. In March, the NRC granted the plant a
20-year license extension, despite the state opposition. Weeks ago,
operator Entergy sued Vermont in federal court, challenging its
authority to force the plant to close.
At 41-year-old Oyster Creek in southern New Jersey, the country's
oldest operating reactor, the latest tritium troubles started in April
2009, a week after it was relicensed for 20 more years. That's when
plant workers discovered tritium by chance in about 3,000 gallons of
water that had leaked into a concrete vault housing electrical lines.
Since then, workers have found leaking tritium three more times at
concentrations up to 10.8 million picocuries per liter — 540 times the
EPA's drinking water limit — according to the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. None has been directly measured in drinking
water, but it has been found in an aquifer and in a canal discharging
into nearby Barnegat Bay, a popular spot for swimming, boating and
fishing.
An earlier leak came from a network of pipes where rust was first
discovered in 1991. Multiple holes were found, "indicating the potential
for extensive corrosion," according to an analysis released to an
environmental group by the NRC. Yet only patchwork repairs were done.
Tom Fote, who has fished in the bay near Oyster Creek, is unsettled
by the leaks. "This was a plant that was up for renewal. It was up to
them to make sure it was safe and it was not leaking anything," he said.
Added Richard Webster, an environmental lawyer who challenged
relicensing at Oyster Creek: "It's symptomatic of the plants not having a
handle on aging."
___
Exelon's piping problems
To Exelon — the country's biggest nuclear operator, with 17
units — piping problems are just a fact of life. At a meeting with
regulators in 2009, representatives of Exelon acknowledged that "100
percent verification of piping integrity is not practical," according to
a copy of its presentation.
Of course, the company could dig up the pipes and check them out. But that would be costly.
"Excavations have significant impact on plant operations," the company said.
Exelon has had some major leaks. At the company's two-reactor Dresden
site west of Chicago, tritium has leaked into the ground at up to 9
million picocuries per liter — 450 times the federal limit for drinking
water.
At least four separate problems have been discovered at the
40-year-old site since 2004, when its two reactors were awarded licenses
for 20 more years of operation. A leaking section of piping was fixed
that year, but another leak sprang nearby within two years, a government
inspection report says.
The Dresden leaks developed in systems that help cool the reactor
core in an emergency. Leaks also have contaminated offsite drinking
water wells, but below the EPA drinking water limit.
There's also been contamination of offsite drinking water wells near
the two-unit Prairie Island plant southeast of Minneapolis, then
operated by Nuclear Management Co. and now by Xcel Energy, and at
Exelon's two-unit Braidwood nuclear facility, 10 miles from Dresden. The
offsite tritium concentrations from both facilities also were below the
EPA level.
The Prairie Island leak was found in the well of a nearby home in
1989. It was traced to a canal where radioactive waste was discharged.
Braidwood has leaked more than six million gallons of tritium-laden
water in repeated leaks dating back to the 1990s — but not publicly
reported until 2005. The leaks were traced to pipes that carried
limited, monitored discharges of tritium into the river.
"They weren't properly maintained, and some of them had corrosion," said Exelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski.
Last year, Exelon, which has acknowledged violating Illinois state
groundwater standards, agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle state and
county complaints over the tritium leaks at Braidwood and nearby Dresden
and Byron sites. The NRC also sanctioned Exelon.
Tritium measuring 1,500 picocuries per liter turned up in an offsite drinking well at a home near Braidwood.
Though company and industry officials did not view any of the
Braidwood concentrations as dangerous, unnerved residents took to
bottled water and sued over feared loss of property value. A
consolidated lawsuit was dismissed, but Exelon ultimately bought some
homes so residents could leave.
Exelon refused to say how much it paid, but a search of county real
estate records shows it bought at least nine properties in the
contaminated area near Braidwood since 2006 for a total of $6.1 million.
Exelon says it has almost finished cleaning up the contamination, but the cost persists for some neighbors.
Retirees Bob and Nancy Scamen live in a two-story house within a mile
of the reactors on 18 bucolic acres they bought in 1988, when Braidwood
opened. He had worked there, and in other nuclear plants, as a
pipefitter and welder — even sometimes fixing corroded piping. For the
longest time, he felt the plants were well-managed and safe.
His feelings have changed.
An outlet from Braidwood's leaky discharge pipe 300 feet from his
property poured out three million gallons of water in 1998, according to
an NRC inspection report. The couple didn't realize the discharge was
radioactive.
The Scamens no longer intend to pass the property on to their
grandchildren for fear of hurting their health. The couple just wants
out. But the only offer so far is from a buyer who left a note on the
front door saying he'd pay the fire-sale price of $10,000.
They say Exelon has refused to buy their home because it has found tritium directly behind, but not beneath, their property.
"They say our property is not contaminated, and if they buy property
that is not contaminated, it will set a precedent, and they'll have to
buy everybody's property," said Scamen.
Their neighbors, Tom and Judy Zimmer, are also hoping for an offer
from Exelon for the land and home they built on it, spending $418,000
for both.
They had just moved into the house in November 2005, and were laying
the tile in their new foyer when two Exelon representatives appeared at
the door.
"They said, 'We're from Exelon, and we had a tritium spill. It's
nothing to worry about,'" recalls Tom Zimmer. "I didn't know what
tritium even meant."
But his wife says she understood right away that it was bad news —
and they hadn't even emptied their moving boxes yet: "I thought, 'Oh, my
God. We're not even in this place. What are we going to do?'"
They say they had an interested buyer who backed out when he learned of the tritium. No one has made an offer since.
___
Public relations effort
The NRC is certainly paying attention. How can it not when
local residents fret over every new groundwater incident? But the
agency's reports and actions suggest a preoccupation with image and
perception.
An NRC task force on tritium leaks last year dismissed the danger to
public health. Instead, its report called the leaks "a challenging issue
from the perspective of communications around environmental
protection." The task force noted ruefully that the rampant leaking had
"impacted public confidence."
For sure, the industry also is trying to stop the leaks. For several
years now, plant owners around the country have been drilling more
monitoring wells and taking a more aggressive approach in replacing old
piping when leaks are suspected or discovered.
For example, Exelon has been performing $14 million worth of work at
Oyster Creek to give easier access to 2,000 feet of tritium-carrying
piping, said site spokesman David Benson.
But such measures have yet to stop widespread leaking.
Meantime, the reactors keep getting older — 66 have been approved for
20-year extensions to their original 40-year licenses, with 16 more
extensions pending.
And, as the AP has been reporting in its ongoing series, Aging Nukes,
regulators and industry have worked in concert to loosen safety
standards to keep the plants operating.
In an initiative started last year, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko asked
his staff to examine regulations on buried piping to evaluate if
stricter standards or more inspections were needed.
The staff report, issued in June, openly acknowledged that the NRC "has not placed an emphasis on preventing" the leaks.
The authors concluded there are no significant health threats or heightened risk of accidents.
And they predicted even more leaks in the future.
Discuss: Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites
'You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected,' whistleblower says
Jim, then you should READ the whole article too. The reason they are talking about the tritium is that it is an indicator of the safety of these aging nuclear plants. We are being told that they are safe from disaster and yet, they are already leaking in ways that violate their original safety standards. The article further points out that the regulators have continually weakened those standards to allow the plants to remain in operation. I don't live in an area that would be endangered by a failure at one of these plants, by my fellow Americans do. And I'm concerned. Do we need another Fukishima to see the dangers. Either the plants are brought back to operational standards or they need to be shut down.