nuclear-news

At long last – cleanup of radiation area at Staten Island

Radiation clean up to start in Staten Island’s Gateway National
Recreation Area, SI Live.com  By Deborah Young/Staten Island Advance
  January 11, 2013  STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The long-awaited survey and
clean-up of radiation-contaminated ballfields, along with more than
200 acres of green space in Gateway National Recreation Area’s Great
Kills Park should begin next week, according to the National Park
Service (NPS), under whose stewardship the land falls.
In a shift from a plan announced last year, when Park Service
contractors were slated to survey the area and then come up with
clean-up recommendations for a later time, the process set to begin
Monday will include both the identification of hot spots and the
remediation of toxins…..
As of November, six radium spots had been removed from the 223-acre
swath of the park that had once been landfill, with the primary
contaminant found to be Radium-226, a radionuclide formerly used in
medical treatment.

After that, even more potential hot spots were discovered, prompting
the National Park Service to rethink its more limited plan, and
instead include more sweeping investigations of the area, as well as
immediate elimination of the radiation.

The radiation-affected area — which comprises a large portion of the
488-acre park — has been closed to the public.

Meanwhile, environmentalists, avid users of the park, local residents
and lawmakers have demanded for years to know why the remediation
process has been so slow….
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/radiation_clean_up_to_start_in.html

January 12, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA