“Los Alamos National Laboratory will release radioactive vapors into the atmosphere to ventilate several barrels of tritium-tainted waste generated during the Cold War … Lab personnel will ventilate one container at a time and filter the released vapors through on-site equipment to limit the amount of tritium that is discharged into the atmosphere, according to the lab’s EPA application … Because radionuclides — such as those found in tritium — are carcinogenic, the EPA has stated the goal should be zero emissions, though the agency allows some discharge, said Charles de Saillain, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. “There is no safe level for radionuclides,” de Saillan said. “The more radionuclides you put in the atmosphere, the worse it is.”
Read the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican.