Oyster Creek will soon begin pumping 25 to 50 gallons per minute from the Cape May and Cohansey aquifers to remove water contaminated with the radioactive material tritium. The spill at Oyster Creek - the nation's oldest, continuously operating nuclear plant - measured as high as 6 million picocuries in some monitoring wells, about 300 times the level the federal Environmental Protection Agency considers unsafe for drinking water. Tritium occurs naturally at 10 picocuries per liter. Tritium leaks have been identified in 33 of the nation's 104 nuclear power plants and escaped into the groundwater at 27 of them, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency in charge of power plants. Beyond Nuclear quoted. Press of Atlantic City.