In storage yards at the nation’s present and former uranium enrichment plants are some 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride, a toxic product of the uranium enrichment process. The US Department of Energy (DOE) in April published a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Alternative Strategies for the Long-Term Management and Use of Depleted […]
J.C. Conner looked over a picture taken several years ago at Old Country Buffet. There’s a group of about 40 elderly men enjoying the day. And there are Xs put over 25 of the people in the picture. “I’ve put an X on them as they die,” said Conner, who like those in the picture […]
Chapter 1: Contamination lingers on Private companies in dozens of communities across the country pumped radioactive and toxic waste into the local air, water and soil while doing secret work for the U.S. nuclear weapons program during the Cold War. In some cases, contamination risks persist even now, hidden from neighbors who’ve been left uninformed […]
Chapter 1. Contamination lingers on CLEVELAND — In January 1948, Bernard Wolf came here to assure workers at Harshaw Chemical Co. that the uranium they secretly processed for the government’s nuclear weapons program posed no threat to their health. In fact, Wolf, a medical director with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, had evidence of serious […]
Chapter 1: Secret program left toxic legacy The U.S. government secretly hired hundreds of private companies during the 1940s and ’50s to process huge volumes of nuclear weapons material, leaving a legacy of poisoned workers and contaminated communities that lingers to this day. From mom-and-pop machine shops to big-name chemical firms, private manufacturing facilities across […]
Chapter 4: Defining the danger From the earliest days of the nuclear weapons program, health and safety were secondary concerns. Officials at the Atomic Energy Commission recognized that they had to define and minimize the risks of the weapons-making process. But the White House, Congress and the Pentagon demanded that production run at a feverish […]
Lockheed Martin Nuclear Safety Violations (Oak Ridge, TN) Date: 08/28/2000 (Date of Fine) Misconduct Type: Labor Enforcement Agency: Energy Contracting Party: Energy Court Type: Administrative Amount: $1,045,000 Disposition: Fine Synopsis: Lockheed Martin Energy Systems was fined by the Department of Energy for multiple violations of nuclear safety requirements at its site in Oak Ridge, TN. […]
A Health Canada study has found that the overall cancer rates in the town of Port Hope, Ontario are comparable to rates throughout the Province of Ontario. The study, designed to investigate cancer patterns in Port Hope, was commissioned by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as part of its responsibility to the community for […]
PADUCAH, Ky. – A broken baler has been fixed and the cleanup of “drum mountain” has resumed at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. “Drum Mountain” is the nickname for a massive pile of discarded and rusting drums once used to store depleted uranium tetra-fluoride at the plant. Officials think they are a major source of […]
Flasks used by British Nuclear Fuels to transport dangerous radioactive material can resist fire for less than three minutes, newly released research reveals. The revelation will provide fresh headaches for the crisis-ridden BNFL, which runs a major business using the flasks. New safety regulations demanded by the United Nations mean that all the flasks will […]
