[CPEO-MEF] Idaho Plutonium

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

>From Potatoes to Plutonium

Idaho's most infamous export might be about to change

By Leslie Fuger
Boise Weekly (ID)
March 16, 2005

Tim Frazier was raised near Dayton, Ohio, and spent his childhood within
sight of the Department of Energy (DOE) Mound Site in nearby Miamisburg.
Unfortunately, the plant is not only known for working to advance
nuclear technology. It also caused extensive uranium contamination of
the groundwater aquifer, and soil contamination including radium,
tritium and plutonium-238. Despite problems associated with Mound over
the years, Frazier grew up to manage the facility. "I have the utmost
confidence in the DOE's construction and maintenance of nuclear
facilities," he said. "I even moved my wife and two little girls closer
to the site when I took over." 

Today, Frazier is the document manager for a proposed plutonium
production consolidation project for the Idaho National Laboratory
(INL), and the DOE's technical expert on plutonium-238. (On February 1,
the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and Argonne
National Laboratory-West became the Idaho National Laboratory.) 

Frazier was part of a DOE team that recently conducted "scoping"
meetings in Idaho and surrounding states to answer questions and quell
fears about the plan to bring all the plutonium-238 production to Idaho.
Citizens attending the meetings stated concerns that bringing
plutonium-238-sometimes referred to as the most deadly substance known
to man-to Idaho would jeopardize the environment and health of residents
around the INL facility in Eastern Idaho. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A480

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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