nuclear-news

Fears of Tennessee becoming global radioactive waste dump

Some worry Tennessee town may be world nuclear waste dump, By Tim Ghianni, NASHVILLE, Tenn | Wed Jul 27, 2011, (Reuters) – A new contract to process 1,000 tons of nuclear waste from Germany has environmental activists concerned that the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee could become a prime destination for the world’s nuclear trash.

The city in east Tennessee was founded by scientists who were developing the atomic bomb during World War II. It continues to be a center for the nuclear industry.

It has processed nuclear waste for decades, including some from Britain and Canada. But the large German contract, its first from continental Europe, marks a significant expansion and has raised eyebrows.

Safer said that even people who are in favor of nuclear power should question importing foreign nuclear waste to a state which he said puts “very little scrutiny” on the industry.

“With current regulatory conditions, there is nothing stopping really great quantities of radioactive waste materials from coming from all over the world to be processed in Tennessee,” says Don Safer, chairman of the board of the Tennessee Environmental Council, said on Tuesday……http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/27/us-nuclear-tennessee-idUSTRE76Q6Q020110727

July 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes