nuclear-news

Radioactive water leaked yet again from nuclear plant

leaks like the one at Brunswick reflect a wider issue in the industry.

Brunswick nuclear plant leaks contaminated water | The American Independent, By Ned Barnett | 12.13.10, Progress Energy is working to repair a leak that released water with elevated levels of radioactive tritium onto the basement of the plant’s emergency generator building, the utility said Monday.The utility detected the leak last Thursday when water pooled on the building’s concrete floor and reported it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Progress spokesman Mike Hughes said……..

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, used in research, fusion reactors and neutron generators. It is naturally occurring, but can be hazardous if inhaled or ingested. The Cape Fear River provides Brunswick County most of its drinking water, but some water is drawn from an aquifer that is over 150 feet deep.

The Brunswick plant was the first nuclear power plant built in North Carolina, beginning operation in 1975. It has had previous problems with tritium contaminated water leaks. Ledford said the monitoring wells were installed in 2007 to guard against leaking water leaving the plant site.

Jim Warren of the North Carolina clean energy group, NC Warn, said leaks like the one at Brunswick reflect a wider issue in the industry.

“It’s becoming a very big problem nationally  Most plants now have found leakage, some that has impaired drinking wells,” he said.

Warren called the leaks, “A big black eye for the industry that has remained mostly under the national radar.”

Brunswick nuclear plant leaks contaminated water | The American Independent

December 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water