Radioactive waste dumped in UK landfill

: "Radioactive waste dumped in UK landfill
(published on 7-February-2007)
URL: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=12578

The company responsible for cleaning up after the British nuclear industry has admitted dumping radioactive waste in a Scottish landfill and failing to take adequate precautions to stop it entering the environment.


Failures in waste management processes led to radioactive fragments entering the environment at Dounreay

The UK Atomic Energy Authority was this week convicted of four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 at Wick Sheriff Court.

The charges relate to disposing of nuclear waste from Dounreay at a landfill during a 12 year period in the '60s and '70s. The second charge was tied to the failure to address erosion of the coastal landfill which led to fragments of radioactive fuel being discharged into the environment between 1963 and 1984.

The third and fourth related to the pumping of fragments from a storage pond into a surface water drain between 1963 and 1967 and washing waste from a spill down conventional drains in November 1965.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency began to compile the case after radioactive particles were found on a beach adjacent to the site, Sandside, and on the local seabed.

A total of 1401 radioactive fragments have been recovered by the agency.

An extensive investigation involving close scrutiny of the company's records and interviews with employees past and present has tried to uncover the origin of the fuel particles.

SEPA's chief executive Campbell Gemmell said the case clearly highlighted that while there have been problems in the past, that pollution is avoidable.

"This outcome serves as a valuable lesson to UKAEA and others that poor waste management practices will not be tolerated. Our message to everyone that we regulate is that we will help you to do the right thing.

"However, if you don't take your responsibilities seriously, we will take strong action."

Trying to put quell public safety fears, he said that the company appeared to have learnt from past mistakes.

"UKAEA has cleaned-up its act significantly and is making strenuous efforts to safely dismantle the Dounreay site, which is no easy job," he told the media.

"As part of our commitment to better regulation we will support them in doing this, as we support other operators who are serious about the environment. However, we are still the watchdog on behalf of the public. I sincerely hope that we do not need to use our powers again, but we will do so if that is necessary."

Hugh Fearn, a specialist in radioactivity for SEPA, gave a detailed explanation of how the charges came about and exactly how the environment had been threatened.

"Radioactive liquid waste was and still is disposed of from Dounreay to the sea at the Pentland Firth via a long outfall," he said.

"An authorisation was put in place in 1963 requiring that the authority use all reasonable practicable means to prevent the discharge of particulate matter effluent.

"However, on occasions this wasn't adhered to and no filtering process was in place to remove solid waste, resulting in a discharge of particles to the sea.

"The majority of the particles recovered have come from materials test reactor fuel elements which were dismantled in water filled ponds.

"Landfill 42, which contains building rubble and excavated material, was subjected to wave erosion during heavy tides between 1963 and 1975.

"Remedial work was required by SEPA at the time. Of the material pulled back from the danger of further erosion by the sea, 43 cubic metres proved to be radioactive waste and included six radioactive fuel fragments.

"The nature of the radioactive contamination has lasting consequences for the future and this is something which will need to be addressed by the polluter, UKAEA."

Sentencing is due to take place on Thursday, February 15.

Sam Bond

© Faversham House Group Ltd 2007. edie news articles may be copied or forwarded for individual use only. No other reproduction or distribution is permitted without prior written consent."

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing: "OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_bob_nich_070206_livermore_lab_to_esc.htm

February 7, 2007

Livermore Lab to Escalate Depleted Uranium Testing

By Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award Winner

If it's news to you, you're not alone. Livermore National Laboratory has been testing radioactive devices – exploding depleted uranium and tritium into the open air – just 50 miles east of San Francisco since 1961. And now the lab has a permit to raise the amount of radioactive material they detonate yearly from 1,000 to 8,000 pounds.

Those who know are spreading the word and calling on the Bay Area to turn out for two meetings next week in protest: the Tracy City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., at Tracy City Hall, 325 East 10th St., and the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District Hearing Board meeting Wednesday, Feb. 7, 10 a.m., at 4800 Enterprise Way in Modesto.

The test site, called Site 300 by the Livermore nuclear weapons lab, is located on 11 square miles in the Altamont Hills between Tracy and Livermore. Like the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, formerly the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, Site 300 is a Superfund site, one of the most contaminated places in the U.S. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Site 300 "is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) primarily as a high-explosives and materials testing site in support of nuclear weapons research."

Site 300 Manager Jim Lane downplays the danger, saying in the Site 300 Annual Report: "Depleted uranium is used routinely. ... It contains a trace amount of radioactivity. However, it is less than normal daily exposure to the sun."

Marion Fulk, a highly respected Manhattan Project and Livermore atomic scientist, however, says that depleted uranium "is perfect for killing lots of people." That, in fact, along with contamination of the land, is the purpose of the devices being tested.

The tests at Livermore Site 300 use exotic high explosives to detonate weaponized uranium gas in solid metal form. The uranium metal catches fire and burns at more than 3,000 degrees, producing fumes of radioactive gas – or aerosols – that are deadly to all life forms.

Even a microscopic particle of these depleted uranium (DU) – mostly Uranium-238 – aerosols lodged inside a human lung can cause severe health problems, from cancers to diabetes, asthma, birth defects, organ damage, heart failure and auto-immune system diseases. And this radioactive gas travels long distances.

Nine days after the U.S. began its "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq on March 21, 2003, Dr. Chris Busby found DU aerosols in giant high volume air filters in England, 2,500 miles from Baghdad.

The 7 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area are all endangered by the testing at Livermore Site 300, as are the people and produce of the agriculturally rich Central Valley. In reality, San Francisco and Northern California are under attack by the Livermore nuclear weapons lab.

Since the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued Livermore the new permit on Nov. 12, "(t)wo appeals have been filed, one by a housing developer and the other by a resident who lives about five miles from the radioactive blast location, Site 300," writes Washington, D.C., area-based investigative journalist Cathy Garger. A large turnout at the meetings Feb. 6 and 7 will show support for those appeals.

"Lawrence Livermore representatives will not reveal to Tracy residents precisely how many bombs might be 'tested' in a year," writes Garger. "Tracy Press reports that the only reason given by Lawrence Livermore for the eight-fold annual increase in explosives testing is 'national security,' according to air district spokeswoman Kelly Morphy."

Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award winner, newspaper correspondent and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Now completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear radiation war in Central Asia, he is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. He can be reached at DUweapons@gmail.com. To learn more, read Cathy Garger's story and blog at http://tinyurl.com/32pghh and http://haltdutesting.blogspot.com/. Bay View staff contributed to this report.

PHOTO: Livermore Site 300 1961 radioactive device test.jpg

CAPTION: This photo and the following comment come from the Livermore Laboratory archives: "Hydrodynamic (bomb core) test on a firing table at Site 300, 1961. The bright 'streaking' effect in the photo is likely from shards of pyrophoric metal, such as Uranium 238, hurtling through the air. U-238 is one of the contaminants of concern in the Site 300 Superfund cleanup."

Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



Authors Bio: Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award winner. He is a newspaper correspondent and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear radiation war in Central Asia. He is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Nichols can be reached by email, and readers are encouraged to write to him at: DUweapons@gmail.com
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