By Matthew Berdyck On December 2nd 1942, the world witnessed its first sustained nuclear reaction, introducing the planet to the dawn of atomic energy, nuclear proliferation, and high transuranic elements: human-made radioactive elements; neptunium, plutonium, americium, and others, that have atomic numbers higher than uranium in the periodic table of elements. The reactor, called Chicago Pile 1…
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1939 August 2: Albert Einstein signs the letter (Einstein–Szilárd letter), authored by physicist Leó Szilárd and addressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, advising him to fund research into the possibility of using nuclear fission as a weapon as Nazi Germany may also be conducting such research. September 3: Great Britain and France declare war…
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By Matthew Berdyck I’d randomly wandered into Moab, Utah after taking a spontaneous left from I-80 west at Crescent Junction, onto 191. Blowing into town on a cloud of dust led me to a hotel called the Gonzo Inn; a small, creatively spun, inn, handcrafted from the legacy of Thompson, himself. At the desk, I…
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ToxicWasteSites.org is proud to announce the release of our EPA Superfund Toxic Waste Site Records Downloader. Activists and journalists that would like to research these sites are often left with the arduous task of locating and downloading all of the relevant records. Our Superfund downloader streamlines this process, allowing a researcher to quickly locate and…
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There are over 47,000 Superfund sites. 1,300 of these sites are listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). This interactive map, created by the US EPA, can help you locate an NPL Superfund site and associated pubicly available online records. Iframes not supported
The B Reactor (the 105-B building at the Hanford Site) was the world’s first production-scale nuclear reactor. It was rushed into construction during the height of WW II as part of the Manhattan Project, the urgent effort by the United States to create an atomic bomb before one could be built, it was feared,…
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Provo, Utah –Portions of Lake Utah have been closed after the discovery of blooms of toxic algae. On September 19th, 2018, The Division of Water Quality (DWQ) took samples from Lake Utah. Public records collected by the DWQ reveal, “Anatoxin-a levels exceeded recreation health-based thresholds for a Warning Advisory at two sample sites.” “Three sites exceeded recreation health-based levels for…
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The Morris Operation, located in Morris, Illinois, is the home to what is billed as the nations only high-level radioactive waste storage facility in The U.S, which stores spent Uranium 235 fuel rods from nuclear power production plants. While all nuclear power plants have storage ponds, the Morris Operation is the only one that has been formally designated…
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