Low-level radioactive water found near Shearon Harris nuclear plant

Nuclear safety regulators said today that 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.
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 Sunday at 8:30 a.m. by a plant operator during regular inspection rounds. A pipe sprung a leak about 15 feet from the nuclear plant's water treatment building, and about 2 miles within the plant boundary.
Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, operates nuclear plants in this state, South Carolina and in Florida and sells electricity to 3.1 million customers in those three states.
Tritium is a naturally occurring atom and is also a byproduct of generating electricity at nuclear power plants. It loses half its radiation every 12.3 years.
The level measured in the Shearon Harris leak was 5,590 picocuries per liter and within the safety limit established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The federal drinking water standard is 20,000 picocuries per liter.
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. 
Last year, another tritium leak at Shearon Harris measured at about half the tritium levels in Sunday's leak. 
Tritium leaks at the Brunswick nuclear plant near Wilmington detected in 2007 measured in levels as high as 880,000 picocuries per liter, well above the federal safety limit. 
That prompted plant officials to notify nearby residents and take offsite water samples from creeks, marshes and the Cape Fear River, but those samples didn't show elevated levels of tritium.
The NRC said the Brunswick tritium leaks were of a very low safety significance.