There are major radioactive messes at virtually all the national nuclear laboratories

[ensho]

http://counterpunch.com/grossman05292008.html


We All Live in Shirley Now

The Most Lucrative Incentive for Nuclear Power in the History of the United States


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This is a widespread problem. There are major radioactive messes at virtually all the national nuclear laboratories, most originally set up as part of the Manhattan Project, the World War II crash program to build atomic bombs.

Also at these facilities, there have been intense efforts to suppress information about their impacts. I did a media journal article a while back on how after the New Mexican of Santa Fe published a series—“Fouling the Nest”—on major health problems in the area around Los Alamos National Laboratory, pressure by Los Alamos on the newspaper resulted in the firing of its managing editor and the transfer of one reporter on the series, the resignation of the other.

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She tells of a class action lawsuit involving cancer victims who claim BNL as the cause. Richard Lippes, their attorney (also lawyer for Love Canal victims), cites a report by the federal government he has uncovered acknowledging that BNL did not “honor certain safety requests” because it felt “every dollar spent on health and safety is a dollar taken away from scientific research.”

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Nuclear technology was started by government—and government continues to push it. With Wall Street uneasy about financing new nuclear plants, next week the U.S. Senate will begin debating a plan by Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John Warner of Virginia to provide $544 billion—yes, with a b—as a subsidy for new nuclear power plant development. A Lieberman aide has described this "the most historic incentive for nuclear in the history of the United States."

Unless it—and the overall atomic juggernaut is stopped—we all live in Shirley.
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but hey! cancer is a big business now. lots of money to be made.