Nuclear Waste Dump Troubling Residents Of Armstrong Co. Town

Source: CBS Pittsburgh

What may be the most dangerous nuclear waste dump in the nation sits just 40 miles north of Pittsburgh, in Armstrong County.

As the government plans to excavate that waste, people who live nearby are nervous.

Ameno grew up in Apollo, Pennsylvania, a stone’s throw from the NUMEC nuclear materials plant and the waste it stored in 55 gallons drums.

They left her with this:

“Two brain tumors,” she said. “I still have one, uterine cancer.”

Today, Ameno is a survivor and an activist — who like the residents who recently voiced their concerns at a meeting — continue to ask questions about the nuclear waste NUMEC and its successor buried down the road in shallow trenches at a 144-acre site in Parks Township.

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Haley is a nuclear engineer who worked for NUMEC, which produced nuclear fuel for power plants and atomic submarines and disposed of the waste at Parks Township.

“No one knows everything that’s there,” Haley said.

But Haley says government estimates have already proved to be less than 5 percent of what may be there. There are 10 known trenches of nuclear waste and the government excavated just half of one of them.

But Haley says the amount of volatile Uranium-235 unearthed, was more than what the government had estimated for the entire site.

“Oh yes, it’s grossly underestimated,” he said. “Seriously.”

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Read more: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/01/30/nuclear-waste-dump-troubling-amstrong-co-residents/