[CPEO-MEF] URANIUM: Nuclear Metals (MA) settlement

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Concord superfund site settlement announced

By William Hodges
Examiner Boston Environmental News
July 8, 2011
After years of work between federal, state, local and private  
interests the Environmental Protection Agency has reached a $70  
million agreement with those responsible for contaminating a Concord,  
MA site with radioactive and other toxic waste. But will the  
agreement safeguard the local community and the surrounding environment?

Starmet, formerly known as Nuclear Metals, Inc, produced alloys and  
powdered metals, toners, and coatings for joints in addition to  
working with depleted uranium given to the company freely by the  
Department of Energy through the US Army. From the 1970’s until 1999  
the MIT spinoff company turned that depleted uranium into weapons of  
mass destruction that it then sold back to the US Army. They also  
dumped the waste of these processes, totaling 400,000 pounds of toxic  
waste, into their backyard over the course of nearly 30 years. In  
2001 the site was added to the Superfund National Priority List.

Depleted Uranium is a byproduct of the nuclear fission cycle and the  
uranium enrichment process. After powering nuclear power plants and  
ships that run on enriched uranium, that uranium then becomes a waste  
material that would otherwise need to be disposed of. One way to  
reduce storage of this waste product is to reuse it as a weapon.  
Because it is such a heavy material, it is denser then lead and  
stronger than steel, it easily goes through metals like those used to  
armor tanks. DU, as it is referred to, also heats and ignites,  
burning away at its surrounding. DU is also used as armor material  
and as nuclear shielding in hospitals. The radioactive properties of  
DU are contentious in part because of exposure of US troops and their  
allies during the first Gulf War and since.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.examiner.com/environmental-news-in-boston/concord- 
superfund-site-settlement-announced

--

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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