NRC to review nuclear plant tritium monitoring

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Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will arrive this week to review Vermont Yankee’s groundwater testing program after a tritium leak was found at the plant.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant also is stepping up its sampling program. Plant spokesman Rob Williams says new well drilling at the Vernon reactor began this weekend – to be followed within days by expanded testing.

Plant officials say there’s no threat to the public health from the radioactive tritium found in a groundwater monitoring well and a concrete enclosure containing underground pipes.

Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, has been linked in high amounts to cancer, birth defects and genetic mutations.

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