[ RadSafe ] Exelon Nuclear to Launch Tritium Inspection Program at Its 10 Nuclear Energy Plants

[George J. Vargo]

Cheaper to prevent and mitigate than to clean up.

George J. Vargo, Ph.D., CHP
Senior Scientist
MJW Corporation
http://www.mjwcorp.com
610-925-3377
610-925-5545 (fax)
vargo at physicist.net


Press Release Source: Exelon Nuclear 
Exelon Nuclear to Launch Tritium Inspection Program at Its 10 Nuclear Energy
Plants 
Wednesday February 15, 2:41 pm ET 
Byron Blowdown Line Inspections Begin 
WARRENVILLE, Ill., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Exelon Nuclear is
launching an initiative across its 10-station nuclear fleet to
systematically assess systems that handle tritium and take the necessary
actions to minimize the risk of inadvertent discharge of tritium to the
environment.

The assessments will take place in 2006 and will cover pipes, pumps, valves,
tanks and other pieces of equipment that carry tritiated water in and around
the plants.
The initiative is intended to significantly reduce the possibility of a
tritium release of the type that occurred in the past involving the lake
"blowdown" line at Braidwood Generating Station near Braceville, Ill. While
the Braidwood leak poses no health or safety threat to the environment or
the public, "we recognize that inadvertent releases are unacceptable and we
are committed to eliminating them," said Exelon Nuclear Chief Operating
Officer Charles Pardee.
The initiative also will establish new standards for inspections, responses
to, and remediation of tritium releases that have the potential to affect
the environment or the public.
Standards for responses to tritium releases would be modeled, in part, after
a recent response at the Dresden Generating Station, where intensified
monitoring and inspection detected a small underground tritium leak shortly
after it occurred. The small leak, which was confirmed by test data over
this past weekend, dripped at a rate of about a half-cup per minute and was
discovered within a few weeks after it began.
In this case, the suspect pipe was scheduled for replacement as part of a
repair and monitoring program undertaken at Dresden. The leak was confined
to shallow ground in a small area near the center of the plant property
alongside the plant structure and inside the protected security area. It is
not expected to approach the edges of the plant property and poses no health
or safety threat.
"Our purpose is to ensure that we have a full understanding of the health of
our systems that handle tritium, and that we have satisfied ourselves, our
stakeholders and the communities in which we are members, that our equipment
has a high degree of integrity," Pardee said. "Just as important, we want to
ensure that we are fully prepared to properly respond to a leak should one
occur."
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is found naturally in
small concentrations in most surface water. It is produced in higher
concentrations in water used in nuclear reactors and is a normal byproduct
of commercial nuclear power production. Tritium is typically discharged into
the environment under strict federal guidelines.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a safe drinking
water limit of 20,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of water.
At Dresden, tritium found in one test well near the center of the plant
property measured 500,000 picocuries per liter. Surrounding test wells 10 to
20 feet away showed tritium concentrations of 20,000 picocuries per liter or
less, indicating a small area of tritium that dissipates rapidly at the
edges. The affected area is believed to be about 30 feet across near the
center of the plant's 1,782 acres, adjacent to the plant structure and
inside the protected security area. Testing along the site boundary
confirmed that no tritium has approached the property edge.
The equipment inspection program announced today has already been initiated
at the Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Ogle County, Ill., which is
similar to Braidwood in its design. As does Braidwood, Byron uses a blowdown
line to release tritium to a nearby river -- the Rock River -- as part of
normal permitted plant operations.
Recent inspections at Byron initiated in response to the Braidwood issue
found standing water inside concrete vaults in the ground that are part of
the Byron blowdown line, which runs along a strip of company property to the
river. The vaults house valves known as "vacuum breakers" that can
malfunction and leak. Water in the vaults was tested last week and found to
contain a tritium concentration of 86,000 picocuries per liter. Additional
engineering work and environmental sampling is being undertaken this week to
determine if tritium has migrated into the ground outside the vaults. The
Byron tritium concentrations pose no health or safety threat to employees or
the public.
In addition to the inspection program, a project team comprised of Exelon
Nuclear engineers, chemists and environmental scientists, as well as expert
consultants, is looking for technological ways to reduce the amount of
tritium produced and released at all nuclear plants. The effort is separate
from the inspection program.
"We owe it to our neighbors and our employees to ensure the environmental
integrity of our plants," Pardee said. "We take great pride in the positive
environmental attributes of nuclear energy, and we must preserve and enhance
the notion that there is no cleaner, safer or more reliable way to produce
electricity."
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC - News) is one of the nation's largest
electric utilities with approximately 5.2 million customers and more than
$15 billion in annual revenues. The company has one of the industry's
largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity, with a nationwide
reach and strong positions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Exelon
distributes electricity to approximately 5.2 million customers in northern
Illinois and Pennsylvania and gas to more than 460,000 customers in the
Philadelphia area. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and trades on the NYSE
under the ticker EXC.