THE DANGER: PERMANENT NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

THE DANGER: PERMANENT NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE
from The San Francisco Chronicle

RUSSIA -- While rescuers struggled yesterday to save the crew trapped
aboard the Kursk, horrified observers around the world warned that a
much wider-ranging disaster may be unfolding with the slow decay of the
Soviet-era war machine.

Worries about a potential threat to the ocean environment and human
health were circulating long before the Russian submarine sank -- just
the latest incident in a con- tinuing saga of budget woes and official
neglect for Russia's nuclear fleet.

A sunken submarine might withstand corrosive forces for many decades,
but the odds are overwhelming that radioactive materials will eventually
find their way into the sea, ultimately posing a threat of radiation
poisoning to marine organisms.

More than 100 Soviet-built subs await decommissioning, most of them said
to be tied up in ports where they are ostensibly being guarded. In fact,
they are virtually abandoned, according to nuclear watchdog groups in
the United States and Europe.

For the complete article, go to:
<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2000/08/18/MN39883.DTL>
-- 
.....................................................
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee
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