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The disposal of dangerous nuclear wastes continues to be a problem across the US because it is enormously expensive and very difficult to accomplish. None of this seems to be factored in the cost of nuclear energy when proposals come up about building new nuclear energy plants. Recently I've been hearing very brief reports in local mainstream media about dangerous leaks from old aging storage tanks located at the Hanford nuclear site in central Washington state located just over the Cascade mountains from where I live. These dangers are now showing up in more mainstream websites such as Huffington Post.
From my readings it appears that Hanford has more nuclear waste than any other site in the world. In my opinion, it is a mind-boggling accident waiting to happen! I have recently become especially sensitized to this issue after reading a recently published book Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen. It suggests a powerful message built around a story of her childhood history living near another such installation located about 50 miles upwind from Denver.
It is a story of extreme government secrecy, of government and media lies, mysterious illnesses and known cancers and never-ending efforts by local people, whose lives were devastated by radiation related illnesses, to seek legal justice and compensation. Protests over a number years and law suits finally succeeded in shutting the plant down, however no compensation has yet been awarded to the survivors or members of their families who suffered the effects of radiation.
