Power company says that the tritium leak at the Dresden Nuclear Power plant, 100 miles from Chicago, is not a problem ... [if you live in Europe!]

Above: Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant, Illinois, USA

Courtesy of FARK

Officials at US power company, Exelon, are saying not to worry about the latest tritium leak at the Dresden Nuclear Power plant because it stayed in the middle of their property.

Routine monitoring late last week at the plant revealed 3.2 million picocuries per liter of water in one monitoring well and in nearby storm drains, as well as a concrete vault located near an outside water storage tank.

Tritium is a radioactive hydrogen isotope that is a by product of nuclear reactors producing electricity. Elevated levels of tritium are believed to cause cancer. The Illinois EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] has deemed 20,000 picocuries per liter of water as safe. A picocurie is one-trillionth of a curie - a measurement of radiological doses.

"While this is not a public or employee safety issue, we are committed to being forthright, clear and concise with our neighbors about the status of our plant operations," said Tim Hanley, Dresden site vice president.

Station experts are working to determine the source and are performing additional sampling to verify that the tritium is contained to the areas where it was found and to take steps no minimize the impact.

The plant has a monitoring system in place which includes 71 on-site wells that never contained a high amount of tritium until last week.

"Our monitoring program functioned as designed alerting us to the presence of tritium early so that we can address this issue quickly and effectively," Hanley said.

[Why do these guys always talk so much bullshit? Because the general public is so gullible.]

Exelon officials said that state and federal authorities were notified of the leak over the weekend. Notification is now mandatory in the wake of learning that millions of gallons of tritiated water had leaked out of the Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Illinois for more than 10 years.

Exelon is currently being sued by residents of Will County and by the state's attorney. The lawsuit could potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars.