Uncle Sam, Nuclear Polluter

Writes Greg Privette:

Hi Lew,

I read the above noted article by Jacob Hornberger from a few days ago.

It seems I have also read that some unusually high number of actors and movie crew members died of various cancers after many years of making western movies in close proximity to the test areas.

I recall articles several years ago about the Savannah River site, I believe near Akin, SC. While not involved in weapons testing this plant produced material for nuclear weapons. The plant was run by contractors but was government owned. At some point independent testing companies found very high concentrations of, I believe tritium, in the local ground water. The government claimed this was a natural occurrence even though this is a known byproduct of processing plutonium or whatever they were processing there.

Government facilities are also some of the worst areas for other toxic pollutants as well. Many of us are old enough to remember the clean up legislation known as “Super Fund”. The program was intended to force clean up of the worst of the worst sites. The program is apparently still active. Last I looked, more than half of the sites on the list were government properties. Most of those being military bases. Some areas on these bases are so polluted they were judged impossible to clean up so they just paved over them. And of course many of the military personnel live on these sites, many with their families. I guess if they reinstitute the draft at least they can cause cancer on an equitable basis.

Lastly, if you remember the 80’s vintage “Base Closure and Realignment” (?) act, the pentagon wound up closing several military bases. I don’t think this included any foreign bases of course. As I recall some of the land, even in prime locations, could not even be given away because the cost of clean up would exceed the value of any possible future economic development.