nuclear-news

Secrecy over possible plutonium from Felon 22 air crash

The list of witnesses who were interviewed and their statements were withheld, as were the findings of the investigators and the health reports on the victims of the crash.

Radiation fears still cloud the crash of Felon 22, by Lee Bennett, Feb 08, 2012 | San Juan Record – From the time Felon 22 tore apart in the skies over Monticello, UT, in January, 1961, there were fears that atomic bombs on board the plane might have spilled radioactive debris.
………a Pentagon report listed the crash “among 29 documented nuclear accidents that have occurred since 1950.”

The subject report was prepared in 1991 for the Environmental
Protection Agency and released as a draft. Skoblar and Weston, authors
of the report, listed about 45,000 locations where radioactivity might
be contaminating buildings, soil, water or other resources.

One category of potential contamination was accidents involving
nuclear weapons carriers, such as rocket launchers, bombers, and
missiles. That list included the wreck of Felon 22.

About the time that concerns over the Felon 22 accident were quieting,
the Department of Energy wrote a letter to Jay Palmer, a Monticello
native whose family owned a ranch in Peters Canyon on which some of
the crash debris had landed.

The September 8, 1995 letter was specifically looking for scrap metal,
salvaged equipment and materials, mill tailings, fencing and other
items that were once located at the uranium mill in Monticello. It was
a form letter sent to many property owners in the Monticello vicinity
as part of the mill site remediation project.

Two coincidences converged at this time to raise Jay Palmer’s level of
concern over the DOE’s inquiry. One was a newspaper article reporting
that many workers who had helped clean up a B-52 crash on Greenland
were now dying of radiation sickness.

The three hydrogen bombs on that plane had ruptured, spreading
radioactivity over the debris and on the snow. The workers had not
been protected against it, and now they were paying the price.

The other coincidence was an experimental process to clean up
plutonium 239, the trigger in nuclear weapons.

Developed by Palmer and his colleagues at the University of South
Florida, it heightened Palmer’s awareness of radiation dangers, and he
made several inquiries about his family’s property in Peters Canyon.

In reply to letters sent by Jay Palmer, the DOE said they had no
records of the B-52 crash. The Pentagon replied that the B-52 did not
carry any H-bombs.

The Air Force Safety Agency supplied a redacted (censored) copy of the
crash report after Palmer filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
The list of witnesses who were interviewed and their statements were
withheld, as were the findings of the investigators and the health
reports on the victims of the crash.

The explanation for not including this information was that it “would
jeopardize a significant government interest by inhibiting its ability
to conduct future safety investigations of Air Force aircraft mishaps.
Disclosure of this information would be contrary to the promises of
confidentiality extended to witnesses and investigators.”
http://www.sjrnews.com/view/full_story/17441788/article-Radiation-fears-still-cloud-the-crash-of-Felon-22?instance=home_news_left

February 9, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA