Illinois nuke-plant operator sued for tritium spills it tried to hide

If At First You Don't Succeed, Tritium Again

Boy, we can't wait for that "safe, clean nuclear power" President Bush is always talking about, 'cause this stuff we have now is kind of nasty. The Braidwood nuclear power plant in Illinois, owned by Exelon Corp., has been leaking millions of gallons of water laced with radioactive tritium, and working overtime to cover it up. The fallout [rim shot]: Last week, the state attorney general and the attorney for Will County filed suit against Exelon, as did a number of nearby homeowners. After people living near the plant pressured the Illinois EPA to get Exelon to test for contamination, the company finally revealed information about four tritium spills at Braidwood between 1996 and 2003; during that time, it had opposed public discussion about tritium as well as legislation to require groundwater monitoring near nuke plants. There was another spill at Braidwood early last week, and tritium leaks have also been found at two other Exelon plants. The mismanagement revelations come just as the nuke industry tries to drum up public support for a new generation of nuke plants. Awkward!

straight to the source: Chicago Sun-Times, Eric Herman, 17 Mar 2006

straight to the source: Chicago Tribune, Hal Dardick, 19 Mar 2006

straight to the source: The New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 17 Mar 2006

see also, in Grist: Bush accentuates nuke positives

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Exelon and Obama

Neither Obama nor Clinton are free of the grip of the nuclear industry and this is one of many reasons that people should vote for neither of them. But Obama has sullied his claim of not being beholden to corporate interests by taking credit for passage of a bill on radioactive waste leaks that was never PASSED...and which he drastically weakened at the behest of Exelon and other Senators in his attempt to get it out of a Senate committee and onto the Senate floor, where it never came to a vote. Incredibly, this same weak bill was introduced this past fall by Obama again! In any case it isn't just the nuclear test that Obama and Clinton fail but coal, which Obama supports as well as corn-based ethanol, an energy loser with big taxpayer subsidies. Voters need to hold both candidates' feet to the fire on the coal issue as well as nuclear and biofuels, but in the end there won't be a nanotube's difference between them on nearly all the issues. The worst part of the Exelon issue is Obama's holier than thou stand about how he represents "change" and a new beginning, and more of the usual bland but fuzzy promises. I guess he knows how naive and gullible most American voters are: that they won't recognize that both candidates are running purely symbolic campaigns - gender and race - rather than ones based on issues.

by lorna salzman at 11:51 AM on 04 Feb 2008

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