Government to Pay to Study Clean Up of Nuclear Mess

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with five parties responsible for contamination at the Nuclear Metals Inc. Superfund site in Concord, Mass. The U.S. Army, the US Department of Energy, Whittaker Corp., MONY Life Insurance Co. and Textron Inc. will share the cost of conducting studies to determine cleanup options. The federal parties will pay 98 percent of the expected costs, and the private parties will handle the remaining 2 percent and also will perform the studies. The expected cost of the studies is $8-10 million. The EPA added the site to its National Priority List in June 2001. Various operators have used the site as a research and metal manufacturing facility, which was licensed to possess low-level radioactive material. The current operator, Starmet Corp., formerly Nuclear Metals, manufactured depleted uranium munitions for the U.S. If the nuclear and munitions industries know that Governments will pay the costs of the pollution they create they will never have an incentive to behave more responsibly.

Read more articles about The Nuclear Industry and the Production of Depleted Uranium