Duke Energy said tritiated water leaked from its Catawba nuclear plant on Wednesday, reporting the event to regulators but emphasizing tritium levels were within safe limits.
More than 100 gallons leaked from a fiberglass discharge pipe from a unit 2 turbine building sump, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission early Wednesday morning. At that point, crews were installing a temporary sump pump in the turbine building to isolate the leak. The report put the tritium concentration at 8.964 E-6 uCi/mL.
In a release, Duke noted that level stands at less than half the Environmental Protection Agency's limit for drinking water.
"Once we found the water, we immediately took action to isolate the pipe, and repair plans are in progress," Catawba Site Vice President Kelvin Henderson said in a release. "All water is contained at the Catawba site and is not in close proximity to any drinking water wells."
Duke owns the plant near Charlotte, N.C., with the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1, the North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. and the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency. According to the NRC, Catawba operates two Westinghouse reactors first licensed in the mid-1980s.