Jan. 3, 2010
ONE OF A SERIES: Paducah Nuclear Plant Clean Up Still Faces Significant Hurdles
What Can Piketon (Portsmouth) Expect?
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Scanning previous internet “news” reports, two stand out in regard to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant: A Tornado and suspicions regarding buried Huntington Pilot Plant materials.
Scioto and Pike Counties in Ohio often experience more intense wind bursts when summer thunder storms form and occasionally turn to tornadoes. On July 11, 2009, NBC reported that “some damage” had been reported at the plant from a “tornado-like storm,” based on word from public information officer Jack Williams the damage did not impact plant operations.
In 1993, residents complained about an alleged 2.5 hour “unreported release.” They alleged 13 workers were checked for exposure but no sirens sounded. However, after investigation, those responsible for the plant indicated that the ‘release’ was not a threat to those outside the plant. The Portsmouth facility has sirens for public notification.
Among citizen complaints , one had concerns about “ground water contamination from the burial of contaminated material from a nickel plant in West Virginia” (Note: Actually, the Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant buried at Piketon along with the trucks and railcars.) ANSWER: ATSDR considers contamination from other sites only when it impacts the exposure levels of the population being evaluated, and in this specific case will not be addressing the above site in this public health assessment. (Actually arsenic and other contaminants were alleged but found not viable. SEE: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/portsmouthgas/pgd_p2.html#publicb1)
Finally (but not all inclusively) the following has been widely reported:
1954-1990 Radioactive gasses, fluorides, and hexavalent chromium are vented to the atmosphere, mostly at night with venting monitors shut off. PCB-contaminated oil, trichloroethylene, and nickel carbonyl are dumped in massive quantities on the south and east sides of the reservation near Little Beaver Creek and Big Run Creek. The venting and dumping are conducted with no outside regulation or notification to surrounding residents. The full extent of venting and dumping remains unknown.
The Portsmouth facility remains in transition. The Centrifuge project did not receive government loan guarantees; a citizen advisory board begins ramping up work --- first by attending seminars concerning options and clean ups at other similar plants --- on the Piketon facility.
Other sites that discuss Piketon issues: http://www.ohioneighbors.net/html/chronology.html and http://www.mail-archive.com/pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu/msg32710.html
For an illustration of concerns, progress and lack thereof, we will examine some issues that have surfaced regarding the Portsmouth/Piketon’s similar facility in Paducah, which is further advance in the decommissioning and clean up process.
PADUCAH CHALLENGES
Plans have been stated for the who, what, when, and how issues at the Kentucky plant. Yet, the funding for cleaning up and implementation has been often cut and modified, even as remediation choices are approved.
Here’s how a comprehensive Courier Journal report described the site in a 2000 article. In fact, the Western Criminology Review contains an article published in 2007: State-Corporate Crime and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v08n2/29.bruce/bruce.pdf):
Nearly every creature that swims, walks or flies near the Paducah uranium plant carries unseen poisons that have escaped from the nuclear-fuel factory.
From the furtive mink to the darting sunfish to the soaring redtailed hawk, nature's denizens now have new, lifelong companions - chemical and radiological contamination, reports obtained by The Courier-Journal show.
Toxic chemicals have entered the Western Kentucky food chain, and abnormalities similar to birth defects have already shown up in at least one species.
A half-century of emitting, burying and dumping waste from the vast plant built to safeguard America has caused ecological damage for miles around, a 10-month investigation by the newspaper has found.
Streams, ponds, underground water, soil, plants and animals have been contaminated with some of the most dangerous chemicals known, including plutonium and dioxin.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Kentucky officials and the company that leases and runs the plant say environmental conditions at the site are improving. They note that polluted areas on plant grounds and in a surrounding wildlife area, which is used for hunting, fishing and camping, are marked and roped or fenced off.
And they have assured workers and the public that the contaminants pose no ''imminent'' danger.
(From Louisville Courier Journal, June 26, 2000 )
CORPORATE STATE CRIMES
“Sloppy safety practices, concealed health concerns, and decades of ignorance, expediency and poor oversight have left workers, nearby wildlife and the land itself damaged by chemical and radioactive toxins. Workers have inhaled the radioactive dust, chemicals have seeped into the ground water, and debris dumped off the site has created pockets of radiation. And the silent devastation is being seen in creatures ranging from insects to bobcats—an ominous warning to the humans who share the same soil, water,and air. In this case, as acknowledged by the federal government, a series of decisions from the
governmental level to the plant operators ensured PGDP workers, the environment, and public safety were victims of state-corporate crime.” One academic study presents theoretical framework that helps clarify how such harms occur and how the state-corporate roles alter over time.
Although nuclear workers seem to have a fruitless fight in gaining compensation for their patriotism, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson stated (obviously not very seriously) “nuclear workers’ compensation is a nation debt long due to our Cold War veterans who’ve paid the highest price for their service.”
However, the AEC has adopted a narrow definition of “workers,” it does not , for now, include those involved in allied sites where, for instance, radioactive nickel was recycled, leading to the workers contracting cancers. Nor, does it account for property owners and individuals living near the atomic plants, gaseous diffusion plants, or plants ran by major corporations utilizing contaminated materials from atomic sites.
Here’s how the Western Criminology article defines a “state” crime: State-initiated corporate crime (such as the Challenger explosion) occurs when corporations, employed by the government, engage in organizational deviance at the direction of, or with the tacit approval of, the government. State facilitated state-corporate crime (such as the Imperial Food Products fire in Hamlet) occurs when government regulatory institutions fail to restrain deviant activities either because of direct collusion between business and government or because they adhere to shared goals whose attainment would be hampered by aggressive regulation. http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v08n2/29.bruce/bruce.pdf
HOW MUCH WASTE
Enough radioactive scrap metal rests at Paducah to construct a full size replica of the battleship Missouri; enough low-level radioactive waste would cover 22 football field a yard deep; ground water would make for 880,000 residential swimming pools; and 37,000 cylinders of spent uranium cylinders stretched end to end would cover 70 miles.
Anyone remembering such flicks as “Silkwood” or “China Syndrome” will appreciate that in June 1999, a false claim suit against Lockheed Martin and the Natural Defense Council alleged that Lockheed falsified environmental safety reports and caused massive damage by mishandling radioactive and chemical materials. When the U.S. government joined as a plaintiff on the hazardous waste issue (2003), the Washington Post went national: Workers at PGDP had been “exposed to dangerous fission byproducts without their knowledge”. In the following years allegations and evidence of harm to workers, the community, and the environment continue mounting, not just related to PGDP, but at Piketon, Oakridge, and, though, uttered only in the privacy of likeminded thinkers, Huntington, WV.
NEXT: Deception for National Good
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ONE OF A SERIES: Paducah Nuclear Plant Clean Up Still Faces Significant Hurdles
What Can Piketon (Portsmouth) Expect?
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Scanning previous internet “news” reports, two stand out in regard to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant: A Tornado and suspicions regarding buried Huntington Pilot Plant materials.
Scioto and Pike Counties in Ohio often experience more intense wind bursts when summer thunder storms form and occasionally turn to tornadoes. On July 11, 2009, NBC reported that “some damage” had been reported at the plant from a “tornado-like storm,” based on word from public information officer Jack Williams the damage did not impact plant operations.
In 1993, residents complained about an alleged 2.5 hour “unreported release.” They alleged 13 workers were checked for exposure but no sirens sounded. However, after investigation, those responsible for the plant indicated that the ‘release’ was not a threat to those outside the plant. The Portsmouth facility has sirens for public notification.
Among citizen complaints , one had concerns about “ground water contamination from the burial of contaminated material from a nickel plant in West Virginia” (Note: Actually, the Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant buried at Piketon along with the trucks and railcars.) ANSWER: ATSDR considers contamination from other sites only when it impacts the exposure levels of the population being evaluated, and in this specific case will not be addressing the above site in this public health assessment. (Actually arsenic and other contaminants were alleged but found not viable. SEE: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/portsmouthgas/pgd_p2.html#publicb1)
Finally (but not all inclusively) the following has been widely reported:
1954-1990 Radioactive gasses, fluorides, and hexavalent chromium are vented to the atmosphere, mostly at night with venting monitors shut off. PCB-contaminated oil, trichloroethylene, and nickel carbonyl are dumped in massive quantities on the south and east sides of the reservation near Little Beaver Creek and Big Run Creek. The venting and dumping are conducted with no outside regulation or notification to surrounding residents. The full extent of venting and dumping remains unknown.
The Portsmouth facility remains in transition. The Centrifuge project did not receive government loan guarantees; a citizen advisory board begins ramping up work --- first by attending seminars concerning options and clean ups at other similar plants --- on the Piketon facility.
Other sites that discuss Piketon issues: http://www.ohioneighbors.net/html/chronology.html and http://www.mail-archive.com/pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu/msg32710.html
For an illustration of concerns, progress and lack thereof, we will examine some issues that have surfaced regarding the Portsmouth/Piketon’s similar facility in Paducah, which is further advance in the decommissioning and clean up process.
PADUCAH CHALLENGES
Plans have been stated for the who, what, when, and how issues at the Kentucky plant. Yet, the funding for cleaning up and implementation has been often cut and modified, even as remediation choices are approved.
Here’s how a comprehensive Courier Journal report described the site in a 2000 article. In fact, the Western Criminology Review contains an article published in 2007: State-Corporate Crime and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v08n2/29.bruce/bruce.pdf):
Nearly every creature that swims, walks or flies near the Paducah uranium plant carries unseen poisons that have escaped from the nuclear-fuel factory.
From the furtive mink to the darting sunfish to the soaring redtailed hawk, nature's denizens now have new, lifelong companions - chemical and radiological contamination, reports obtained by The Courier-Journal show.
Toxic chemicals have entered the Western Kentucky food chain, and abnormalities similar to birth defects have already shown up in at least one species.
A half-century of emitting, burying and dumping waste from the vast plant built to safeguard America has caused ecological damage for miles around, a 10-month investigation by the newspaper has found.
Streams, ponds, underground water, soil, plants and animals have been contaminated with some of the most dangerous chemicals known, including plutonium and dioxin.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Kentucky officials and the company that leases and runs the plant say environmental conditions at the site are improving. They note that polluted areas on plant grounds and in a surrounding wildlife area, which is used for hunting, fishing and camping, are marked and roped or fenced off.
And they have assured workers and the public that the contaminants pose no ''imminent'' danger.
(From Louisville Courier Journal, June 26, 2000 )
CORPORATE STATE CRIMES
“Sloppy safety practices, concealed health concerns, and decades of ignorance, expediency and poor oversight have left workers, nearby wildlife and the land itself damaged by chemical and radioactive toxins. Workers have inhaled the radioactive dust, chemicals have seeped into the ground water, and debris dumped off the site has created pockets of radiation. And the silent devastation is being seen in creatures ranging from insects to bobcats—an ominous warning to the humans who share the same soil, water,and air. In this case, as acknowledged by the federal government, a series of decisions from the
governmental level to the plant operators ensured PGDP workers, the environment, and public safety were victims of state-corporate crime.” One academic study presents theoretical framework that helps clarify how such harms occur and how the state-corporate roles alter over time.
Although nuclear workers seem to have a fruitless fight in gaining compensation for their patriotism, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson stated (obviously not very seriously) “nuclear workers’ compensation is a nation debt long due to our Cold War veterans who’ve paid the highest price for their service.”
However, the AEC has adopted a narrow definition of “workers,” it does not , for now, include those involved in allied sites where, for instance, radioactive nickel was recycled, leading to the workers contracting cancers. Nor, does it account for property owners and individuals living near the atomic plants, gaseous diffusion plants, or plants ran by major corporations utilizing contaminated materials from atomic sites.
Here’s how the Western Criminology article defines a “state” crime: State-initiated corporate crime (such as the Challenger explosion) occurs when corporations, employed by the government, engage in organizational deviance at the direction of, or with the tacit approval of, the government. State facilitated state-corporate crime (such as the Imperial Food Products fire in Hamlet) occurs when government regulatory institutions fail to restrain deviant activities either because of direct collusion between business and government or because they adhere to shared goals whose attainment would be hampered by aggressive regulation. http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v08n2/29.bruce/bruce.pdf
HOW MUCH WASTE
Enough radioactive scrap metal rests at Paducah to construct a full size replica of the battleship Missouri; enough low-level radioactive waste would cover 22 football field a yard deep; ground water would make for 880,000 residential swimming pools; and 37,000 cylinders of spent uranium cylinders stretched end to end would cover 70 miles.
Anyone remembering such flicks as “Silkwood” or “China Syndrome” will appreciate that in June 1999, a false claim suit against Lockheed Martin and the Natural Defense Council alleged that Lockheed falsified environmental safety reports and caused massive damage by mishandling radioactive and chemical materials. When the U.S. government joined as a plaintiff on the hazardous waste issue (2003), the Washington Post went national: Workers at PGDP had been “exposed to dangerous fission byproducts without their knowledge”. In the following years allegations and evidence of harm to workers, the community, and the environment continue mounting, not just related to PGDP, but at Piketon, Oakridge, and, though, uttered only in the privacy of likeminded thinkers, Huntington, WV.
NEXT: Deception for National Good
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
