Lawsuit cites radioactive waste shipped to Florida
HoustonChronicle.com - Lawsuit cites radioactive waste shipped to Florida: "Aug. 13, 2005, 5:40PM
Lawsuit cites radioactive waste shipped to Florida landfills
Incidents said to have occurred in 1970s and '80s
By MATTHEW L. WALD
New York Times
WASHINGTON - The operator of a Florida nuclear plant appears to have shipped radioactive waste to ordinary landfills, municipal sewage treatment plants and some unknown locations in the 1970s and early '80s, according to internal documents and government records obtained in lawsuits.
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Florida Power and Light said that in 1982 it had mistakenly made a shipment to a landfill, but the documents appear to show shipments to multiple locations. While the company conducted a survey and cleanup in the one known location, it found only one kind of radioactive material, and nuclear experts involved in the lawsuits say there must have been other isotopes for which no tests were conducted.
The overall level of contamination is difficult to determine.
Plant workers used a sink to wash mops, rags and other heavily contaminated materials, believing the drain was connected to the plant's radioactive waste system, but it drained into a sanitary sewage system, the documents say.
The plaintiffs include the parents of Zachary Finestone, an 11-year-old who grew up in the area and was diagnosed with cancer in March 2000, and of Ashton Lowe, who had brain cancer when he died at age 13 in May 2001.
According to documents cited by the plaintiffs, at one point, the plant in St. Lucie County was shipping to regular landfills materials that were 10 times as radioactive as what it was shipping to a low-level waste dump.
A spokeswoman for Florida Power and Light said the company mistakenly made two such shipments in the early '80s, but disclosed it at the time and removed the waste.
"It was thoroughly investigated at the time by both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Florida Department of Health, who determined that there was no health issue," Rachel Scott said.
Papers obtained by the plaintiffs said, however, that a week after the cleanup was completed at a dump site the company found contamination at a level 20 times what was proposed by Florida, and thousands of times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency allowed for agricultural land.
The case goes to trial in January."
Lawsuit cites radioactive waste shipped to Florida landfills
Incidents said to have occurred in 1970s and '80s
By MATTHEW L. WALD
New York Times
WASHINGTON - The operator of a Florida nuclear plant appears to have shipped radioactive waste to ordinary landfills, municipal sewage treatment plants and some unknown locations in the 1970s and early '80s, according to internal documents and government records obtained in lawsuits.
ADVERTISEMENT
Florida Power and Light said that in 1982 it had mistakenly made a shipment to a landfill, but the documents appear to show shipments to multiple locations. While the company conducted a survey and cleanup in the one known location, it found only one kind of radioactive material, and nuclear experts involved in the lawsuits say there must have been other isotopes for which no tests were conducted.
The overall level of contamination is difficult to determine.
Plant workers used a sink to wash mops, rags and other heavily contaminated materials, believing the drain was connected to the plant's radioactive waste system, but it drained into a sanitary sewage system, the documents say.
The plaintiffs include the parents of Zachary Finestone, an 11-year-old who grew up in the area and was diagnosed with cancer in March 2000, and of Ashton Lowe, who had brain cancer when he died at age 13 in May 2001.
According to documents cited by the plaintiffs, at one point, the plant in St. Lucie County was shipping to regular landfills materials that were 10 times as radioactive as what it was shipping to a low-level waste dump.
A spokeswoman for Florida Power and Light said the company mistakenly made two such shipments in the early '80s, but disclosed it at the time and removed the waste.
"It was thoroughly investigated at the time by both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Florida Department of Health, who determined that there was no health issue," Rachel Scott said.
Papers obtained by the plaintiffs said, however, that a week after the cleanup was completed at a dump site the company found contamination at a level 20 times what was proposed by Florida, and thousands of times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency allowed for agricultural land.
The case goes to trial in January."
posted by Greta Jane at Friday, August 19, 2005
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