=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #124
—April 11, 1989—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL STUPIDITY.
If you have been reading the papers in recent months, you know
that the military and the federal Department of Energy (DOE) have
been suddenly found out hiding millions (perhaps billions) of
pounds of radioactive wastes that they hadn’t told anybody about
and they don’t know what to do with. For forty years they’ve kept
this little secret from Congress, from the press, and from local
citizens who were breathing and drinking the stuff. It is a story
of treachery unparalleled in our history.
For forty years the military (plus their civilian pals in the
Department of Energy and their industrial co-conspirators like
GE, Westinghouse, DuPont and Kerr-McGee) have dumped and buried
millions upon millions of pounds of radioactive wastes into
seepage basins, holding ponds, pits, lagoons, landfills, shafts,
cribs, subsurface leaching fields, and deep injection wells. They
have dumped additional millions of pounds of radioactive wastes
into local creeks, streams, and rivers. They have intentionally
and regularly released additional tonnages into the atmosphere.
In some cases, they haven’t even kept maps of where they dumped
the stuff. In almost all cases, records of how much they dumped
are vague, incomplete and–by their own admission–inaccurate.
All this is in addition to the estimated 1,752 toxic chemical
dumps that the military has, so far, identified as their own.
They’re still discovering new ones each time they look. These are
a story in themselves, but for another time.
Now a citizen watchdog group has begun the long, difficult job of
cataloging this monstrous problem. The Radioactive Waste Campaign
in New York City has released a study called DEADLY DEFENSE in
which they begin to document the worst excesses of the
“military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned us
about as he was leaving office in 1960.
Here we will not document the horrors. You must get DEADLY
DEFENSE for that. In it, you will find a quiet, even-handed,
understated, fact-filled compendium of intractable problems at
the following military sites: Bendix Plant, Kansas City, MO; Feed
Materials Center, Fernald, OH; Hanford Reservation, Richland, WA;
Idaho Engineering Lab, Arco, ID; Lawrence Livermore Lab,
Livermore, CA; Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, NM; Mound
Labs, Miamisburg, OH; Nevada Test Site, Mercury, NV; Oak Ridge
Reservation, Oak Ridge, TN; Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant,
Paducah, KY; Pantex Plant, Amarillo, TX; Pinellas Plant, Largo,
FL; Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Complex, Portsmouth, OH;
Reactive Metals, Inc., Ashtabula, OH; Rocky Flats Plant, Golden,
CO; Sandia Labs, Albuquerque, NM; Savannah River Plant, Aiken,
SC. And all this, of course, is only a tiny part of the full
story.
We will focus here on three important lessons revealed by this
bleak history of stupidity, treachery and deception:
1) The government should never again get into the business of
creating new industries. The government started the nuclear
weapons industry; to make it appear more benign and useful, they
started the “nuclear power industry” to generate electricity by
splitting atoms. (Friendly Citizen Atom, a smiley-faced little
fellow with a lightning bolt through his head, was going to make
electricity too cheap to meter.) It is now crystal clear that the
whole thing has gone bad. Both the weapons industry and the
nuclear power industry have bungled their work, consistently
tried to cover up their massive mistakes, and generally acted
irresponsibly. Both industries are inefficient and enormously
expensive, and both have covered the planet with huge reservoirs
of deadly radioactivity, most of which are already leaking and
all of which will continue to leak for as long as anyone can
imagine into the future. These radioactive dumps will plague
future generations with a pestilence of death, disease, fear and
expense, time out of mind.
2) The only way to cure the problem of radioactive contamination
of the planet is to stop making the stuff. There is talk in the
newspapers these days of creating a new generation of nuclear
power plants. Even the NEW YORK TIMES has taken to writing silly
editorials about “inherently safe” nuclear power plants. Such
talk is complete nonsense. Even if we could build nuclear plants
simple enough to be run safely by yo-yos, plants that never
melted down and never spewed glowing dust over the inhabitants of
surrounding communities, those plants would still produce massive
quantities of radioactive wastes that would have to be put
somewhere forever. The nature of split atoms is such that they
release heat (which can make steam to make electricity), but the
heat is always accompanied by tremendous quantities of
newly-created radioactive crud. THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF
PHYSICS DECREE THAT THIS IS SO. This crud has to be put
someplace. Once it’s in that place (wherever it is), the crud
will begin to disperse into the environment. Slowly but surely it
will be carried into the food chains of the world, blown on the
wind, transported by water, eaten by insects, fish, birds,
mammals and eventually humans. The most fundamental laws of
physics decree that this is so. Nature’s processes, driven by the
second law of thermodynamics, cannot be stopped. They are as
inevitable as tomorrow’s sunrise. The only possible solution to
the problem of planetary contamination by radioactivity (and
halogenated hydrocarbons) is to stop making the stuff. Period.
Every other industrial path leads, finally, to planetary death.
What Barry Commoner said about chemical contamination is equally
true about radioactive contamination: pollution must be
considered a terminal disease. It cannot be cured once is has
been allowed to happen. It can only be PREVENTED.
3) An active citizenry is our only hope. Government and industry
cannot police themselves. For forty years, we have left our most
high-tech technologies in the hands of the nation’s smartest
scientists and engineers, who have been funded and managed by the
country’s most successful entrepreneurs. Now, like Rip van
Winkle, we wake up to find that, between them, these technical
geniuses and financial wizards have contaminated the planet and
every living thing on it with radioactivity and with exotic toxic
chemicals, threatening the health, well-being and peace of mind
of every human alive. They have spread radioactivity and
halogenated hydrocarbons EVERYWHERE. Not a square foot of the
planet has been spared. These masterminds have claimed–against
all common sense and contrary to the most fundamental scientific
principles–that burying the stuff in holes in the ground would
protect us. The holes, of course, are now leaking. Faced with
their shocking record of stupidity and ruination, they now claim
they can dispose of the stuff in immensely complex and expensive
incinerators, or rebury it in deep salt caves, to solve the
fundamental problems. It is an unmatched record of technical
arrogance utterly devoid of common sense.
These military folks and their industrial co-conspirators, are
clearly the sloppiest, most deceitful, most dangerous people in
America. If they’re active in your community, look into it. You
won’t like what you find, but your children will respect you and
thank you.
Get: Marvin Resnikoff and others, DEADLY DEFENSE; MILITARY
RADIOACTIVE LANDFILLS (NY: The Radioactive Waste Campaign, 625
Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10012; phone (212) 473-7390.
$15.00 plus postage; bulk rates available.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: radioactive waste; lanfilling; leaks; Bendix
Plant, Kansas City, MO; Feed Materials Center, Fernald, OH;
Hanford Reservation, Richland, WA; Idaho Engineering Lab, Arco,
ID; Lawrence Livermore Lab, Livermore, CA; Los Alamos National
Lab, Los Alamos, NM; Mound Labs, Miamisburg, OH; Nevada Test
Site, Mercury, NV; Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, TN; Paducah
Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah, KY; Pantex Plant, Amarillo, TX;
Pinellas Plant, Largo, FL; Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Complex,
Portsmouth, OH; Reactive Metals, Inc., Ashtabula, OH; Rocky Flats
Plant, Golden, CO; Sandia Labs, Albuquerque, NM; Savannah River
Plant, Aiken, SC; radwaste; military; dod; doe; citizen action;