Nuclear Plant Spills Radioactive Wastes

Here are some excerpts from an article that appeared on MSNBC on March 7, 2006. This article is disturbing - not just the fact that the spills happened, but even more so, the fact that there is no requirement to inform the public. The intent to dump the waste into the rivers just blows my mind.

The companies don't seem to be concerned that radioactive wastes have been linked to increased rates of miscarriage and birth defects and cancer but I'm sure the people who live close to the spill areas in Illinois are concerned about their drinking water safety.

Water worries after nuclear plant spills - Environment - MSNBC.com: "Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.

The recent, belated disclosures of leaks of the fission byproduct tritium from Exelon Corp.'s Braidwood, Dresden, and Byron twin-reactor nuclear plants - one as long ago as 1996 - triggered worries among neighbors about whether it was safe to drink their water, or even stay."

Public disclosure not required Exelon and the NRC say a 1998 spill of 3 million gallons of water contaminated with tritium — a form of hydrogen that becomes radioactive water when it contacts air — did contaminate ground water that breached the Braidwood plant boundary. But the radioactivity had not risen above federal limits where people live or have their drinking water wells.

At Dresden, the 276,000-gallon leak of water with tritium is still on-site, and the spill at Byron was found inside concrete vaults along an effluent pipe.

The plants are all within 100 miles of Chicago in northern Illinois, which has the largest nuclear capacity of any U.S. state, about equal to Great Britain’s.

The spilled tritium was destined to be discharged as effluent in rivers anyway, authorities said, and they were not explicitly required to notify the public about it — a reporting loophole Illinois congressmen want closed.

To read the complete article click here.

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