Jan 14 - The News & Observer, N.C.


Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County leaked about 1,000 gallons of water contaminated with tritium, a low-level source of radiation, nuclear safety regulators reported Wednesday.

The leak, which affected about 100 cubic feet of soil, did not affect public safety, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The contaminated soil will be dried onsite to evaporate the tritium.

The Shearon Harris leak was discovered at 8:30 a.m. Sunday by a plant operator during regular inspection rounds. A pipe sprang a leak about 15 feet from the nuclear plant's water treatment building and about two miles within the plant boundary.

Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, operates nuclear plants in this state, South Carolina and Florida, and it sells electricity to 3.1 million customers.

 Tritium is a naturally occurring atom and is also a byproduct of generating electricity at nuclear power plants. The level measured in the Harris plant leak was within the safety limit established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Tritium leaks are a common enough occurrence at U.S. nuclear plants that the NRC set up a task force to study the issue several years ago.

-----

To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsobserver.com.

Copyright (c) 2010, The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services