Vermont’s top health official says it’s reasonable to assume a radioactive substance leaking from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is reaching the Connecticut River.
Dr. Wendy Davis, commissioner of the state Department of Health, told The Associated Press that the volume and direction of flow of tritium-tainted groundwater leads to the conclusion that it’s reaching the river.
Previous statements from the Health Department had indicated the water containing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that has been linked to cancer when ingested in large amounts, was believed to be flowing toward or to the river. But they also said it was diluted by uncontaminated river water, so that lab instruments were not detecting it in samples of river water.
Davis said Tuesday that continued to be the case because of the river’s rapid, heavy flow.
“There’s no indication at the moment with respect to either the river or all the other places we’re monitoring that suggest people need to take any different actions, to do anything differently,” Davis said.
Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said plant officials agreed with Davis’ assessment that tritium is reaching the river.
The Connecticut River is a major New England waterway, forming the border between Vermont and New Hampshire for most of its northern length and flowing south through Massachusetts and Connecticut to Long Island Sound.
Davis said she had been in touch frequently with her counterparts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to update them on conditions at Vermont Yankee since tritium was first reported in a groundwater monitoring well at the Vernon reactor Jan. 7. The plant is in Vermont’s southeast corner, within sight of New Hampshire and about 3.5 miles from the Massachusetts line. Its emergency evacuation zone extends into both states.
She said she was also briefing her colleagues on the situation during weekly conference calls with health commissioners from all six New England states, sometimes joined by New York and New Jersey. (AP)
