High Level of Tritium Found

>A groundwater sample shows the presence of tritium at 400 times the federal drinking water standard in a monitoring well 3.6 miles from the Columbia River at the Hanford nuclear reservation. An internal Hanford memo, obtained by the Tri-City Herald, says it could take the underground plume as little as three years or as many as 30 years to reach the river. More information will be available in a few weeks as to the concentration of the tritium and how serious a threat it poses to the river. A tritium concentration of 20,000 picocuries of radiation in one liter of water is the federal drinking water limit. The reading at the monitoring well was 8 million picocuries. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. (Source: Associated Press)