Search for nuke leaks seems to turn corner in Vt.

From Business Week:

The main source of radioactive tritium leaking at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant appears to have been stopped, and levels measured in a nearby monitoring well have been dropping for weeks. But plant, state and federal officials say the story is far from over.

A 30-foot-wide alley between two buildings at Vermont's lone nuclear plant has been the focal point as engineers have used a high-pressure stream of water to dig around underground pipes and expose a concrete pipe tunnel. The result now is a trench, 15 to 17 feet deep and crowded with pipes.

The tool that produces that high-pressure water stream is called a hydro-excavator.

"Because of the sensitivity of buried pipes and not disrupting any of the pipes, some of which include fuel oil lines, air supply lines, delicate piping that's underground," Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said as he leaned on a railing and gazed down into the hole.

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