Is Carlsbad to become another Hanford, Wash., nuclear
cleanup project (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb)? Hanford is now
the largest U.S. government Superfund toxic site, requiring more
engineers and technicians for cleanup than were ever used in its
lifetime of producing plutonium. It took a large flow of water from
the Columbia River to cool the reactors producing plutonium. Even
100 million gallons of water for Carlsbad is much more than a
“few garden hoses” as Roger Nelson of the DOE stated.
It is equivalent to a 6-inch-diameter pipe running full-time. This
plutonium project would probably kill all tourism to Carlsbad, and
all of the jobs would be gone by 2018, leaving Carlsbad a true
nuclear “ghost town.”
Eugene D.
Becker
Pasadena,California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Carlsbad: A nuclear ghost town?.
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