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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller · Soldier’s wife sues utility over gas cutoff · Funeral for Marine killed in Iraq is not disturbed by anti-gay protesters, who are kept at a distance from military rites by a new law · The bizarre fight over who wrote an anti-Peotone e-mail still rages on · Another airport-related story: Chicago-to-Marion Air Service Take-Off Delayed · Headline: Exelon begins work to clean up tritium leaks… Lede: Exelon Corp. hosted their third Community Information Night on Tuesday to discuss the recently approved plan to clean up the tritium spills at the Braidwood Nuclear Plant. The Tuesday meeting was held to comply with a recent court order to make the public more aware of what is happening at the power plant. · Governor creates penalty for failing to report abuse · Preschool for all? · Drive-in gets thumbs-down · For the first time in a long time, I’m actually beginning to feel a little sorry for Cub fans. It’s not that they deserve better, because they don’t care whether their team wins or not. It’s just that the team is so bad this year that making fun of their fans feels like picking on the hopelessly and cluelessly downtrodden. · And, finally, this heartbreaking story from the Post-Dispatch: At a private group home in central Illinois, bath time turned violent on Jan. 24, 2003.
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- Reddbyrd - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 6:33 am:
Rich:
Hang tough. Never show emotion for the blues brothers on the North Side. Just hope the Trib declares the team a “non core asset” and that someone who cares about baseball will takeover.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:04 am:
…they don’t care whether their team wins or not…
…hopelessly and cluelessly downtrodden…
Ah, Rich. You are the voice of the voiceless.
- Greg - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 10:28 am:
Rich, this is the time to pile on. Look, if Cubs were winning, they’d never shut up.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:04 am:
It’s unfortunate Exelon isn’t upgrading the Braidwood reactor to be like the nearby LaSalle reactor.
LaSalle reportedly upgraded to a closed loop system for water with high concentrations of radioactive tritium, an ingredient for atomic weapons that should probably be better protected from nefarious collection near outlet pipes.
Such an upgrade would have prevented spilling millions of gallons of tritium and stopped dumping the radioactive waste into the Kankakee River, where it flows downstream and into the drinking water supplies of other towns.
Unfortunately, it takes 12 years for tritium to release half its radioactive energy.
Meanwhile the plants still legally emit radioactive particles into the air without the awareness of nearly all citizens living downwind (Chicago from LaSalle, Dresdan, and Braidwood during the summer) and the new law doesn’t require any reporting for air releases.
FYI, smoking puts about three to five times more radiation in your lungs than you get all year from normal exposure, including annual x-rays. That’s probably a key reason why smoking causes cancer.
If you want to stop smoking, keep trying because research shows success usually requires multiple attempts, and each one gets you a little closer.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 11:25 am:
The new nuclear emissions law also does nothing to inform nearby local governments and at-risk citizens.
This winter, the LaSalle reactor had a serious incident where a control rod failed to insert in the middle of the night, putting the plant in a high level hazard condition.
Reportedly, if a second rod had failed it would have been a national emergency to prevent serious problems.
Meanwhile, nearby and downwind local officials knew nothing about the serious problem for several hours afterwards. Citizens slept the entire night without any clue they might want to gather up evacuation supplies.
This was not a drill, but we got very lucky this time because we were completely unprepared to handle a real emergency.
If local emergency officials and political leaders don’t know what is happening, who would sound the warning sirens to alert citizens they need to turn on a radio and find out what to do (or evacuate upwind without ingesting anything, reducing exposure to radioactive air, and scrubbing down as soon as safely clear…if you know what you’re doing)?