The Atlanta Constitution reports Brent Scowcroft, co-chairman of President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission On America’s Nuclear Future, said he and his fellow commissioners will take a look at the most radioactive site in the United States (measured by curies): The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. He also said they will visit the controversial Plant Vogtle nuclear power reactor complex, located just across the Savannah River from SRS on the Georgia side.
Large amounts of tritium, a gas used to boost nuclear explosions and also a radioactive element produced in civilian power plants, has been detected in the Savannah River, along with many other radioactive by products. The Savannah River is the 4th most polluted river in the United States. Critics such as WAND Georgia point out that cancer rates among poor residents along the river occur with alarming frequency. Nuclear power proponents say the amount of tritium released into the environment meet state standards.
The Blue Ribbon visit comes as new nuclear facilities are either under construction or being proposed for both SRS and Plant Vogtle.
For more go to http://www.ajc.com/news/nuclear-waste-panel-to-634105.html
Continue reading Scowcroft Says Blue Ribbon Commission To Inspect SRS in January
The President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future met in Washington this week to address an old issue: the reprocessing of nuclear reactor waste. It is an idea that many thought was settled in the 1970s. After India extracted plutonium from its civilian reactor fuel and tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, President Gerald Ford paused the program. President Jimmy Carter, who was trained in the nuclear navy, eventually stopped the reprocessing plant just outside the Savannah River Site (SRS) gate in Barnwell, South Carolina. A DCBureau.org camera crew visited the old, abandoned plant last month.
