6 Million Gallons Of Tritium Leaked In Braidwood Illinois, Sickened Residents Not Warned

May 12, 2011 BRAIDWOOD, Ill. (CBS) --- Federal officials on Thursday held a meeting to address concerns residents have over several safety issues and a possible threat to the drinking water. The questions on the table: Is the local nuclear reactor safe, and can the company operating it be trusted? 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports.

Residents have so much fear that federal regulators overseeing Exelon's handling of Illinois nuclear plants went to Braidwood for a first-of-its-kind meeting. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't normally discus a safety investigation before it's complete, but it is now after an alarm that warns plant workers of possible trouble wasn't wired properly. Also, a flaw was discovered in the plant's backup water-supply pipe in March. "There is room for improvement, in terms of equipment reliability," Exelon's Dan Enright says.
Some residents say they are afraid because for years a leaking pipe emitted 6 million gallons of water that had a radioactive substance called tritium into the ground yet residents were not warned.

They're also concerned about what they said sounded like an explosion last summer, followed by thick white steam blanketing the neighborhood. Tom and Judy Zimmer were among the residents who wanted to hear what the NRC has now discovered and whether it will cause them further problems. "I came out here completely perfectly healthy, and now I'm not," says Judy Zimmer, who has battled kidney cancer. The Zimmer's former neighbor, Don Burns, is suffering from multiple illnesses.

"What's happening to me is a slow death," he says.

Burns and the Zimmers blame the Braidwood nuclear plant's tritium leak and fear their well water was contaminated. Exelon bought Don Burns' property, but the Zimmers, who live next door, say the company won't buy theirs and they can't sell it. The tritium leak was disclosed just as they laid the last tiles in their new dream home.

"Had I known about that I wouldn't have built the house that I did and put our life savings in it," Tom Zimmmer says.

David Kraft heads a nuclear watchdog group, NEIS, in Chicago. He says Illinois has the most reactors and radioactive waste and yet the NRC is not policing them aggressively enough. Exelon's Enright says the public health was not at risk.NRC officials say Exelon fixed the alarm problems and the back-up pipes that appeared to be flawed. The official investigation is ongoing.

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[usexoticsltd]

Fuck fear, fuck concern... embrace ANGER! PLEASE!!! You can keep having your hearings, your sit-ins, and your marches, blah blah blah....OR you can actually do something that will change the entire world. If we want to avoid tumors in your body, we must cut the cancers out of our government... but first you have to get MAD! Stop with the "shame on you" approach because it doesn't fucking affect these people. It's not that they don't care, they actually PREFER that we die a slow, expensive death!

[TheyDidThis]

This is bullshit radiation is good for you. My government said so. It is so good in fact they raised the lv of radition dose we can all have. >_<

[FutureRob]

The nuclear industry doesn't care whether they are poisoning you! Figure it out. The world had the huge disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 and no one has been willing to fork out the $2 Billion to put a dome on it so it continues to leak radiation throughout Europe and World to this day! Fukushima is no different. The EPA is in on it too. Two weeks after levels of radiation were found off the charts when the 3 nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi melted down, the EPA raised the "safe" levels.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

Looks like that deregulation the GOP loves so much, once again, doesn't play out so well when money and all that is involved. Remember that in 2012, sheeple, now that you've all been sold on the Gulf moratorium being a bad idea.. Keystone sand tars and radiation coming right up. Woot Woot.

[dooley169]

VIKTORIA MITLYN is a russian belly dancer  lol

[Shadyflwrs]

Join C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes. They are an active group protesting nuclear power. On Facebook. Many areas protesting Oct. 1

[JohnNiemsMusic]

A SMALL SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR THIS??????? HELLO????

[MotaVationSkating]

i skated there park today!

[SAPPERsurvivialism]

look at that fake ass woman...you let these fake evil people ruin your lives and murder you and your families..

[WomanforPeaceSanity]

This is beyond immoral. I am sick of the LIES that these greedy jerks tell us about how safe we all are. This is simply not true!!!!! We need to pressure our government until they close all of these nuclear plants!!!!! The NRC just works with PG&E in our area, where the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is located, to adjust safety requirements necessary to keep them in operation! A new earthquake fault was recently discovered just 300 yards off the coast by this plant! Fight back!

[Marmocet]

@Liberty4awl I think the 2011 UNSCEAR report on Chernobyl is the most comprehensive statistical study of the aftermath of the Chernobly accident to date. It puts the number of deaths reliably attributable to the radiation produced by the accident therefore 62. You can read an abstract of the study's findings at the unscear.org website.