Nuclear safety disregarded by private URS firm of San Francisco

"Whistleblower Fired After Voicing Safety Concerns at Nuclear Site;
Donna Busche, who repeatedly cited dangerous conditions, is not first forced from job at leak-prone nuclear waste dump"
2014-02-19 by Sarah Lazare for "CommonDreams.org" [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/02/19/whistleblower-fired-after-voicing-safety-concerns-nuclear-site]:
The person responsible for overseeing the cleanup of the former nuclear weapons site in Hanford, Washington—the most contaminated in the United States—was fired on Tuesday after blowing the whistle on the dangerous conditions at the facility.
Donna Busche—manager of Environmental and Nuclear Safety for the San Francisco-based URS Corporation, a Hanford cleanup subcontractor hired by the federal government — is at least the third senior official who has been fired or forced out after raising the alarm about lack of safety at the site, according to the Los Angeles Times [http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hanford-whistleblower-fired-20140218,0,7410182.story]. She said executives told her she was being fired for “unprofessional conduct.”
“The Energy Department’s overall safety culture is broken and all they are doing now is sitting idly by,” Busche declared on Tuesday.
While URS claims Busche was not punished or retaliated against, Busche says she was "absolutely" targeted [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/second-whistleblower-donna-busche-fired-at-troubled-wash-state-hanford-nuke-plant/].
Busche, who had repeatedly charged that the clean-up company was steamrolling safety protections and ignoring dangerous technology flaws, had previously filed a lawsuit and a U.S. Labor Department complaint charging that URS was attempting to repress and fire her for speaking out.
"When people stand up and say something is unsafe and, as a result of that, they get fired, it sends a message to everyone else that to protect your career you should say nothing," said Tom Carpenter, Executive Director for the watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, in an interview with Common Dreams.
He added, "I feel extremely disappointment that the federal government, who hires these contractors, has failed to hold this company to account."
The Hanford facility, which was built by the federal government during the 1940s, has long been central to the U.S. military's nuclear arsenal, including the development of the atom bomb, production of plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and other nuclear weapons.
The massive facility, which is now mostly decommissioned, is home to more than 53 million gallons of extremely radioactive sludge held in troubled tanks that have previously leaked [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-tanks-at-hanford-nuclear-site-in-wash-leaking/]. An estimated 1 million gallons of radioactive fluid has already spilled at the site, threatening the nearby Columbia River.
The Energy Department is engaged in a multi-billion dollar effort to transform this radioactive waste into a glass-like substance for permanent underground storage. Yet several high-ranking scientists and officials at the site have warned the technology is unsound and the process reckless.
Although they were also fired, the previous warnings by whistleblowers prompted work stoppages and a federal investigation into dangers at the site—including the possibility of a hydrogen explosion.

Military nuclear waste dump is leaking into underground water sources

"Suspected Radiation Leak in Military's Nuclear Dumping Ground;
'This is highly toxic poisoning that can be eliminated by stopping the desire to be a nuclear power over the world' "
2014-02-17 by Sarah Lazare for "CommonDreams.org" [http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/02/17/suspected-radiation-leak-militarys-nuclear-dumping-ground]:
A New Mexico deep-earth repository for the U.S. military's nuclear waste has likely sprung an underground radiation leak, sparking concern among Native American communities and other residents who "carry the burden" of this state's nuclear legacy.
"Since the detonation and creation of first atomic bomb in New Mexico, we the people who live in close proximity of storage and creation of these weapons have been in a state of fear," said Kathy Wanpovi Sanchez, Environmental Health and Justice Program Manager for Tewa Women United, an indigenous organization based in northen New Mexico.
Over the weekend, abnormally high levels of radioactive particles were found underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico, where radioactive waste, including from nuclear weapons production, is dumped deep beneath the earth's surface and stored in salt formations.
"I believe it's safe to say we've never seen a level like we are seeing. We just don't know if it's a real event, but it looks like one," said Department of Energy spokesman Roger Nelson.
WIPP stores waste that releases alpha and beta radiation, which are highly cancerous when ingested, explained Arnie Gundersen, former nuclear industry executive turned whistleblower, in an interview with Common Dreams. DOE officials say radiation has not been detected in surface samples, and no workers have been exposed. They say they do not yet know the source of the suspected underground leak.
Gundersen says the technology behind WIPP is untested — hence the word "pilot" in the facility's title. "As a society, we believe that if you stick things in the earth, they are safe," he said. "But with radioactivity, it's not dead. It can come back to haunt you if there is a leak afterwards. This is alive."
Don Hancock, Director of the Nuclear Waste Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, says the concerns about the site extend beyond the method of nuclear waste storage. "We have always thought the site is a bad site primarily because it is centrally located in one of the largest and most active oil and gas production areas in the United States. This does not seem to be an appropriate place to put waste."
The incident comes just over a week after an underground truck fire forced an evacuation of the facility.
Nuclear experts are not convinced that the situation is safe. "This kind of incident is not supposed to happen," said Hancock. "Just like the fire on the underground, there were these two incidents within a 12-day period. That is worrisome and that is a significant situation."
Storage is not the only issue facing local residents. Nuclear waste transported from across the country, and across the state from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the north, where nuclear weapons are developed, passes through "Native American reservations, major highways, and near school systems," as it makes its way to WIPP, says Sanchez.
"Our pain and death due to cancer have been ignored. We are sick and tired of all this madness. And all this transportation and waste storage is for the benefit of a nuclear war weapons arsenal. Why?" asked Sanchez. "The U.S. government disregards and takes advantage of indigenous people. This is an unequal share of the burden we are carrying."
She added, "This is highly toxic poisoning that can be eliminated by stopping the desire to be a nuclear power over the world."