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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Braidwood Tritium Leak

Here's a classic example of lazy reporting by a local news outlet.  It's just one side versus the other, absent of any facts regarding the risk of tritium compared to other everyday risks.


Tritium is mildly radioactive and therefore a weak carcinogen.  I doubt that 6,000,000 gallons of tritium leaked.  More likely that quantity of water leaked and it contained tritium.   Tritium is absorbed throughout the body (as opposed to concentrating in a particular organ) and is a weak beta emitter.  Since it behaves like water chemically, it is rapidly cleared from the body.

This link provides more information.

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