05/30/2008

Listen (NPR)

(Note: G.E. subsidiary U.S. Nuclear's uranium mining accident on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation was the greatest expulsion of radioactive material in U.S.history.  On July 16, 1979, at 5:00 A.M., U.S. Nuclear's earthen dam burst, dumping 1100 tons of uranium mining tailings and roughly 94 million gallons of radioactive water into the Rio Puerco.  Three hours and fifty miles later in Gallup, New Mexico, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tested the water and declared it 8,000 times more radioactive than deemed tolerable at the time.  --Annie)

(See  http://tinyurl.com/5klpk9 .)