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Radioactive isotope found near Oyster Creek nuclear power plant
The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant reported Friday it has detected elevated levels of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 in leaf and soil samples near the plant. NOTE: Cesium-137 and strontium-90 are the most dangerous radioisotopes to the environment in terms of their long-term effects. Their intermediate half-lives of about 30 years suggests that they are not only highly radioactive but that they have a long enough halflife to be around for hundreds of years. Iodine-131 may give a higher initial dose, but its short halflife of 8 days ensures that it will soon be gone. Besides its persistence and high activity, cesium-137 has the further insidious property of being mistaken for potassium by living organisms and taken up as part of the fluid electrolytes. This means that it is passed on up the food chain and reconcentrated from the environment by that process.
Oyster Creek NPP
LACEY — The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant reported Friday it has detected elevated levels of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 in leaf and soil samples near the plant.
The amounts detected were within a range typically found in the general environment and pose no health or safety threat to people or wildlife, plant officials said. The amounts found were also below levels that would require them to report their findings to federal regulators, plant officials reported in a prepared statement.
However, exposure to radiation from Cesium-137 can result in increased risk of cancer, according to information on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.
Oyster Creek's technical staff "will get to the bottom of this," said Tim Rausch, the plant's chief executive. "We will find out the source and extent of the Cesium-137 we are seeing, and we'll continue to keep the community informed as information becomes available."
The test was part of the plant's routine monthly monitoring program, said Rachelle Benson, a plant spokeswoman.
Cesium-137 in the environment comes from a variety of sources, according to the EPA. The largest single source was fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s, which dispersed and deposited Cesium-137 worldwide. However, much of the Cesium-137 from testing has now decayed.
BY JOSEPH CACCHIOLI AND ERIK LARSEN STAFF WRITERS
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061216/NEWS02/612160429/1070
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