No details were given on radiation exposure and release into the environment. She also called for negotiations in order to halt production of weapons grade nuclear material. A reactor fuel storage pool at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been leaking radioactive tritium into ground water since 1985, twice as long as previously estimated, the lab said. The laboratory maintains that the leak does not threaten Long Island's drinking water. Up to 14 gallons of contaminated water may be leaking daily from a 68,000-gallon pool used to store spent reactor fuel, said a Brookhaven report issued Monday.
Tests are under way to determine how far tritium-contaminated water extends from the lab.
It said tritium emitting 1,000 picocuries of radiation that was found in a well near the reactor building in 1985 alsomay have come from the storage pool. Officials had concluded at the time that the tritium was coming from a sewer leak. Brookhaven, on eastern Long Island, is a U.S. Department of Energy research facility operated by a nonprofit organization formed by nine universities. Officials of the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant want to convince the nuclear Regulatory Commission to put the station from its watch-list. The station is planned to reopen in midsummer.