nuclear-news

Murky history of nuclear waste dumping

Tennessee must stop dumping of nuclear waste here TENNESSEAN.COM November 6, 2009 Shifting a problem from one place to another, rather than solving it, never works. Yet, it keeps happening. Take, for example, a now-rejected plan by the U.S. Department of Energy to dump a large quantity of low-level radioactive soil from New York into a commercial landfill in Tennessee. Even though the shipment was later rerouted for Utah, Tennesseans should raise the red flag on this plan and others like it, despite government assurances that the practice is uniformly safe or that it is outside their jurisdiction.

Early last month, DOE announced plans to bring 6,000 cubic yards of soil containing cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239/240, excavated from a closed plutonium extraction plant in Niskayuna, N.Y., to the Chestnut Ridge Landfill, on the Knox-Anderson County line in East Tennessee. The soil, equivalent to 200 dump-truck loads, had remained at the New York site since that plant closed 56 years ago
A few days later, the DOE abruptly changed its mind and announced the dirt would be shipped to a licensed facility in Clive, Utah. It seems Knox and Anderson County officials’ concerns had played a part.

Why was Tennessee DOE’s first choice? Because Tennessee has unwisely allowed itself to become a chief dumping ground for material from defunct nuclear weapons-related facilities through the euphemistically named Bulk Survey Release Program. A few years ago, it was touted as a success that World War II-era radioactive sites such as the federal Oak Ridge Reservation had been cleaned up.

What did not receive enough attention was where the radioactive waste went. In many cases, it was quietly moved to commercial landfills around Tennessee.
Just how much of a public-health hazard is the sort of material being removed from the New York site and others? DOE has not answered this question to anyone’s satisfaction. The levels of radiation vary, and the term “low level” is a broad umbrella. That lack of certainty, and the fact that many commercial landfills are near bodies of water that serve local populations, are reason enough for Tennesseans to demand change…………….

Tennessee must stop dumping of nuclear waste here | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

November 7, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes