Nuclear accident in Pennsylvania; Public not warned (Dave Lindorff)

APRIL 26, 2012

The Limerick Incident Wasn't an "EPPI"

Relax, It's Just a Run-of-the-Mill Nuke Spill

by DAVE LINDORFF

<http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/26/relax-its-just-a-run-of-the-mill-nuke-spill/>http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/26/relax-its-just-a-run-of-the-mill-nuke-spill/

A little over a month ago, back on March 19, at 3:00 in the morning, 
the Limerick Nuclear Power Station, which runs two aging GE nuclear 
reactors along the Schuylkill River west of Philadelphia, had an 
accident. As much as 15,000 gallons of reactor water contaminated 
with five times the official safe limit of radioactive Tritium as 
well as an unknown amount of other dangerous isotopes from the 
reactor's fission process blew off a manhole cover and ran out of a 
large pipe, flowing into a streambed and on into the river from which 
Philadelphia and a number of smaller towns draw their municipal water supplies.

No public announcement of this spill was made at the time, so the 
public in those communities had no idea that it had occurred, and 
water system operators had no opportunity to shut down their intakes 
from the river. There was no report about the spill in Philadelphia's 
two daily newspapers or on local news programs.

Only weeks later, after the regional office of the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission was finally sent an official report by Exelon, the owner 
of the plant, did a public notice get posted on the NRC's website,