Two South Carolina Nuclear Plants Earn Clean Water Reports

Test results of water samples outside the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville and the Oconee Nuclear Station near Clemson are complete, while laboratory analysis of samples from the two remaining power plants is nearly complete.

"Tests show no radioactive materials in the groundwater coming from the plant," Chris Staton, director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control's Division of Waste Assessment and Emergency Response, said Wednesday, announcing the test results from the Oconee plant.

“The results did not show any measurable levels of tritium in any of the samples," he said. Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is an early indicator of any leakage from a nuclear facility.

Switched on in 1973, Oconee Nuclear Station was the first of three nuclear power plants designed, built and operated by Duke Energy. Located on Lake Keowee, the facility is eight miles north of Clemson, a university town with a population of about 12,000.

Oconee Nuclear generating station (Photo courtesy Duke Energy)

Duke Energy officials are continuing their effort to characterize the groundwater on the Oconee property. DHEC staff will monitor and review those test results.

"While tests showed the Oconee Nuclear Station has had no adverse affect on the local groundwater; the results did show levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials in four private wells," Staton said.

Staton said residents whose wells showed levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials or higher levels of bacteria were given information on how to reduce the intake of those materials.

Near South Carolina Electric & Gas's V.C. Summer power plant test results did show tritium in small amounts in two of the surface water samples. "The levels that were found were well below any federal requirements, including the federal drinking water standard, for tritium in surface water," Staton said.

Staton said sampling of off-site public and private well water is part of the state agency's initiative to "mirror the nuclear industry's effort to determine groundwater quality on-site at nuclear power plants throughout the country." There are 103 operating nuclear generating stations across the United States.

Over the past 18 months, the nuclear power industry has been checking groundwater through testing wells near nuclear plants.

The concern about tritium in groundwater arose in 2005 when inadvertent, unmonitored releases of radioactive liquids containing tritium from U.S. commercial nuclear power plants were discovered.

Tritium release incidents occurred at the Exelon's Braidwood and Byron and Dresden nuclear generating stations in Illinois, and at the Entergy's Indian Point Energy Center in New York.

A task force established by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviewed the releases and issued a report in October 2006 that found no impact on public health from these releases.

Still, the task force recommended that nuclear power plant operators work with local and state agencies to voluntarily report information on radioactive liquid releases that otherwise fall below NRC reporting requirements.

Stuart Richards, the NRC senior manager who led the task force said then that many of the components and systems that have leaked are built to standards less strict than those for systems needed for reactor safety. "A number of the systems involved in the releases also fall outside the NRC's requirements for regular maintenance and inspections, increasing the possibility that leaks might go undetected," he said.

In response to the NRC the task force report, in 2006 the industry began efforts to improve the management of situations involving radiological releases to groundwater.

According to a statement by the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, every company that operates a U.S. nuclear power plant has committed to inform local, state and federal authorities of an unplanned release even if it is below the NRC's threshold for reporting.

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