Authorities 'cover up' radioactive waste dump
Source: Agence France-Presse
A highly radioactive substance, emitting in some places radiation 100 times the permitted amount, has been discovered in the canton of Bern, Swiss media reported on Sunday, adding that authorities had covered it up for 18 months.
Sunday newspapers Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung reported that federal, regional and local officials decided not to reveal the fact that they had found radium deposits in an old dump in the town of Biel so as not to scare the 50,000 local inhabitants.
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Exposure for three hours to that level of radiation would be equivalent to the tolerable level over a whole year.
The waste came from a paint used by the watch-making industry to illuminate the numbers on watch faces.
The substance, which has been banned since 1963 due to its radioactive nature, was discovered when roadworks were started at the site.
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Read more: http://www.thelocal.ch/20140601/authorities-cover-up-radioactive-waste-dump
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)governments need to use worst case scenario circumstances as a model. Anything less will result in eventual disaster. We need a nuclear power moratorium.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,639 posts)It's about the use of radium in paint. That had been dumped there before 1950: http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/jardine-dechets-radioactifs/story/20637614
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)dotymed
(5,610 posts)"we" have uncontainable nuclear waste in the Cincinnati,Oh. area near heavily populated area's. I know, I was exposed while building the containment unit. I was contacted by the government who happened to "pack up and leave town" before we even had our first meeting. They left many Union carpenters sick, worried and uninformed. I was in the hospital after having 2 major heart attacks in 2 days when they contacted me.
Collateral corporate damage I guess.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Especially in the old rust belt states. I suspect it goes far beyond what we now know.
I wish you the best with your heart condition.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)I worked right next to it for over 30 years and never knew it.
A section of the old Harshaw Chemical Plant was abandoned with a 6 foot chain link fence around it. Turns out it was a classified, integral part of the Manhattan Project. Also a heavily populated and industrial area.
Snarkoleptic
(6,003 posts)The poor women "Radium Girls" who did the work often licked their paint brush to keep the tip sharp.
Good article here-
http://66.147.244.135/~enviror4/people/radiumgirls/
It was a little strange, Fryer said, that when she blew her nose, her handkerchief glowed in the dark. But everyone knew the stuff was harmless. The women even painted their nails and their teeth to surprise their boyfriends when the lights went out. They all had a good laugh, then got back to work, painting a glow-in-the-dark radium compound on the dials of watches, clocks, altimeters and other instruments.
Grace started working in the spring of 1917 with 70 other women in a large, dusty room filled with long tables. Racks of dials waiting to be painted sat next to each womans chair. They mixed up glue, water and radium powder into a glowing greenish-white paint, and carefully applied it with a camel hair brush to the dial numbers. After a few strokes, the brushes would lose their shape, and the women couldnt paint accurately. Our instructors told us to point them with our lips, she said. I think I pointed mine with my lips about six times to every watch dial. It didnt taste funny. It didnt have any taste, and I didnt know it was harmful. (1)
Nobody knew it was harmful, except the owners of the U.S. Radium Corporation and scientists who were familiar with the effects of radium. Those days, most people thought radium was some kind of miracle elixir that could cure cancer and many other medical problems.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,639 posts)The NMB showcases an exhibition devoted specifically to the Biel/Bienne watchmaking industry
Traces of watchmaking industry in Biel
Since the 19th century, Biel has been an industrial and watchmaking city.
Museum Omega, Biel
This museum illustrates the historical highlights of the famous Swiss brand.
http://www.biel-seeland.ch/en/discoveries/watch-valley.html
Octafish
(55,745 posts)That is good science.
BTW: Canada is ready to open a repository a few feet from Lake Huron. Nice.
http://www.stopthegreatlakesnucleardump.com/
cynzke
(1,254 posts)in the U.S. where fracking is taking place. The highly radioactive residue is banned from most conventional waste sites and very expensive to dispose of at hazardous waste facilities. Illegal dump site are cropping up all over North Dakota, endangering the environment and now local and state finances are diverted to clean up this toxic mess. Taxpayers are left holding the bag once again.