7/18/2011 Did you hear about the alert at Illinois' Dresden Nuclear Plant?

Source: examiner.com (Chicago, IL)
Date: 7/18/2011
by: Cynthia Hodges

Dresden Nuclear Plant in Illinois Credits: Google Images

July 18, 2011   On Friday, the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant located 60 miles southwest of Chicago declared an Alert at 10:16 a.m after a chemical leak restricted access to a vital area that houses plant cooling water pumps. The material leaked was sodium hypochlorite, a chemical similar to bleach which is routinely used in plants to treat water.

According to the few mentions of the incident, there was no known impact to the public health and safety and the environment.

Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Morris, Illinios is owned and operated by Exelon Corp. located in Chicago.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: The emergency was cleared on the same day it was issued. Per the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) event notification report:

...
* * * UPDATE AT 1626 EDT ON 7/15/11 FROM MIROCHNA TO HUFFMAN * * *

"The alert has been terminated on 7/15/11 at 1520 CDT. The conditions which caused the alert no longer exist. A press release was made for the event. Two employees were sent for offsite medical attention as a precautionary measure; neither employee was contaminated."

The licensee stated that the sodium hypochlorite had leaked from a pipe into a sump under the storage trailer near the cribhouse. The sodium hypochlorite that leaked into the sump has been pumped out. Access to the cribhouse has been restored and there are no other access restrictions at the site. Both units continue to operate at full power.
...

Below is a map of Dresden Nuclear Generating Station. Note that not all U.S. nuclear power plants appear on this map, only ones with unusual recent activity or known safety issues (that the editor knows about).

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map