Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

THE MILITARY’S UNKNOWN A-WASTE AT HANFORD

Radioactive waste is building daily throughout the United States and the government doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. The failure of the media to fully address the issue of increasing radioactive waste qualifies this story for nomination as the #3 censored story of 1981.

While public interest generally focuses on commercial nuclear power plants, wastes from atomic weapons production accounts for half the radioactivity and more than 90 percent of the volume of nuclear waste in the U.S., including some 7 million gallons of high-level liquid waste that result annually from the manufacture of plutonium. Most of the weapons-related liquid waste is stored in 169 temporary underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state. Since the mid-1950s, there have been more than 20 instances of leakage at Hanford totaling at least 500,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste.

While the Reagan administration plans to increase nuclear weapons production, it has yet to discover what to do with all the radioactive waste we already have.

This story appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, 12/28/81.

March 30, 2010 - Posted by | Environmentalism, Militarism, Nuclear Power, Timeless or most popular

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.