“1-2 million picocuries per liter”

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Per the Times Argus:

Extraordinarily high levels of radioactive water was discovered in a trench at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant this week, lawmakers revealed Wednesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, told reporters that surface water discovered in a trench at the site of the Vernon nuclear reactor has tested positive for tritium, with levels ranging from 1-2 million picocuries per liter.

That’s about 100 times the amount of the radioactive isotope discovered late last year in groundwater surrounding Vermont Yankee.

What’s recognized as a “safe” level of Tritium?

20,000.

Where is all this excess radiation coming from?

We.  Don’t.  Know.

Don’t you feel better?

(much more detailed update from Maggie after the fold)

Update by Maggie

From the Brattleboro Reformer

100 gallons of tritium-laced water found at Vermont Yankee

According to Bob Audette at the Brattleboro Reformer,

Entergy told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this afternoon that it had found about 100 gallons of free-standing water in a room in the radioactive waste building at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.

When it was tested, said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, the concentration of tritium was about 2 million picocuries per liter.

According to Audette,

While Yankee was pumping the water out of the rad-waste building, about 60 more gallons washed into the room. The rad-waste building is between two wells that have tested positive for tritium.

“It is too early to determine if the rad-waste building might be the source of the groundwater contamination,” said Sheehan. “The company will have to investigate that further.”

Ironically most of the Vermont Press has not been given the complete story.  One journalist informed me that Department of Health State Radiological Health Chief Bill Irwin and members of the DPS have known about the increased leakage and additional site contamination for several days, all the while attempting to tell the press that what leakage that is out there is meaningless and of no threat to public health and safety.

You may also see a longer story here in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin…

Of course the New York Times would jump on this story because New Yorkers are dealing with their own leaking Entergy nuke saga at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant less than 40 miles outside New York City.

As part of the NRC’s investigation into the contaminated wells and now the water in the rad-waste building, it is sending a health physicist to the plant next week to review the company’s latest plans and actions to deal with the tritium, said Sheehan.

7 thoughts on ““1-2 million picocuries per liter””

  1. Makes me tingle all over…like the news in this AM’s paper that the levels are rising in the test pools!  Um…do we really need to say it again: Don’t even think about relicensing this glow-worm!

  2. Tonight on WCAX, Arnie Gundersen gave an update on VY.  And he said that in Europe only 2,000 ppl was allowed [US is at 20,000 or so ppl]

    Is that right, Maggie?

  3. On Monday, Margaret Harrington from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)interviewed Representative Suzi Wizowaty and me on CCTV, Channel 17 in Burlington.  The show is entitled, “Hazards of Entergy Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant”.  Watch the clip above to learn more about tritium and the ongoing issues at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.

    According to the WILPF website,

    Margaret Harrington Tamulonis (Burlington, VT Branch) joined WILPF in Burlington, Vermont in February, 2008 and immediately made her focus nuclear disarmament. She contacted Carol Urner and joined the DISARM! Leadership Committee in March. Burlington WILPF initiated the petition to Congress for a national Nuclear Disarmament Day to be observed on August 6. Margaret has worked as a writer, teacher, and theater professional and joined the Peace Movement in the mid-1960s working with Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker in NYC. She organized the northern Vermont Enosburg Falls Peace Convention on March 25, 2006 and is currently most interested in communicating DISARM efforts to the general public. She has a TV program in Burlington where she interviews leaders like Helen Caldicott in efforts to ensure a Nuclear Free Future. Margaret attended ANA D.C. lobby days in April. She can be reached at nffchairs@wilpf.org

    Margaret is a great host.  She has a thorough knowledge of the subject manner and asks probing and insightful questions.  I feel honored to have been invited on her show where Margaret has also hosted Dr. Helen Caldicott, noted member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and it is amazing to be in discussions with someone like Representative Suzi Wizowaty who discussed the problems with Vermont Yankee and recommended against its relicensing during her 2008 legislative campaign.

    Suzi Wizowaty is an author and now state rep from Burlington’s south end. She is a Democrat who represents the Chittenden-3-5 district in Burlington.

    According to Champlain College,

    Suzi Wizowaty is the author of two novels: A Tour of Evil (Philomel, 2005) and The Round Barn (Hardscrabble Books, University Press of New England, 2002), which was named a BookSense 76 pick. She has won a Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award for an earlier novel for children as well as grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the NJ Arts Council. She has taught at Goddard, Trinity, St. Michael’s and Champlain colleges, around the edges of regular jobs as a reporter, editor, bookseller, librarian, teacher and non-profit administrator. Now she teaches and writes full-time, as well as leading book discussions in hospitals, libraries and jails. She has a BA cum laude from Princeton University and an MA from Goddard College.

  4. I remember a Three Stooges film in which Larry,Moe and Curly are doing a plumbing job.To fix a small leak,they rapidly double and triple the size of the leak as they attach more and more pipes from the leak into a large circular frame of spouting water pipes that surrounds them.

    Vermont Yankee,yesterday discovered 150 gallons of radioactive water in a storage room.

    This water seems to be contained in this one room,” said Sheehan, who stressed that the NRC does not believe it has leaked into the nearby groundwater. He said when Entergy officials flushed the water from the room – about 100 gallons of it – more came rushing back in.

    http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

     

  5. Further down in the Times Argus article, there’s the following reaction from The People’s Guardian:

    David O’Brien, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, said the discovery of this large amount of contaminated water was expected as Entergy tries to find the source of the leak. He said it could mean that they are getting closer to its origin.

    “I’m not surprised by this finding,” he said Wednesday evening. “This is what you would expect when you get close to the source of the leak.”

    Oh, so this is good news. Glad to hear it, Dave. What exactly would it take to surprise you, if a roomful of radioactive water doesn’t do the trick?

    Seriously, this is in indication that the Douglas Administration remains committed to defending and promoting ENVY no matter what — in spite of their seemingly tough statements about the underground piping.  

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