More on Nuclear "Transparency"
Jul. 24th, 2007 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerI have a friend who is a hydrologist and he did some consulting out at the Hanford nuclear reservation many years ago. He told me they had an unexpected and alarming accumulation of fissionable material in one of their storage trenches that wasn't supposed to happen. "Big badda boom" potential as Leeloo once said in The Fifth Element.
Here's a detailed 2002 story on Hanford's Unfinished Business from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. And then this snippet from a lengthy editorial in the LA Times.
A Warming World: No to Nukes - Los Angeles Times Editorial - 23 July 07
"Japan has a sordid history of serious nuclear accidents or spills followed by cover-ups. It isn't alone.
The U.S. government allows nuclear plants to operate under a level of secrecy usually reserved for the national security apparatus. Last year, for example, about nine gallons of highly enriched uranium spilled at a processing plant in Tennessee, forming a puddle a few feet from an elevator shaft.
Had it dripped into the shaft, it might have formed a critical mass sufficient for a chain reaction, releasing enough radiation to kill or burn workers nearby. A report on the accident from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was hidden from the public, and only came to light because one of the commissioners wrote a memo on it that became part of the public record."
And this more detailed report on the March 6, 2006 spill noted above.
Federal Government Kept Nuclear Accident Secret - OMB Watch
"After NRC became aware of the NFS event, the agency changed the terms of its license and concealed all information regarding the event from Congress and the public. The agency marked information regarding the incident as Official Use Only (OUO), a sensitive but unclassified (SBU) category intended to keep truly sensitive information secret. Federal agencies have dramatically increased use of SBU categories since 9/11, but the rise of SBU has been accompanied by the unnecessary restriction of important health and safety information."
Here's a detailed 2002 story on Hanford's Unfinished Business from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. And then this snippet from a lengthy editorial in the LA Times.
A Warming World: No to Nukes - Los Angeles Times Editorial - 23 July 07
"Japan has a sordid history of serious nuclear accidents or spills followed by cover-ups. It isn't alone.
The U.S. government allows nuclear plants to operate under a level of secrecy usually reserved for the national security apparatus. Last year, for example, about nine gallons of highly enriched uranium spilled at a processing plant in Tennessee, forming a puddle a few feet from an elevator shaft.
Had it dripped into the shaft, it might have formed a critical mass sufficient for a chain reaction, releasing enough radiation to kill or burn workers nearby. A report on the accident from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was hidden from the public, and only came to light because one of the commissioners wrote a memo on it that became part of the public record."
And this more detailed report on the March 6, 2006 spill noted above.
Federal Government Kept Nuclear Accident Secret - OMB Watch
"After NRC became aware of the NFS event, the agency changed the terms of its license and concealed all information regarding the event from Congress and the public. The agency marked information regarding the incident as Official Use Only (OUO), a sensitive but unclassified (SBU) category intended to keep truly sensitive information secret. Federal agencies have dramatically increased use of SBU categories since 9/11, but the rise of SBU has been accompanied by the unnecessary restriction of important health and safety information."
