Much of the land near the atomic bomb’s birthplace was converted to recreational areas, but toxic waste remains

Much of the land near the atomic bomb’s birthplace was converted to recreational areas, but toxic waste remains

Soil, plants and water along popular recreation spots near Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, are contaminated with “extreme concentrations” of plutonium, a new study has found, but calls for the federal government to act have been dismissed.

Michael Ketterer, a Northern Arizona University scientist and lead researcher on the project, said the plutonium levels in and around New Mexico’s Acid Canyon were among the highest he had ever seen in a publicly accessible area in the US during his decades-long career – comparable to what is found in Ukraine at the site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

The radioactive isotopes are “hiding in plain sight”, Ketterer said.

  • BuelldozerA
    91·
    3 months ago

    Okay this might sound like conspiracy theory bullshit

    Only to people who haven’t been paying attention. Russia has been funding Environmental Groups in the US and the EU for decades with the goal of disrupting domestic energy supplies and ensuring reliance on Russian Oil and Gas.

    If you web search a phrase like “Russia funded environmental groups” you can find plenty of references, especially around 2014 and again in 2022, but if you dig further you can find research on this dating back to the 1980s.

    Here’s an article with reliable sources that specifically addresses nuclear.

    BTW, if you remember the “Earth Liberation Front” (ELF) that was actively burning shit down (literal arson) back in the 1990s then this article from the New York Times will interest you. One of the ELF’s founding members, Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, was being hunted by the FBI so he fled home…to Russia.

    But is there any major country preparing to construct nuclear power plants, or is there a looming decision about nuclear power over fossil fuels coming soon?

    Yes. China is building quite a few but more relevant is that here in the United States a traditional one was just completed, we have two more in the permitting process, and we have at least one (if not two) next-gen Natrium SMR’s under way.

    The anti-nuclear coverage isn’t all Russian propaganda of course but articles like this one should be viewed with deep suspicion.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
      31·
      3 months ago

      I haven’t really been keeping up with nuclear news, so that’s actually a surprise to me that so many reactors are in-progress!

      I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the narrative of some is “nuclear is evil” instead of “China is beating us on energy, BUILD MORE TO BEAT THEM!” But oil lobbies really do have their claws into every facet of government… Quadruple down on fossil fuels and smear campaigns, money machine go brrr.