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Complex Cleanup Harvey Karl Black Abstract
Decades of nuclear weapons production has polluted over 2.3 million acres of land in at least 24 states ; cleanup will extend well into the twenty-first century at a cost of over $200 billion. The nuclear wastes of most concern are transuranic wastes such as plutonium (artificially created wastes with half-lives exceeding 20 years) and high-level wastes such as cesium 137 and strontium 90 (the radioactive materials resulting from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel) . The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) , which is responsible for the cleanup, is currently investigating effective solutions for resolving the environmental and safety problems concerned with nuclear waste, and is seeking to expand its understanding of the potential health effects of prolonged exposure to radioactive and chemically toxic materials. Major considerations in the cleanup effort include ensuring the health and safety of the cleanup workers and scrutinizing the potential impact of the sites on the health of those who live near them. To date, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has analyzed about 13 DOE nuclear waste sites, and is setting up programs to monitor disease rates of people living nearby. While the DOE has made marked progress over the past several years in its cleanup effort, critics say the department still has much left to accomplish, particularly in terms of being able to make good budget, management, and technical decisions.
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