Mar. 19--Exelon officials took several steps that for years kept the public in the dark about radioactive tritium spills at a Will County nuclear power plant and the groundwater contamination the spills caused, public records obtained by the Tribune show.

Recent company disclosures about four tritium spills between 1996 and 2003 at Braidwood Generating Station came only after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency pressured Exelon Nuclear to test for contamination, following prodding from the plant's neighbors.

The disclosures of spills triggered lawsuits last week by the Will County state's attorney, the Illinois attorney general and neighbors of the plant accusing the company of not being forthcoming.

The public documents show Exelon Nuclear officials in 2001 and 2002 opposed public discussion of tritium and the release of documents about tritium spills. They also opposed legislation to mandate groundwater monitoring at nuclear plants and a permit review that led to discovery of the contamination, the records show.

"It's apparent that this all points to obfuscation of radioactive material releases at the Braidwood plant," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear group that has obtained many of the records independently.

Thomas O'Neill, vice president of regulatory and legal affairs at Exelon Nuclear, chafed at such claims.

"When you are talking about extending the life of your plant and possibly building new nuclear plants and looking at the whole environment, it absolutely makes no sense why anyone in this company, the company as a whole, would do anything but be open, honest, candid, forthright and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations," O'Neill said.

The chain of events that led to the belated disclosures started with plant neighbor Bob Keca. On Nov. 6, 2000, he noticed an expanding pool of water covering Exelon property that surrounds his home on three sides.

It had seeped under his fence and filled a ditch in front of his house, said Keca, who called the Illinois EPA and Exelon.

Exelon officials told Keca there was "nothing to be worried about from a health and safety perspective, but [the water] does have traces of radioactivity in it," plant spokesman Neal Miller said this month. Recent tests show Keca's well is not contaminated, he added.

But Keca, after learning specifics about the contamination in recent months, is fearful for the health of his family. He remembers hearing from Miller in 2000 that there was nothing to worry about.

"We drank the water," Keca recently told local officials, referring to water from the shallow well at his home. "We bathed in the water. We swam in the water. They never told us."

Tritium, a byproduct of nuclear generation, can enter the body through ingestion, absorption or inhalation. Exposure can increase the risk of cancer, birth defects and genetic damage. State health and regulatory agency officials have said the contamination near Braidwood poses no threat to public health, but some critics of federal tritium standards debate that.

Exelon estimated 3 million gallons of water containing tritium spilled in 2000. Exelon did quickly report the spill to the Illinois EPA and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Exelon documents indicate the company also notified the Will County Emergency Services Disaster Agency director and Reed Township highway commissioner.

Like Keca, the local officials were told there was no health risk, despite traces of radioactivity, Miller said.

Exelon says most of the contamination in the water came from another 3 million-gallon spill in 1998, because nothing was done to clean up that spill. ComEd, which is now part of Exelon, built and ran the Braidwood plant until late 2000. Additional spills in 1996 and 2003 were smaller.

All the spills resulted from malfunctioning valves on an underground pipe, called a blowdown line, that carries water with tritium to the Kankakee River, where it is legally dumped.

After a leak of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel at the plant, also in 2000, officials from the town of Godley requested an Illinois EPA hearing on Exelon's blowdown-line permit by objecting to its renewal.

In January 2001, Exelon Nuclear senior environmental analyst John Petro e-mailed to colleagues: "Our ultimate goal must be to get the village to [withdraw] their objection to the renewal of Braidwood's [blowdown-line permit]."

Illinois EPA officials held the hearing in early 2005. As part of its review, the agency learned about elevated tritium levels in a ditch between the plant and Godley. It told Exelon to determine the extent of groundwater contamination, which led to the recent spill disclosures.

Godley officials first pressed the Illinois EPA to test for tritium after they learned limited details about the 2000 tritium spill through a lawsuit the Godley Park District filed in April 2001 regarding the fuel spill.

"Without the diligence of Exelon's neighbors in Will County, these dangerous leaks might still be a secret," Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said.

As part of its suit, the Park District asked for detailed information about tritium spills at Braidwood, but Exelon won an order blocking the request.

Meanwhile, then-state Rep. Mary K. O'Brien, a Coal City Democrat who is now an Illinois Appellate Court judge, in 2001 introduced a bill to force nuclear facilities to monitor groundwater for radioactive releases.

An Exelon lobbying document from the time stated: "The likelihood of groundwater contamination from ComEd/Exelon facilities is nil; the likelihood does not justify the millions of dollars of cost." Exelon's opposition killed the bill, O'Brien said.

Also in 2001, as Exelon prepared for a public forum in Godley on the fuel spill, Petro referred in an e-mail to an expected Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety presence there.

"They may be asked to talk about the blowdown line failure just east of the plant and the plant's discharge containing tritiated water and the relationship to the downstream City of Wilmington water intake," he wrote. "It is most important to stay away from these issues. I am confident that the Village of Godley knows little if anything about the blowdown line rupture."

He referred to an e-mail from a ComEd employee who said Illinois' director of nuclear safety "was told there are leaks in the tubes and that there are ways--and possibly reasons to--test for radiological toxins as a result of this info."

"The e-mails and memos were an attempt to keep the discussion focused on the diesel spill and the station's [blowdown line] permit," Exelon Nuclear spokesman Craig Nesbit said.

He also said the tritium spills did not affect Godley residents. He noted Godley officials first learned of the 2000 tritium spill through documents turned over as part of the fuel-spill lawsuit, an indication the company was not hiding anything.

But State's Atty. James Glasgow, who sued Exelon with Madigan, sees it differently.

"They have done everything in their power to keep this from being known," Glasgow said.

Exelon officials said that once the tritium contamination was detected last year, they independently initiated testing of private wells, issued press releases, met with homeowners and launched a Web site detailing developments.

The company is working with the Illinois EPA, which cited Exelon for groundwater contamination, on a cleanup plan.

"We want to continue to operate these plants and provide the safe, clean, reliable energy that we think we could provide well into the future, and goofing up things like this just adds to the public's concern about stuff like that," O'Neill said.

hdardick@tribune.com