Uranium Mining Disaster – Church Rock Uranium Tailings Pond Breach – 40th Anniversary SPECIAL, Pt. 2
by | Jul 30, 2019. Uranium mining marks the start of the nuclear fuel chain and the deadly journey that element takes to become atomic weapons, nuclear reactors, and tons of highly radioactive waste that we do not know how to store safely for tens of thousands of years.
On July 13 and 14, Nuclear Hotseat attended commemorative events for the 1979 Church Rock uranium tailings pond breach and spill, which dumped more than 94 million gallons of highly acidic radioactive water into the adjacent Puerco River. The contamination reached Sanders, Arizona, and was recorded at least 80 miles away. The spill has never been cleaned up, and even now, while it has been declared a Superfund site, it will take at least two years before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finishes its review of the EPA’s clean-up plan – and clean-up can’t even begin until and unless the plan is approved.. And even that plan has come in for criticism by activists and community members.
Read the entire story at nuclearhotseat.com
