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Nevada Groundwater Rad Monitoring Flawed
Hi all,
Seems to me that this has applications for Yucca groundwater flow monitoring.
Norm
> Environment News Service
>
> Monitoring of Radioactivity in Nevada Groundwater Flawed
>
> LAS VEGAS, Nevada, January 18, 2002 (ENS) - The Department of Energy (DOE)
> is not doing enough to detect radioactivity in groundwater near the Nevada
> Test Site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, an environmental group charged
> today.
>
> The seven on-site monitoring network wells in place in Pahute Mesa have a
> low probability of detecting contamination since they are not located in the
> most likely pathways of the contaminant plumes says a technical report
> commissioned by Citizen Alert.
>
> The Nevada Test Site was the location of 100 atmospheric nuclear tests, and
> 828 underground nuclear tests between 1951 and 1992 that have contaminated
> Nevada with radioactivity.
>
> Citizen Alert has been concerned for years about the possibility of
> groundwater contamination as a result of underground nuclear testing, says
> nuclear issues coordinator for the grassroots group, Kalynda Tilges.
>
> Citizen Alert says the DOE has spent over $200 million of taxpayer money and
> still does not have the basic information necessary to establish whether
> radioactive contamination will reach Oasis Valley in 12 or 500 years, both
> predictions that have been made in the past.
>
> "Because technology does not exist in the year 2002 to clean up contaminated
> groundwater, protection means timely detection of contamination that could
> produce risk to off-site citizens, and subsequently, supplying an alternate
> source of water for them," Tilges said. "Our goal was to evaluate the DOE's
> claim that it is protecting the public from groundwater contamination caused
> by underground nuclear testing on the Nevada Test Site."
>
> With financial help from a grant from the Citizen's Monitoring and Technical
> Assessment Fund, Citizen Alert hired technical experts to perform an
> independent analysis of the effectiveness of the Department of Energy's
> (DOE) groundwater monitoring program of the northwestern section of the
> Nevada Test Site. The study looked at the government's ability to provide
> early detection and warning of radioactivity in water in time to prevent
> harm to people and the environment.
>
> In a press conference with Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Democrat,
> Citizen Alert executive director Kaitlin Backlund said, "The DOE has spent
> over $200 million of taxpayer money and still does not have the basic
> information necessary to establish whether contaminated groundwater is
> migrating outside the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site."
>
> Berkley said, "This new report will bolster my efforts to clean up the test
> site and implement an effective early warning system for radioactive
> contamination. It is critically important to fine tune our environmental
> cleanup methods, and invest in an adequate monitoring system before there's
> a crisis - not after!"
>
> Native Shoshone representative Ian Zabarte explained why the area known as
> the Nevada Test Site is still part of Newe Segobia, traditional Shoshone
> land according to the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 and how this project
> affects Native Americans in the area.
>
> "The Western Shoshone have supported Citizen Alert's work for over 20 years
> all the way back to the MX missile proposal," he said. "We continue to
> support Citizen Alert on this issue which we feel is of vital concern to the
> Shoshone people and the citizens of Nevada."
>
> This report addresses the specific question of whether citizens living near
> the periphery of the Nevada Test Site are being protected from radioactive
> groundwater contamination that may be migrating towards them from the
> underground tests.
>
> Citizen Alert's main concern is that the present strategy being executed by
> the Underground Testing Area program "presently is not plausible or even
> useful and is dangerous in that it is delaying the creation of a long term
> groundwater early warning monitoring network."
>
> "Since contaminants have been migrating for over 40 years, it does not make
> sense to place an early warning monitoring system in the year 2030 as the
> DOE now plans," Tilges said.
>
> The report focuses on the Pahute Mesa area because it was the host to 82
> underground nuclear detonations which produced a total yield of about 20
> megatons - over 1,000 times more yield than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima -
> and which left 74 million curies of radiation in the ground below the water
> table, said Citizen Alert.
>
> Some of the Pahute Mesa detonations were among the most powerful tested at
> the Nevada Test Site and all were detonated closer to off-site communities
> than from any other tests on the site. For example, the distance between one
> large shot and Oasis Valley is less than 17 miles.
>
> The analysis found that none of the possible 260 plumes migrating in the
> groundwater from the nuclear tests has ever been found and studied. No one
> knows the plumes' constituents, nor the whereabouts of the over 130 million
> curies of radiation released into the environment, said Citizen Alert.
>
> Some of the plumes may have merged and created even larger and more complex
> plumes, the study suggests. "If we had better knowledge of the plumes and
> local groundwater flow directions, the design of a system to find such huge
> targets, where the exact locations of the detonations are well known, should
> not be difficult, even using a small fraction of the millions of dollars
> spent by DOE so far," said Tilges.
>
> Citizen Alert is asking that the Department of Energy recognize that its
> present Underground Testing Area strategy has not produced adequate
> information, and renegotiate with Nevada Department of Environmental
> Protection (NDEP) for a new strategy.
>
> That new strategy would begin with the selection of one large detonation
> cavity on Pahute Mesa in an area having the highest density of local
> hydrological data. The DOE would study all aspects of the one plume;
> migration speeds and directions, their physical make-up, concentration,
> dimensions and transport mechanisms.
>
> After a satisfactory early warning monitoring system for the Pahute Mesa
> contamination is in place, Citizen Alert suggests, the DOE could decide
> which is the next most threatened area and turn its resources to that area.
>
> DOE officials were not immediately available for comment.
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
--
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