Alaska atomic site leaks radiation - news story -Reply

[Luke.I.Mccormick@MRD01.usace.army.mil]

Ron,  don't be too quick to discount Greenpeace. They put
out a book a few years ago that is an excellent reference to
nuclear accidents  and incidents in the past. It is called the
Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age. It has saved me
countless hours trying to find information on formerly used
defense sites. They have been very accurate in documenting
the dates and locations of incidents.  Admittedly, their
scientific accounting leaves a lot to be desired. ( I hadn't
known that  " thoriated magnesium metal which forms part
of the weapon , caught fire... The metal, already radioactive ,
becomes highly radioactive when it is burned." pg. 136)

And they are correct in that there were underground tests at
Amchitka Island, and that if you take a sample of sea water
there, you will find Cesium and Plutonium and all sorts of
other radioactive contaminants. I did notice that shallow
ocean dumping  by the former USSR in the pacific stream
up-stream from Amchitka was not mentioned as a
confounding factor, not to mention the sub reactors et al
dumped in the Arctic. I didn't notice any quantities listed in
the article either. Are we talking millions of atto-curies per
liter here (I had to look it up too, thats 10E-18 Ci./L), or
something detectable, like the 300 pCi/l of K-40?

Its amazing how a few grains of truth viewed from a certain
perspective can lead one to accept the entire vision.