Word: tritium
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...pollution because, unlike fossil fuels, it does not emit greenhouse gases. Yet in order to enrich the uranium needed to produce nuclear energy, huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the environment. Furthermore, even during normal operation, power plants emit radioactive particles, including gases such as krypton, xenon, tritium, and argon, all of which can cause genetic diseases and gene mutations, not to mention iodine-131 (which causes thyroid cancer), strontium-90 (which causes leukemia and bone cancer), and cesium-137 (which causes muscle cancer). Then, of course, there is plutonium-239, which is so toxic that just...
...residents of Chicago and its outlying areas, the recent news that three of energy powerhouse Exelon's nuclear plants in Illinois have, on several occasions, leaked the radioactive material tritium has been scary enough. Then there was this past weekend's false alarm at another of Exelon's plants, which, while not related, set off the nation's first "site-area emergency" at a U.S. nuclear facility in 15 years. The fact that upon further review, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that the incidents were much ado about nothing with "no release of radioactivity... no danger to the public...
...more worrisome, they said, was the fact that the company and federal officials only recently disclosed publicly that, in fact, there had been eight leaks and spills going back 10 years. Most occurred in pipes that are supposed to safely dispose of waste but on some occasions leaked tritium into the ground water. One spill, in 1998 at the company's Braidwood generating plant, dumped some 3 million gallons of water that was still in the ground eight years later, albeit in small doses...
...public knew nothing of it. In fact, it appears the company didn't know the full extent until a year ago when a worried state worker alerted them to the fact that tritium may be in the water near one of the plants. That set off a round of testing that late last year showed plant officials had severely blundered in both reporting the incident and cleaning...
...Clemson, 90 miles away. Then, shortly after midnight, several more were reported flying over the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility that occupies more than 360 sq. mi. along the border of South Carolina and Georgia. Nuclear waste is disposed of there, and weapons are restocked with tritium. Authorities closed down a highway that runs through the base, until the FBI gave the all clear. But Bryant and his frightened neighbors still don't know what happened that night. Utility-industry analysts say Catawba was subject to a security test, but the feds won't confirm anything...