State officials say more radioactive tritium has been found at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant _ at much higher levels than were found in a test well nearly two weeks ago.
William Irwin, the state’s radiological health chief, says readings of 1 million to 2 million picocuries per liter of the isotope were found in a concrete trench several hundred feet from the test well where tritium was reported on Jan. 7.
He says it’s not known whether the latest finding could have been caused by the same leak that caused the earlier one.
Meanwhile, state officials are calling for the state Health Department to conduct its own investigation and not rely on information from Vermont Yankee.