The trouble with tritium. What does it have to do with the Pilgrim Power Station? Water sampling at Pilgrim and Markey's expert panel on the horizon, officials say
The trouble with tritium. What does it have to do with the Pilgrim Power Station?
Sarah carlon Cape Cod Times
Community members, organizers and the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel packed into Plymouth Town Hall on Monday to hear the latest about the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station's decommissioning.
The routine meeting turned tense, however, when scientist Dr. James Conca, invited by Holtec, the company in charge of decommissioning the plant, gave a presentation on the environmental impacts of tritium, a common by-product found in nuclear waste — including one million gallons of wastewater still present at the Pilgrim power plant. The water was previously used to cool the reactor and spent fuel rods that were stored in the water.
"After 50 years of field and laboratory experiments, and environmental and biological monitoring, the scientific community has never observed any humans or organisms to be harmed by tritium at any level from any source," he said.
Conca said the concentration of tritium needed to create any harm to health would have to be millions of times higher than the levels produced by nuclear reactors.
His presentation drew criticism from attendees, some of whom held up signs that read "PROPAGANDA!" pointed at the scientist.
"This isn't propaganda, give me a break" Conca said. "This is just science."
More news:Holtec dumping of radioactive water at NJ plant spurs questions about Pilgrim's future
"Tritium is naturally occurring, but it can also be produced in nuclear reactors through a couple of different mechanisms," said Dr. Kathryn Higley, professor and interim director of Oregon State University's Center for Qualitative Life Sciences. "It is a component of the waste from the operation of reactors."
Higley, who specializes in the study of radionuclides in the environment, said in a telephone interview, the real challenge with tritium is as a radioactive form of hydrogen, wherever there is hydrogen in the environment — such as in water or most organic materials — tritium can incorporate there, too.
"It's annoying because it's like hydrogen, it’s a challenge to contain and to manage. It’s a nuisance radionuclide," she said.
Nuclear organizers on the South Shore and Cape Cod have voiced concerns for months about the tritium present in the wastewater at Pilgrim.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tritiated water, the form tritium virtually always takes in nuclear wastewater because of its closeness to hydrogen, cannot be filtered out like other radionuclides or chemical contaminants.
If the tritiated water from Pilgrim is released into the bay and bioaccumulates up the food chain — as many organizers are concerned it will — it could pose a threat to anyone consuming seafood or shellfish caught in the bay.
Even if tritiated water poses no health risks, activists have pointed out its very presence could tarnish the reputation of seafood from Cape Cod Bay, a potentially devastating outcome for fishermen who rely on the bay for their livelihood.
Is tritium harmful?
Radioactive elements cause harm because they emit particles of energy, which can damage cells and potentially raise the risk of cancer, Higley said.
Due to the constant presence of radiation in the environment, however, cells in all kinds of living organisms have evolved to automatically repair damage from these energy particles.
Tritium in particular emits beta particles, which are relatively weak compared to other kinds of radiation, Higley said.
Holtec's plans for Cape Cod Boay:All fifteen Cape towns say 'no' to Holtec's plans for the bay
According to the Health Physics Society, beta particles cannot penetrate the outer layer of skin on a human, making ingestion or inhalation the main pathways humans exposed to tritium.
The danger with tritium, as with any other radionuclide, is if there is too much exposure, cells can't keep up with repairing damage from the radiation, which is where a potential increase in risk of cancer comes into play, Higley said.
"If you have too much damage, too high a concentration, that sets the stage for problems," she said. "The impact is dependent on how much of that tritium is present."
To see an impact, however, there would have to be a very high amount of tritium released into the environment and then absorbed by humans, far higher than what is allowed through regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she said.
"Tritium does not bioaccumulate or bioconcentrate," she said. "If you look pretty hard with sophisticated equipment, you’re going to find it (in the environment) but it doesn’t relate to the potential risk."
In order to discharge Pilgrim's wastewater in line with standards set by regulatory agencies, Holtec would have to treat the water for any number of chemical and radiological contaminants, then dilute it and release it over time.
"I don't know explicit process for each plant, but I do know there are concentration limits for tritium," Higley said. "If they have a highly concentrated amount, they can’t just dump it all at once. There are a lot of eyes on these sort of activities, and a lot of regulations."
Questions, concerns, distrust remains
Despite the comprehensive testing the wastewater at Pilgrim will undergo, the public remains steadfast: community response has been and remains simple: no dumping of any kind into Cape Cod Bay.
Monday's meeting focused heavily on the science behind dumping, but longtime nuclear activist, lawyer and member of watchdog group Pilgrim Watch Jim Lampert reminded the panel about the illegality of discharging nuclear wastewater into the bay.
If they decide to discharge the treated wastewater, he said, it will still contain tritium, which is a violation of the Ocean Sanctuaries Act.
"You cannot discharge any commercial or industrial waste into any protected ocean sanctuary," Lampert said. "It's very clear there's going to be an awful lot of tritium, which is Pilgrim's radioactive waste, discharged into Cape Cod Bay. What they're doing is illegal."
"It’s scary stuff," Higley said of discussions around nuclear waste. "But it’s a worthwhile conversation, and there are a lot of eyes on this. I’ve never met a member of the U.S. EPA that turns their back on people at risk. Holtec cannot violate the law without serious consequences. It (decommissioning) has to be managed."
Water sampling at Pilgrim and Markey's expert panel on the horizon, officials say
Published Oct 2, 2022
PLYMOUTH — Sampling of the one million gallons of contaminated water still left at the now-closed Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will begin soon, officials said at a Sep. 26 Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
"We must hold Holtec accountable to the commitments to listen to our stakeholders, and we must protect against any unsafe release of this water," Jim Cantwell, state director for U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, read from a statement from the senator. "The public must have a say in how Holtec's waste is disposed, and it is imperative the public be fully informed about both the contents of that waste and the potential impacts of its disposal."
At a field subcommittee hearing in May hosted by Markey about the plans for Pilgrim's wastewater, Holtec CEO and President Kris Singh agreed to halt any plans of discharging the water into Cape Cod Bay until third-party experts agreed upon by both sides could weigh in on the contents of the water.
From the archives:Holtec dumping of radioactive water at NJ plant spurs questions about Pilgrim's future
Since the hearing, Markey's office has been identifying possible experts, Cantwell told the citizens panel on Monday.
These experts will include people with experience in radio chemistry, physical oceanography and radiological health services, he said.
Markey's office has also secured a promise from Holtec that the Department of Public Health will be allowed to be at the sampling of the wastewater, and conduct their own testing of the water.
Cantwell said they are still finalizing the list of experts, but should have more information in the coming weeks.
Holtec will present independent results at next meeting
Holtec Senior Compliance Manager David Noyes said at Monday's meeting the company will also provide its own wastewater data at the next panel session on Nov. 28.
That will include historical data of radionuclides in the treated wastewater from past discharges when the plant was still active, and live data from recent samples searching for any illegal contaminants outlined by the EPA.
These are not the tests Holtec agreed to in May, Noyes told the panel, but data it will provide independently, alongside those tests.
From the archives:All 15 Cape towns say 'no' to Holtec's plans for the bay
Noyes also said Holtec is prepared to schedule a time for the Department of Public Health to take wastewater samples.
At the meeting, Jack Priest from the radiation control program at the Department of Public Health and Seth Pickering from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection said they would contact Holtec to set up a time to collect the samples.
The exact contents of Pilgrim's wastewater have been under scrutiny by nuclear organizers, who voiced concerns and criticisms at Monday's meeting about the presence of contaminants in the water even after it is treated — tritium in particular.
The next Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel will take place on Nov. 28 at Plymouth Town Hall.
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