Cleanup of the Kingston Coal Ash Spill Unearthed Nuclear Waste. It was Hidden from Workers.

[CayceG]

How the Kingston coal ash spill unearthed a nuclear nightmare

GRIST.ORG

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What happens when the fallout from the nation’s largest industrial disaster goes nuclear?

 

 

 

This disaster happened a few years ago. Basically a coal ash pond broke its banks and spilled into a river. Big environmental disaster. But the subsequent cleanup was even worse. The company doing the cleanup refused to give their workers respiratory protection or jumpsuits. TVA covered up the things and did some bureaucratic maneuvering to avoid specific classifications that would mandate those safety features (and cost money). Over time, the workers that did the cleanup got sick and died. But they managed to win a class action lawsuit against the company managing the cleanup because of the refusal to provide safety equipment. 

 

Well, now it turns out that the cleanup activity unearthed real life, honest to God nuclear waste. And that was covered up (literally and figuratively) almost immediately. And the dredging work was stopped and transitioned to "well, let's let the sediment settle out on its own, taking the radioactive elements with it and hopefully not disturbing anything else buried here."

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there's a lot of Chernobyl style justifications here too...

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

For anyone else curious, this is in Tennessee. After reading the OP I thought it was the UK or something.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Chernobyl was clearly not a cautionary tale, but a how-to.

[SilentWorld]

what the heck!

[DPCyric]

How many years in prison and how many felonies did these execs get? None I'm assuming while the rich want to make felons of people who stream... this country is completely broken and no amount of voting is going to fix it at this point. This story is honestly insane how they covered this up I never heard about it till now.

[CayceG]

40 minutes ago, DPCyric said:

How many years in prison and how many felonies did these execs get? None I'm assuming while the rich want to make felons of people who stream... this country is completely broken and no amount of voting is going to fix it at this point. This story is honestly insane how they covered this up I never heard about it till now.

 

The execs that buried the nuclear waste in the first place are long dead. 

 

But the story has been going on for years to varying degrees of coverage. It's been covered a ton here in TN. But, as with every disaster, after cleanup begins the whole thing falls off the radar.