USA Today -Dominion Virginia Power is seeking the source of leaking radioactivity at its North Anna nuclear power plant after an elevated level of tritium was detected in groundwater.
Times Dispatch - Dominion Virginia Power has found elevated levels of a weak form of radioactivity in a sampling well at its North Anna nuclear power station.
The radiation poses no hazard to the public, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
On Friday, the Richmond-based utility was notified by its laboratory contractor that water taken from an on-site groundwater sampling point contained an unusually high level of tritium — more than twice the EPA’s standard for drinking water.
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“There is no evidence that the increased concentration of tritium we sampled was related to the earthquake” on Aug. 23, which shut down the plant for nearly three months, the company told the NRC on Tuesday. “Monitoring of the sample points both inside and outside the protected area and a post-seismic hydrogeological evaluation show this to be the case.”
While it may be tempting to assume that earth quake was the cause of the tritium leak – AP noted in a report Friday that 75 percent of all U.S. nuclear sites have leaked radioactive tritium.
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http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2012/feb/22/tdmain01-elevated-levels-of-a-weak-form-of-radioac-ar-1706167/