Amchitka radiation

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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By Jennifer Bails
Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW (PA)
August 16, 2004 

In the icy rough waters where the Pacific Ocean meets the Bering Sea,
the island of Amchitka still bears the radioactive waste burden of the
Cold War. 

In 1971, the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission conducted the largest
underground nuclear explosion in the nation's history on the remote
Aleutian outpost to test a warhead for missile defense. 

The nearly 5-megaton bomb named Cannikin (pronounced CAN-ick-in and
meaning "airtight container") was detonated a mile beneath the earth,
lifting Amchitka one foot in the air and drowning its rugged cliffs in
waves two stories high. 

Felt throughout Alaska as a massive earthquake, the thermonuclear blast
was almost 400 times more powerful than the weapon that destroyed
Hiroshima. 

More than 30 years later, it's still unclear whether radioactive
particles released underground by Cannikin and two smaller nuclear test
blasts on the island are leaking from the bomb-created glass-lined
cavity where they are supposed to be contained. 

...

for the entire story, see
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_208362.html



-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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