Toronto-area nuclear plant spills water

TORONTO, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Nuclear officials were monitoring water supplies east of Toronto Wednesday after a nuclear plant leaked 52,000 gallons of tritium-laced water into Lake Ontario.

Ontario Power Generation officials said samples taken continuously in and around the Darlington nuclear plant since Monday's leak were showing no hazards in the drinking water, the Toronto Star reported.

OPG spokesman Ted Gruetzner said the spill contained 0.1 per cent of the plant's allowable monthly release of tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

Gruetzner said the leak happened Monday afternoon when staff tried filling two underground emergency cooling tanks that were already full, causing the overflow onto the ground, most of which flowed into Lake Ontario, the Star said.

Local, provincial and federal authorities were monitoring the clean-up of the frozen puddles that remained and the water sampling results, he said.

Ingested tritium is absorbed into the body within two hours and can be harmful in sufficient quantities, the report said.