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New Mexico Levies $54M Against Energy Dept. For Violations At Nuclear Repository
mdsolar notes that New Mexico has asked the US Department of Energy to pay over $54 million in fines stemming from violations that led to the indefinite closure of the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository. The state Environment Department delivered a pair of compliance orders to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, marking the state's largest penalty ever imposed on the agency. Together, the orders outline more than 30 state permit violations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico and at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The orders and the civil penalties that come with them are just the beginning of possible financial sanctions the Energy Department could face in New Mexico. The state says it's continuing to investigate and more fines are possible. The focus has been on a canister of waste from Los Alamos that ruptured in one of WIPP's storage rooms in February. More than 20 workers were contaminated and the facility was forced to close, putting in jeopardy efforts around the country to clean up tons of Cold War-era waste."
Let's give New mexico back to Mexico.
The people who manage nuclear projects tend to get the impression they are above and beyond government regulations and accountability, and then shit ensues with the corresponding PR fallout.
Happened in the US, happened in Europe, happened in Japan, will happen in China, too.
Too bad.
Next maybe they'll fine the military over activities at White Sands Missile Range?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
... Yucky Mountain.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
You're an absolute idiot, the end!
http://theworkaround.com/
And "asks" is the key word, since unless Congress has explicitly agreed prior to give the state the right to fine it, then there is no way that they can enforce a fine against a federal agency.
Unless the state of New Mexico has a prior agreement with the Federal Gov't granting it the ability to levy fines against the DOE, then these "fines" are strictly for show, since they are unenforcible against the federal government under principles of soverign immunity. Furthermore, since they apparently occurred on a federal facility, they fall outside of the state's jurisdiction and are properly investigated/enforced by the federal EPA.
NM is currently under neo-con control. This spill occurred on federal land within WIPP. The state had nothing to do with cleanup or trying to get the gov to do so. Yet, this neo-cons trash wants to demand loads of money to make up for their mismanagement of the state.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Way off topic, but European diseases such as Smallpox killed Incas. Quoting: "Even before the arrival of Pizarro, smallpox had already devastated the Inca Empire..." And: "... the viruses tore through the continent, killing an estimated 90% of Native Americans."
Los Alamos doesn't represent anything except Los Alamos.
The people who manage nuclear projects tend to get the impression they are above and beyond government regulations and accountability, and then shit ensues with the corresponding PR fallout.
Happened in the US, happened in Europe, happened in Japan, has happened in China, too.
Too bad.
FTFY
There is a nuclear disaster area in the United States, the Hanford nuclear site. I've heard about the some of the problems over many years from a manager of one of the departments of the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Wikipedia article mentions some of the problems. Here is one quote:
"Citing the 2014 Hanford Lifecycle Scope Schedule and Cost report, the 2014 estimated cost of the remaining Hanford clean up is $113.6 billion..." [my emphasis] Retrieved Dec. 3, 2014.
Here is another quote from the Hanford Wikipedia article: "From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river and, after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned it to the river. Before being released back into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basin for up to six hours. Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several terabecquerels entered the river every day. These releases were kept secret by the federal government."
What is called cleaning Hanford has now taken more than 50 years. The Wikipedia article is not, at present, completely clear about that fact, apparently because, as the quote above says, the U.S. government managed the information so that it did not get into the news, although much of the information was not actually a secret, but was known to people living in the area.
Although this was a nuclear weapons facility, this is just one example of the dangers of nuclear power. It ain't worth the risk, and thorium is a pipe dream at this point. Invest in renewables, which are making amazing gains practically every week!
WIPP was designed, owned, and run by the government, or at least by contractors who may as well be government employees. The problematic waste was packed by employees of Los Alamos National Labs, a government facility. I don't know exactly where you intended to go with this, but I very much doubt anyone involved felt that they were somehow beyond government accountability.
That's one of the problems with Slashdot commenters writing comments that are so off-topic. One person said, "Let's give New mexico back to Mexico." The response was "Right after Mexico gives Mexico back to the Incas."
I intended to say that there were no more Incas, because the Incas contracted European diseases.
And more importantly, does it work in vanilla Ubuntu or is it Debian Unstable only?
-- 29A the number of the Beast