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

[George J. Vargo]

Wes,

True, but that depends on your schedule.  It's an economic decision whether
you clean up and terminate a license or maintain a long-term surveillance
program and lose the option of turning a site over to alternative uses
sooner.  In some cases, older NPPs (like Oyster Creek, Big Rock Point, and
Pilgrim) are sitting on some very high value real estate.

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Wesley [mailto:wesvanpelt at att.net] 
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 11:27
To: vargo at physicist.net; 'RADSAFE'
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Exelon Nuclear to Launch Tritium Inspection Program
atIts 10 Nuclear Energy Plants 


George,

Furthermore, it is even cheaper to decay than to clean up.

Best regards,
Wes
Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP
Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of George J. Vargo
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 5:26 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Exelon Nuclear to Launch Tritium Inspection Program
atIts 10 Nuclear Energy Plants 

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.

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