Bush EPA Seeks Weaker Rules for Radioactive Waste

[Viking12]

If the Bush Administration has its way, radioactive waste will soon be officially no different than ordinary trash--meaning it could be dumped into your nearby town landfill.

Long a dream--and goal--of the nuclear industry, the Bush EPA is actively considering a reclassification, or redefinition, of what constitutes radioactive waste. The period for public comment on the controversial proposal expires this Wednesday, March 17.

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/

[punpirate]

1. Very low level wastes, they say....

From what I read, one of those wastes would be cesium. Here's what the EPA now has to say about that:

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.htm

I believe the rules mentioned at the bottom of the page are those proposed to be changed....

[Bdog]

2. Health Effects of Cesium-137

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.htm

How can cesium-137 affect people's health?
Like all radionuclides, exposure to radiation from cesium-137 results in increased risk of cancer. Everyone is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water as a result of atmospheric fallout. Exposure to waste materials, from contaminated sites, or from nuclear accidents can result in cancer risks much higher than typical environmental exposures. Great Britain's National Radiological Protection Board predicts that there will be up to 1,000 additional cancers over the next 70 years among the population of Western Europe exposed to fallout from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, in part due to cesium-137.

If exposures are very high,serious burns, and even death, can result. Instances of such exposure are very rare. One example of a high-exposure situation would be the mishandling a strong industrial cesium-137 source. The magnitude of the health risk depends on exposure conditions. These include such factors as strength of the source, length of exposure, distance from the source, and whether there was shielding between you and the source (such as metal plating).

[Bdog]

3. toxic uranium tailings next to river that supplies water to southern CA

http://moab-utah.com/rack/atlasm.html

http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/uwai.html

You mean that huge pile of toxic uranium tailings is located on a major fault line right next to the river that supplies all the water to 18,000,000 Southern Californians? No! I don't think so! Never! Couldn't happen. Not here! No!!!

Well, here's the story. It's leaking into the river. They don't want to move it somewhere else (where?) because of the dangerous vapors that will stir up. They don't want to leave it there because it's polluting the water. Tsk, tsk. What a shame... Hope we don't have an earthquake anytime soon.

(Photo by Brad Weis, Copyright June 15, 1998)