EPA Questions Pentagon Plan
to Bury Radioactive Nuclear Waste Near Hawai'i
Down to Earth is teaming up with Earth Foundation,
a non-profit, environmental media organization,to keep you
informed and get your involvement in a very important issue.
The Hawaiian Islands are currently being
threatened by radioactive nuclear waste. The U.S. Air Force
is planning tobury more than 165,000 cubic yards of Plutonium
contaminated debris at Johnston Atoll (also called "Johnston
Island")in
the middle of the Pacific about 800 miles west-southwest
of Hawaii. Plutonium is one of the world's most carcinogenic
elements with incredibly lethal radioactivity and is known
to cause cancer, leukemia, and birth defects.
Johnston Atoll
and its Plutonium burial site are vulnerable to hurricanes.
This creates a major health hazard for Hawaii. This potentially
affects the coasts and fisheries of HAWAII, Micronesia,
PHILIPPINES, Taiwan, JAPAN and the Ryuku Islands, Indonesia,
and possibly the west coasts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, OREGON,
and NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ending at San Francisco.
The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's Ray Saracino, the San Francisco-based
EPA project manager reviewing the U.S. Defense Department
and U.S. Air Force's Johnston Atoll nuclear waste burial
plan, does not think the plan makes sense and feels it is
potentially highly dangerous to public health. You can read
about his comments in a Honolulu Star-Bulletin ( May 1, 2002,
pg. A3) article by Diana Leone entitled "Nuke
waste landfill plan assailed".
Here is an Internet link to the story: http://starbulletin.com/2002/05/01/news/index5.html
The
Air Force says it will monitor and watch over buried Plutonium
and other nuclear waste "for as long as 5
years." (The Maui News, March 11, 2002, pg. A3). The
problem is Plutonium (Pu239) has a half life of 24,000 years
and is life-threatening for that entire time. Five years
of "monitoring" the Plutonium on Johnston Atoll
does not protect against 24,000 years of life-threatening
danger. There are places on the mainland that are better
equipped to contain radioactive nuclear waste than an atoll
vulnerable to hurricanes and erosion from the ocean.
KEY FACTS:
Fact: Johnston Atoll was the location
of 12 nuclear test missile launches in the 1950's and 1960's.
Two missile detonations left the island badly contaminated
with radioactive Plutonium Oxide and Americium. Now after
40 years the Air Force wants to permanently bury the nuclear
waste in the missile launch crater.
Fact: During hurricanes
Johnston Atoll has completely submerged. The sea wall at
Johnston Atoll will fail in 30 to 50 years (section J-12
of the DTRA/Defense Threat Reduction Agency's own feasibility
study). The key random factor is nuclear waste at Johnston
Atoll could end up being dissolved or floating in ocean
water and transported by currents or eaten by fish.
Fact: The radioactive nuclear waste on Johnston Atoll includes
45,000 cubic meters of coral debris with an average radiation
contamination level of 200 pC i/g (picocuries per gram);
120,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste with levels around
7.7 pC i/g; and radioactively contaminated 240 tons of metal & 200
cubic meters of concrete--which have not yet had the amount
of radioactivity officially measured. (One "meter" equals
about one "yard").
Fact: The
DTRA/Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Feasibility Study
did NOT address ocean currents. The ocean currents traveling
from Johnston Atoll can affect the coasts and fisheries of
Hawaii and the Western Pacific and possibly parts of the
west coasts of Central America and the United States .
A person eating a radioactively contaminated fish has an
increased chance of developing cancer, leukemia, or birth
defects.
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