| From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org> |
| Date: | Mon, 2 Dec 2013 14:23:23 -0800 (PST) |
| Reply: | cpeo-military |
| Subject: | [CPEO-MEF] RADIATION: "South Carolina Threatens Washington Over Cleanup" |
South Carolina Threatens Washington Over Cleanup By MATTHEW L. WALD New York Times November 28, 2013 AIKEN, S.C. - The Energy Department began cleaning up an environmental nightmare at the old Savannah River Site nuclear weapons plant here in 1996 and promised a bright future: Within a quarter-century, officials said, they would turn liquid radioactive bomb waste into a solid that could not spill or dissolve. But 17 years later, the department has slowed the work to a pace that makes completion of the cleanup by the projected date of 2023 highly unlikely. Energy officials now say the work will not be done until well into the 2040s, when the aging underground tanks that hold the bomb waste in the South Carolina lowlands will be 90 years old. "I don't know what the tanks' design life was intended to be, but it's not for infinity," the state's chief environmental official, Catherine B. Templeton, said in an interview. The slowdown has set off a fierce battle between the Energy Department and South Carolina, where officials say they have been double-crossed in what they view as the state's biggest environmental threat. In an unusual display of resistance from a state that was host to a major part of the Cold War effort to make nuclear weapons - and is now home to most of the resulting radioactive waste - South Carolina is threatening to impose $154 million in fines on the federal government for failing to meet its promised schedule. … For the entire article, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/us/slow-cleanup-of-bomb-waste-pits-south-carolina-against-washington.html -- Lenny Siegel Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight a project of the Pacific Studies Center 278-A Hope Street Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545 Fax: 650-961-8918 LSiegel@cpeo.org http://www.cpeo.org _______________________________________________ Military mailing list Military@lists.cpeo.org http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org | |
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