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| | | published Saturday, October 24, 2009 | 906 Views :: 0 Comments |
PLUTONIUM AND PEOPLE DON’T MIX
WHY THE ROCKY FLATS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
SHOULD REMAIN CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC
by LeRoy Moore, PhD, Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, October 13, 2009
Soon after completion in 2005 of the “cleanup” of the site of the defunct Rocky Flats nuclear bomb plant near Denver, the Department of Energy (DOE) transferred about three-fourths of the nearly 10 square mile Rocky Flats site to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to operate as a wildlife refuge. FWS had already decided to open the future refuge for public recreation. This paper elaborates three reasons why this decision should be reversed:
• The site is contaminated with an unknown quantity of plutonium and americium.
• Standards for permissible exposure to plutonium and americium adopted for the site provide inadequate protection for potential visitors to the refuge because the standards are based on a flawed method of risk assessment and a truncated view of the toxicity of these materials.
• In addition, those responsible for the Rocky Flats “cleanup” did not consider some crucial data regarding environmental conditions at the site.
• Together, these points add up to a great weight of uncertainty that underscores the need for caution. The conclusion to this paper looks at alternatives for dealing with the refuge, including a visionary approach for nuclear guardianship.
To read full paper, click here
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| | | published Thursday, August 06, 2009 | 1670 Views :: 8 Comments |
By Nickolas Roth, Program Director, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
August 6th, 2009
The
anniversary of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki serve as a reminder of the danger posed by nuclear weapons and
the need for this country to work in good faith toward their
elimination. The bombings killed more than 200,000 people and set in
motion an arms race that has resulted in several near brushes with
nuclear war.
There are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in
existence today. The vast majority of these weapons are held by the
United States and Russia, with 9,400 and 13,000 respectively.
Originally published in the Los Alamos Monitor:
http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?075+article+Opinion+20090806145909075075001
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2009 Fact Sheet Nuclear Weapons Forever | |
| | published Monday, February 23, 2009 | 525 Views :: 0 Comments |
Life Extension Program
In the late-1980’s the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Rocky Flats Plant, which produced plutonium pits for nuclear warheads, was shut down after a raid by the FBI. Eventually, the plant was shuttered, disrupting the U.S. capacity for producing new warheads.
Download 2009 Fact Sheet: LEP2 final.pdf
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2009 Fact Sheet Nuclear Weapons Environmental Cleanup | |
| | published Monday, February 23, 2009 | 393 Views :: 0 Comments |
Six decades of U.S. nuclear weapons research, testing, and production activities have left dozens of Department of Energy (DOE) sites polluted with massive amounts of radioactive and hazardous wastes. Most DOE sites are now on the Superfund list of the nation’s most environmentally dangerous facilities. Their contamination threatens millions of people living near the sites or along major waste transportation routes. Some of the nation’s most important water resources are endangered.
Download 2009 Fact Sheet: Cleanup5.1 final.pdf
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Grassroots Groups by Nuclear Site | |
| | published Monday, October 20, 2008 | 268 Views :: 0 Comments | |
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