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SUBJECT: RELEASE OF CIRCULATING WATER CONTAINING TRITIUM USING AN UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE PATH DESCRIPTION: On June 12, 2017, Braidwood reported to the NRC in Event Notification (EN) 52802, “Offsite Notification for Discharge of Circulating Water,” that they had notified the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) of a release that contained tritium to the ground outside of the Circulating Water Blowdown building. Specifically, a portion of a normal permitted release was pumped to the ground, which was not an approved release pathway. After being notified of the release, the NRC resident inspectors responded to the Circulating Water Blowdown building and verified that the unauthorized leakage path was isolated and that an approved path was now being utilized. The NRC determined that this event posed no immediate safety or public health concern. However, the use of an unauthorized path to discharge radioactive material to the environment raises questions and concerns. The NRC resident inspectors and radiation protection specialists will continue to closely monitor this event and conduct a thorough, independent inspection. The NRC will evaluate the licensee’s assessment of the dose impact to the public, how the event occurred, and the licensee’s corrective actions. The results of all of these inspections will be documented in a future inspection report.
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