Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow have filed a lawsuit against the Exelon Corporation for violations at the Braidwood Generating Station.

Madigan’s office alleges tritium-laced water was released from the plant into the ground water beneath the facility and in the water outside the boundary of the plant. Tritium leaked from Braidwood increases the risk of cancer for people in the area.

“Tritium exposure increases the risk of cancer, but to be very dangerous, high amounts of tritium are required,” physics professor Courtlandt L. Bohn said. “Tritium has a half-life of about 12.3 years, which means as it decays, it turns into a non-radioactive helium substance, but this process of decay emits low levels of beta radiation that is harmful to humans in larger amounts.”

“My concern lies with people who are ingesting this substance and increasing their risk [of cancer],” he said.

The Braidwood power plant in Will County is accused of violating several parts of the Environmental Protection Act, because of repeated leaks of tritiated water into the groundwater.

“Currently no tritium is being released in the environment, while we are upgrading the plant,” said Craig Nesbit, spokesman for the Exelon Corporation. “We have sent robots down the pipelines to search for any leaks and we have found nothing significant so far.”

People don’t have to be as concerned over contamination because tritium doesn’t have as big of an impact as believed, he said.

“Tritium is a naturally-occurring substance that is allowed to exist in the environment. The concern over this water is unfounded. If you put water from around the power plant next to a glass of orange juice the orange juice will have twenty-five times more tritium than our ground water. Nevertheless, our corporation is forming plans to assist with clean-up effort,” Nesbit said.

Still, the lawsuits filed by the state seek a monetary remedy as well as the implementation of measures to fix the problem.

“The state is seeking an injunction preventing tritium from continuing to leak into the environment and provide safe drinking water for the people,” said Melissa Merz, press secretary of the Illinois Attorney General’s office.

“The Environmental Protection Act provides for penalties of certain maximum amounts, either $50,000 per violation and $10,000 for each day the violation continues or $10,000 per day of violation, depending on the particular violation,” Merz said. “The state is not seeking damages, as such, in this case. In a legal sense, “damages” is an amount that reflects damage to one’s property. Instead, here we are seeking the penalty as set out by the statute.”