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Nuclear Waste—The Lethal GarbageAwake!—1990 | September 22
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“Official policy in the United States,” reported The New York Times, “is that the safest method is burial in a ‘deep geologic repository,’ someplace dry, stable and desolate. But finding the spot is proving tough.” Tough indeed! According to scientists, it must be such a dry and stable place that it can safely house the material for 10,000 years. Although some of this atomic waste can remain lethal for an estimated 250,000 years, experts believe that so much geological change will take place over 10,000 years “that it is pointless to try to plan for longer.” “I don’t know of any estimation model on the face of the earth that could even talk about a 1,000-year projection,” said one noted radiation expert. He added that it was “difficult to talk about a health risk 10,000 years in the future.”
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Nuclear Waste—The Lethal GarbageAwake!—1990 | September 22
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Sloppy procedures in containing the deadly waste were used. For example: At one atomic weapons plant, “more than 200 [thousand million] gallons [750 billion L] of hazardous wastes, enough to inundate Manhattan to a depth of 40 feet [12 m], have been poured into unlined pits and lagoons,” wrote U.S.News & World Report of March 1989. “Toxic seepage has contaminated at least 100 square miles [260 sq km] of ground water. Some 45 million gallons [170 million L] of high-level radioactive effluent are stored in giant underground tanks, and more than 50 Nagasaki-size bombs could be built from the plutonium that has leaked from these containers,” the magazine said. It is estimated that the cleanup of this site will cost as much as 65 thousand million dollars.
Some holding tanks built to contain nuclear waste became so hot from radioactive heat that they cracked. It is estimated that half a million gallons [2 million L] of radioactive waste has leaked into the ground. Drinking water has been contaminated by radioactive strontium-90 to a level a thousand times the allowable limit for drinking water as set by the Environmental Protection Agency. In another atomic weapons plant, “radioactive substances from waste pits holding 11 million gallons [42 million L] of uranium . . . are leaking into an aquifer and have contaminated wells a half-mile [0.8 km] south of the facility,” reported The New York Times. The paper also reported that in Washington State, thousands of millions of gallons of contaminated water were poured into the ground, and a steady stream of radioactive tritium is flowing into the Columbia River.
In Idaho traces of plutonium have escaped from shallow waste pits at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, reported The New York Times. “They are moving through rock layers toward a vast underground water reservoir that supplies thousands of southern Idaho residents.” The deadly element has penetrated to a depth of 240 feet [70 m], nearly halfway to the aquifer, the paper said.
How deadly is this plutonium waste that has poured into the rivers and streams and has belched into the air? “Plutonium remains radioactive for 250,000 years,” reported The New York Times, “and even microscopic particles can be lethal if they are inhaled or swallowed.” “Inhaling even a speck of plutonium dust can cause cancer,” said Newsweek magazine.
The immediate and long-range effects of nuclear waste on people are not known. They may never be. Suffice it to say, however, that at one atomic plant, 162 cancer cases have been reported among those living within several miles of the facility. People are afraid to drink the water, and fear abounds. “They’re going to have anywhere from six to 200 extra cancer cases,” said a university doctor and consultant to the plant workers. “They’re all scared. They feel like they’ve lost control of their environment and their lives.”
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