Massachusetts plant reports tritium contamination

Radioactive tritium was found in levels three times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommend safe drinking water thresholds in a monitoring well near Massachusetts’ Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, according to a report from the Cape Cod Bay Watch.

Representatives from Entergy, the company that owns the power plant, said they found 69,000 pCi/L of tritium in a monitoring well near one of the plants catch basins.

The basin collects radioactive water from the plant. The leak may have been caused by break in a neutralizing sump discharge line which feeds into the catch basin.

The EPA recommends no more than 20,000 pCi/L of tritium be in drinking water.  Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen, which can accumulate over time in the body if ingested.