President Barack Obama starts reshaping the financial markets and a furious stimulus package for the economy. But a closer look at the US reveals a major problem unsolved yet rising on the horizon: America still is under serious nuclear threat. by Vlad D. Georgescu
As the US Department of Homeland Security described 2008 in one of its regular newsletters, every nuclear attack will leave officials helpless in tracking who or what activated the deadly detonation. Chemists could find important traces and measure the radioisotopes, by this finding the source of the nuclear material involved. Having captured this data, US intelligence will have to follow the material’s route backwards – hoping to detect the bargainers of such a terrorist assault. Things get even more complicated if the nuclear attack would belong to the category of “dirty bombs”. Radioactive materials for building such devices can be found in fact in many US institutions – there are no effective controls preventing terrorists from stealing the deadly stuff. What seems to be even worse: The threat could come from inside - the anthrax attacks, which occurred in 2001 and which are known as the Amerithrax case, were carried out by a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs.
Should the President get in panic? No. Nuclear threat belongs to the inevitable risks of our times – the real danger consists in trying to neglect this fact. But serious risks remain.
Most measures in preventing deadly nuclear attacks must come from inside private and institutional organisations. One should Realize that every radiological clinic department may be more dangerous then incoming flight passengers from abroad – because every hospital has nuclear waste which lies more or less unguarded until it is disposed.
Without any doubt, there are some regulations concerning low-level waste disposal. The disposal “occurs at commercially operated low-level waste disposal facilities that must be licensed by either NRC or Agreement States“, as the NRC expains on it’s web site. Actually there are three existing low-level waste disposal facilities in the United States that accept various types of low-level waste, all of them being in Agreement States.
Furthermore, given the Low-level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985 which gave the states their own responsibility for the disposal of the waste, things seem to be managed without risks. Because the Act encouraged the states to enter into compacts that would allow them to dispose of waste at a common disposal facility, most states have entered into such compacts – but no new disposal facilities have been built since the Act was passed, as the NRC writes.
Examples of LLRW include radioactively contaminated protective clothing, medical, byproducts of spent nuclear fuel, and contaminated soil and debris – things you don’t really protect as high-risk material. Only three disposal facilities in the United States are being built for LLRW, among them in Barnwell and Clive, Utah. The third one is located in Richland, Washington.
Routes at risk
Why should the US then be worried? One of the most sensible aspects is the lack of safety during transportation of low-level material.
First evidence came in 1999, when the California Energy Commission was interested in a risk analysis of California State Route 127. A Memorandum dated July 19th, 1999 and coming from the State of California Business, Housing and Transportation Agency requested “consultation and guidance”.
“Concerned that they would soon become a major pathway for low-level radioactive waste to the NTS, and that this might set a precedent for future high-level radioactive waste shipments to Yucca Mountain, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties” contacted their congressional delegations, the Memorandum explained. The Senators and Congressmen “sent joint letters to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson supporting the counties’ argument that shipping radioactive waste from the east into California for a destination in Nevada made little sense”.
The major problem at that time: Under California Government Code, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was the hazardous materials routing authority for the state. In the case of highway route controlled quantifies (HRCQ), the CHP had designated preferred routes, that included I15 to Nevada, but did not include SR127. “The low-level radioactive waste shipments under consideration are not HRCQ, and the carrier is not constrained from using SR127”, resumed a paper.
Today the threat comes not only from transport regulations, but from the delivering points themselves: There are hundreds of universities, hospitals and industrial facilities producing LLRW. Each of these institutions could become targets for terroristic infiltrations or attacks– with an unpredictable outcome due to unsure and very long transportation routes to only three disposal sites. While building a nuclear weapon remains a sophisticated process, the construction of a dirty bomb using LLRW is quite simple, even if not really life-threatening from the start. But a contamination would paralize not only wide parts of the country – it would make clear how vulnerable the President is.
A president who wants to change these things will have to tell people the truth: Nuclear threat can not be prevented – but the risk could be minimized by changing some of the scientific habits in research and medicine. More control at the starting point, less waste and safer transportation routes - this may be the formula for Barack Obama, if he intends to change LLRW things at home.
The special interest online-magazine LifeGen.de reaches more then 90.000 unique users coming from 146 countries worldwide. The magazine is read by the scientific community, by members of political institutions and by major public media. LifeGen.de was founded in 2001 an is considered to be one of Europes most important lifescience Online-Magazines. More then 7100 articles can be found at the German Business Information (GENIOS)
(2009-01-27)
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