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greige@bigpond.com (Greig Ebeling) wrote:
Radioactive water alarms Nye officials

Today: March 02, 2000 at 11:15:52 PST

BY MARY MANNING
LAS VEGAS SUN
>
Nye County officials are taking a serious look at the
radioactive>contamination discovered in a ground-water sample off the
Nevada
Test Site and expect to have more results in a week, County
Manager Jerry McKnight said Wednesday.

"Good science dictates that we verify these initial results,"
said Les Bradshaw, manager of the Nye County Department of Natural
Resources and Federal Facilities.
>
Nye officials revealed Wednesday that radiation in ground water
has been found outside the Nevada Test Site in amounts 25 times
higher than the federal drinking water standards.

Increasing their concern is the type of radiation found. Two
types of radioactive particles--alpha, which is found in several
sources including plutonium, and beta, which causes skin>burns--make
it harder to pinpoint the source of the nuclear>contamination.>

If the radioactive source came from one of the 928 nuclear
weapons experiments from Cold War activities there, it would be>the
first time radiation has been found outside of the Test Site, which is
located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
>
The Department of Energy's monitoring program has never found
radiation outside of the Rhode Island-sized nuclear proving
grounds. In 1998 DOE scientists discovered plutonium that
traveled on microscopic particles about a mile away from an
underground nuclear bomb crater on the site.
>
Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., called
Wednesday's announcement another surprise. Reid said he would
discuss the issue with Energy Secretary Bill Richardson today.

Reid had planned to meet with Richardson about including Test
Site workers in legislation that would compensate those harmed by
exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals.
>
The senator said the radiation found in the ground water
indicates why most Nevadans oppose a high-level nuclear
repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
>Yucca is the only site under consideration as a national dumping
>ground for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive wastes from
>commercial reactors and defense activities.
>
>"It's really important we accelerate the surveillance and
>monitoring at the Test Site," Reid told the Sun. "And it shows
>why we're opposed to Yucca Mountain. We need to know more."
>
>Bryan agreed with Reid.
>
>"This appears to be part of a growing pattern of radioactive
>migration from the Test Site," Bryan said. "More importantly,
>this discovery once again raises the credibility question for the
>Department of Energy."