http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/
Plutonium got its creation here-- and there goes the boom...
Plutonium was created (invented) not discovered.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwiibayarea/307.HTM
In 1942, the Berkeley campus became quite involved in the war effort of
World War II. The top floor, or "attic," of Gilman Hall was fenced off
for classified work in nuclear chemistry. Half of the rooms in the attic
had small balconies that could be used as outdoor hoods, but the actual
hoods in Gilman Hall were not equipped with fans.
They operated only as
chimneys, with a burner flame that produced a draft. For the war work,
electrically powered fans were finally installed to vent the hoods.
Plutonium
research in Gilman Hall was part of the Manhattan Project to develop the
atomic bomb.
In 1942, Glenn Seaborg left Berkeley to join the Manhattan
Project in Chicago. He returned to Berkeley after the war and directed
the university's nuclear chemistry research.
On November 3, 2013 Huntington, WV newspaper brought to light that the Wall Street Journal did a story on the radioactive material surrounding these towns.
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/76002
A series of articles on
America’s forgotten nuclear legacy has been published in the Wall
Street Journal, which , incidentally, first revealed scrutiny of the
Social Security disability scheme that allegedly involved a Kentucky
attorney and a WV administrative law judge.
The Journal compilation covered over 500 sites in the online
database. Cole Street and Altizer Avenue is listed as the location for
the facility that utilized nuclear materials.
Specifically, the Journal citing a Report on Residual Radioactive and
Beryllium Contamination at Atomic Weapons Employer Facilities and
Beryllium Vendor Facilities places the undesignated Reduction Pilot
Plant (a.k.a. Huntington Pilot Plant) in a gray area: “The designation
does not mean a health threat exists. It merely means that based on the
evidence, a threat (to public health) cannot be ruled out.”
Inconclusive? Yes, other facilities with the SAME non-listing gray
determinations are: Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah Gaseous
Diffusion Plant, Savannah River Swamp, and the Mound Laboratory
(Miamisburg, Ohio). Similarly, these locations were “considered but
eliminated” from the DOE’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action
Program.
The Journal compilation places the Huntington Alloys, Inc. (formerly
International Nickel Company, now Special Metals) in the category
despite previously referenced documents from 1981, 1987, and 1994 that
based on available evidence at that time, the location was deemed
remediated following the removal of the structure and its 1978-1979
burial on the grounds of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/site/390-reduction-pilot-plant/
Where has radioactive residue been found? Thirty six states have
contaminated locations ranging from floors and ceilings of public
buildings, hiking trails, vacant lots, and groundwater. The WSJ noted
that medical studies have not pinpointed an “exact” relationship to
low-level radiation and cancer. But many former workers at the sites
have been or are asking for federal compensation for illness, including
cancer.
As the forgotten sites article begins, the reporters point to a small
room in UC Berkeley Gilman Hall (Room 307) where plutonium was isolated
prior to the nation’s entrance into World War II. The university had to
rip out an adjacent room in 1957 and 25 years later a dozen rooms were
found contaminated.
“We will never know” the exposure levels before the 80s cleanup,
reported Carolyn MacKenzie , the UC Berkeley radiation safety officer.
Although federal officials maintain “adequate measures to protect the
public health and that the sites do not pose a threat to anyone living
or working nearby,” but the WSJ Investigation raises record tracking
issues, even at sites that underwent expensive cleanups.
- At least 20 sites initially declared SAFE have required additional cleanups, sometimes more than once;
- The government does not have exact addresses for dozens of
facilities, including one uranium handling facility for which the state
of its location cannot be determined;
- Spotty record keeping from Department of Energy documentation has
left “several dozen sites” where it cannot be decided “whether a cleanup
is needed or not.”
Four million people live within a mile of the 300 “forgotten” sites.
260 public schools and 600 public parks are within a half mile, the WSJ
stated.
The Department of Energy wrote, in part, to the WSJ about residual radioactive contamination.
“Cleanup does not imply that all hazards will be removed from a given
site,” the WSJ reported. On some sites the federal government imposed
“institutional controls,” restricting use of the properties for
“centuries , or , in some cases, millennia.”
For instance, two dismantled nuclear reactors used in World War II
were dumped and buried in a ditch. Radioactive tritium turned up in
ground water in Cook County, and concrete rubble and pipes were exposed
in the 1990s. Erosion from bicycle trail use has elevated radiation
levels.
Winter visitors to the Forest Preserve District of Cook County walk by oak and maple trees. But, James Phillips, a biologist, told the
Journal, that visitors have stated snow does not gather in that plot.
That’s been relegated to urban legend status. There’s a similar
statement about radioactive heat at the former Huntington site, too. http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/
