NRC admonishes U.S. Army for DU Monitoring Plan

Now that the U.S. Army has admitted to the presence of depleted uranium at its Hawaiʻi live fire training ares, the Army has applied to the NRC for a permit to possess DU at Pohakuloa Training Area. If granted, the permit would allow remains of depleted uranium spotter rounds from the Army’s cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear howitzer on site at the training area. The army had denied the presence of depleted uranium in Hawaiʻi until a citizen’s group unearthed an e-mail about their discovery in 2006.

Last week, the Big Island Weekly reported on the NRC’s findings on the U.S. Army’s monitoring plan–a plan intended to detect potential impacts from so-called “fugitive dust”:

The U.S. Army’s plan to monitor the air over Pohakuloa Training Area for depleted uranium has drawn sharp criticism from some Native Hawaiians, environmentalists, activists and independent experts. Now the Army has gotten an admonishment from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“We have concluded that the Plan will provide inconclusive results for the U.S. Army as to the potential impact of the dispersal of depleted uranium (DU) while the Pohakuloa Training Area is being utilized for aerial bombardment or other training exercises,” wrote Rebecca Tadesse, Chief of the NRC’s Materials Decommissioning Branch, in a recent letter to Lt. General Rick Lynch, who heads the Army’s Installation Management Command.

See full Article: “NRC to Army: DU monitoring plan won’t work

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Anonymous says:
May 14, 2010 05:36 AM
It is encouraging that the NRC did find that the Army's monitoring for DU is inadequate. This statement was made after the NRC ruled that the four Hawai'i residents who challenged the NRC stated that these Hawaiian residents had no standing. Many Hawaii residents are very concerned that the live-fire ranges in Hawaii are contaminated with many more radioactive munitions and other toxins than just a few thousand spotting rounds deployed in the 1960's. We must be as persistent in pushing for the truth about the military contamination of Hawaii as accumulative and persistent as the military toxins are.
Anonymous says:
May 19, 2010 10:42 AM
We agree! Mahalo to those like Uncle Jim Albertini and Uncle Paka who have dogged the NRC process so diligently!
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