Washington Century: Safe investments

Washington Century: Safe investments

Seattle.pi.com March 8, 2009 The legacy of dangerous waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has defied resolution for decades.

The federal government must meet its responsibility to the public, the land and the environment. The state’s responsibility is to hold the feds to their promises and their larger moral obligations to a region that gave unselfishly to the atomic efforts judged necessary by the nation’s leadership during World War II.

…………………. The Bush administration’s dangerous pro-nuclear agendas on both electrical power and weapons were problems, even as Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman tried to maintain a decent commitment to cleaning up waste at Hanford.

The signs are more encouraging with President Barack Obama. As Murray noted recently, the federal stimulus bill gave a good boost to an environmental management account that has traditionally helped Hanford.

No one should fool themselves about the likelihood of smooth, steady progress on remediating the huge amounts of waste that threaten workers and the environment, especially the Columbia River. The nation has done a remarkably poor job of addressing even the most blatant human consequences of nuclear weapons testing and production even in this country. As Seattle author Holly Barker says, it’s been even worse for those who were abroad, including Marshall Island residents, some of whom some now live here. They were essentially treated as human guinea pigs, and still have little help in dealing with the consequences.

Solving Hanford’s waste problems cannot be separated from larger decisions. Society may well continue to create troubles faster than a cleanup resolves them, from Hanford to Pakistan. The allure of nuclear reactors continues to grip many, despite the decades of failure to secure waste permanently from natural or terrorist forces.

March 9, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA