Two separate tritium and toxic chemical leaks admitted by Xcel Energy in past five days

NRC file photo of Prairie Island nuclear power plantXcel Energy's Prairie Island nuclear power plant has made what appears to be two admissions of separate toxic chemical and radiological spills in less than a week.

Last Thursday, an "event notification report" posted at the website of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported a tritium spill which occurred sometime between November 22nd and 29th, 2011, of up to 3,900 gallons, with a concentration of 9,430 picoCuries per Liter (pCi/L). This tritium concentration is nearly half the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Act limit of 20,000 pCi/L. Such a limit should not be regarded as "safe," but rather as "acceptably risky" according to the agency, which has done a cost (to the public's health)-benefit (to Xcel Energy's bottom line) analysis to arrive at its limit. The linear no threshold theory, affirmed by the U.S. National Academies of Science for decades, holds that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk of cancer, and those risks accumulate over a lifetime. That event notification report did not explain why Xcel Energy had waited well over two months to publicly announce this incident.

Now, in a second, "Current Event Notification Report" from the Prairie Island nuclear power plant to NRC dated Feb. 7, 2012, Xcel Energy admits:

"OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO UNPERMITTED RELEASE 

'The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) was notified of a release of 27 gallons from the condensate system. The release contained the following chemicals: 

1) 11.2 ppm of methoxy propylamine (MPA); 
2) 8.1ppm of ammonia; 
3) 11.2 ppb of hydrazine; 
4) 1.50 E-5 microCi/mL (15,000 pCi/L) of tritium. 

"The condensate was released from parts Warehouse #1 heating steam system overflow vent. Condensate return pumps failed to operate causing 27 gallons of condensate to backup and overflow onto the ground. A catch basin has been installed and the steam inlet valve has been closed preventing the addition of steam into the system. 

The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed. 

The licensee also notified the Prairie Island Dakota Indian Community.' "

These appear to be two separate incidents.

The Prairie Island Dakota Indian Community, or Mdewakanton, "those who were born of the waters," in their own language, live on an island -- and floodplain -- in the Mississippi River in Minnesota not far from the Twin Cities. Against their will and without their consent, Northern States Power (now Xcel) constructed twin pressurized water reactors on the island in 1974, and have operated them ever since. Dry cask storage for high-level radioactive waste has been installed just hundreds of yards from the nearest tribal residents, and tribal day care center. Last summer, NRC rubberstamped 20 year license extensions, allowing the two reactors to operate for 60 years, till 2034.

Tritium, a clinically proven cause of cancer, birth defects, and genetic mutations, has previously leaked at Prairie Island in past years and decades. Hydrazine is itself an extremely hazardous toxic chemical, used in nuclear power plants as an anti-corrosive solvent.

Something is suspicious about Xcel waiting over 2 months, till last Thursday, to report a tritium spill from November 2011, only to now report a second, very similar-sounding spill of tritium, hydrazine, and other toxic chemicals, which apparently occurred on Friday. A serious question is -- do residents of the Prairie Island Indian Community immediately next door drink well water? If yes, is it contaminated with radioactivity or toxic chemicals from these (or other) leaks from the nuclear power plant? At what concentrations?

NRC yet again downplays risks of tritium at latest incident at Byron 2, IL

NRC file photo of Byron nuclear plant; its Unit 2 cooling tower is not currently releasing steam, but its turbine hall is -- steam contaminated with radioactive tritiumAs reported by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) media release, Exelon Nuclear's Byron Unit 2 atomic reactor near Rockford, IL, primary electrical grid power was lost and safety and cooling systems had to run from emergency backup diesel generators when smoke was seen coming from a switchyard transformer. However, when the plant's fire brigade responded, they could not find the fire. The NRC activated its incident response center in Region III headquarters in Lisle, IL to monitor the situation.

As revealed by Exelon's "Event Report," offsite firefighters were called in, Unit 1 is still at full power, and Unit 2's cool down "steam [is] leaving via atmospheric relief valves."

An initial AP report on the incident stated: "The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public...[NRC] officials also said the release of tritium was expected...[NRC spokeswoman Viktoria] Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said...Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side...Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants."

But the linear no threshold theory, endorsed by the U.S. National Academies of Science for decades, holds that any exposure to radioactvity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk, and such risks are cumulative over a lifetime. It would be more honest for NRC officials to states that the tritium releases from Byron are "acceptably risky," in their judgment, but not "safe." After all, tritium is a potent radionuclide, a clinincally proven cause of cancer, mutations, and birth defects, and if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin, can integrate anywhere in the human body, right down to the DNA level.

A follow up article by AP quoted NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mytling as assuring that the reactor would not be re-started until a root cause of the incident was determined, and the problem fixed. However, such a promise by NRC at Davis-Besse, near Toledo, was recently broken by NRC: widespread cracking in the reactor's concrete shield building, a secondary radiological containment structure, did not stop NRC from rubberstamping the reactor's re-start on December 6th, even though the root cause, extent, and fix for the cracking have still not been determined.

The most recent update from AP reports that Exelon has announced a cause for the incident: a failed electrical insulator, which fell off.

As reported by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) media release, Exelon Nuclear's Byron Unit 2 atomic reactor near Rockford, IL, primary electrical grid power was lost and safety and cooling systems had to run from emergency backup diesel generators when smoke was seen coming from a switchyard transformer. However, when the plant's fire brigade responded, they could not find the fire. The NRC activated its incident response center in Region III headquarters in Lisle, IL to monitor the situation.

As revealed by Exelon's "Event Report," offsite firefighters were called in, Unit 1 is still at full power, and Unit 2's cool down "steam [is] leaving via atmospheric relief valves."

An initial AP report on the incident stated: "The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public...[NRC] officials also said the release of tritium was expected...[NRC spokeswoman Viktoria] Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said...Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side...Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants."

But the linear no threshold theory, endorsed by the U.S. National Academies of Science for decades, holds that any exposure to radioactvity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk, and such risks are cumulative over a lifetime. It would be more honest for NRC officials to states that the tritium releases from Byron are "acceptably risky," in their judgment, but not "safe." After all, tritium is a potent radionuclide, a clinincally proven cause of cancer, mutations, and birth defects, and if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin, can integrate anywhere in the human body, right down to the DNA level.

A follow up article by AP quoted NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mytling as assuring that the reactor would not be re-started until a root cause of the incident was determined, and the problem fixed. However, such a promise by NRC at Davis-Besse, near Toledo, was recently broken by NRC: widespread cracking in the reactor's concrete shield building, a secondary radiological containment structure, did not stop NRC from rubberstamping the reactor's re-start on December 6th, even though the root cause, extent, and fix for the cracking have still not been determined.

The most recent update from AP reports that Exelon has announced a cause for the incident: a failed electrical insulator, which fell off.

Tritium leaked from Vermont Yankee detected in Connecticut River

The Associated Press has reported that tritium leaking from the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor has been detected in the Connecticut River by State of Vermont health officials. Although Vermont Yankee's tritium leaks are taking place via unmonitored and uncontrolled pathways -- a regulatory violation -- it must be remembered that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal and state agencies across the country permit nuclear utilities to "routinely release" tritium (and other radioanuclides) into rivers (and lakes, and the ocean) on an ongoing basis, as documented in Beyond Nuclear's backgrounder "Routine Radioactivity Releases from Nuclear Power Plants in the United States: What Are the Dangers?" In addition, as the AP article mentions, the leakage of tritium at aging atomic reactors across the country has grown to epidemic proportions, a problem that Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter documented in April 2010 in his report "Leak First, Fix Later."

"Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites"

As part of its series of exposes on the nuclear power industry, and complicity by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Associated Press reported on June 21st that an epidemic of tritium leaks have occurred at a growing number of aging U.S. nuclear power plants. This confirms what Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter documented in April 2010 in his major report "Leak First, Fix Later."

NRC violates President Obama's commitment to open, transparent, accountable government by secretive communications with industry

As reported by the Associated Press, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regularly communicates secretively with the industry it is supposed to be regulating, in order to deny the public access to company documents. Michael Keegan of Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes calls it a game of "hide and seek" that keeps the public in the dark. The latest revelations of such NRC-industry secrecy have been brought to light by Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition, who busted NRC on having secretive communications with Entergy Nuclear regarding tritium leaks at its controversial Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. Such NRC secrecy flies in the face of President Obama's commitment, on his very first day in office, to have an open, transparent, and accountable administration.