[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION: Nevada Test Site's polluted groundwater

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Nuclear scars: Tainted water runs beneath Nevada desert
The state faces a water crisis and population boom, but radioactive 
waste from the Nevada Test Site has polluted aquifers.

By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2009

Reporting from Yucca Flat, Nev.

A sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under 
the volcanic peaks, dry lake beds and pinyon pine forests covering a 
vast tract of Nevada.

Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads 
underground at the Nevada Test Site, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. 
Each explosion deposited a toxic load of radioactivity into the ground 
and, in some cases, directly into aquifers.

When testing ended in 1992, the Energy Department estimated that more 
than 300 million curies of radiation had been left behind, making the 
site one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the nation.

During the era of weapons testing, Nevada embraced its role almost like 
a patriotic duty. There seemed to be no better use for an empty desert. 
But today, as Nevada faces a water crisis and a population boom, state 
officials are taking a new measure of the damage.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-radiation-nevada13-2009nov13,0,3038881.story

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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