Radioactivity found in Spain, during Greenpeace training
We train our staff properly at Greenpeace. That’s how come we found the
highly radioactive element Cesium-137, during radiation safety training in Spain. The Cesium is in marshes near the El Tinto River, 500 metres from the city of Huelva, and its 145,000 citizens.
Cesium is very dangerous, look at what happened when it
accidentally spread in a Brazilian town
Ok, I'm scared. The only reason the Cesium was detected was because we chose to train our staff around this waste dump. Hmm, there's a big question here - just how many other places in the world get polluted by undetected dangerous radioactive materials.
The Cesium is there because in 1998, 7,000 tonnes of radioactive material was buried in the marshes. This was after the Acerinox accident, where a cesium source passed undetected through a metal reprocessing plant, releasing a radioactive cloud.
The radioactivity spread to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, levels measured up to 1000 times higher than normal.
The Spanish authorities chose not to handle the cesium ashes as nuclear waste. But they assured the world that the dangerous radioactive material had been safely disposed of and isolated from the environment.
Right, that's why we're finding it nearly ten years later, by chance, leaking into the El Tinto River... It's up to government's to safely dispose of radioactive waste.
Oh, that's right they can't - there is no way to safely deal with it.
Read about other Greenpeace radiation training in Chernobyl
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