Maralinga Fallout

[Black Orchid]

Fallout from nuclear tests at Maralinga worse than previously thought.

Millions of dollars have been spent cleaning up radioactive fallout from nuclear bombs detonated in outback South Australia, but recent tests show the contamination is worse than previously thought.

Australian researchers have found that radioactive particles released during nuclear tests more than 60 years ago at sites, including Maralinga, remain highly reactive.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains names of people who have died.

Scientists initially thought that these particles in the soil were stable and inert.

However, research by Dr Megan Cook has revealed that the particles' outer shell can break down in harsh, arid environments and release highly reactive, radioactive compounds into the environment.

"We now have a sustained and prolonged release of plutonium into the ecosystem," Dr Cook said.

Dr Cook, who is based at Monash University in Melbourne, said these reactive nano-particles — which normally are shielded from the environment — can interact with clay and organic matter in the soil over time and leach into groundwater, especially after heavy rainfall.

"There are some spots on the Maralinga site [where] we're already seeing that," she said.

"If it leaches into the groundwater, it can become part of the uptake by plants. It can become more easily inhaled or eaten by animals, and as it becomes part of their ecosystem, it will accumulate," she said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-22/ ... /100157478

The Brits should be paying compensation.

[Bobby]

The half lives of most of the elements released were well known before the tests:

Some common nuclear waste half lives:

Plutonium 239 half life 24,110 years.
Americium 241 half life 432 years
Radium 226 Half life 1,600 years
Uranium 236 Half life 15 million years.
Plutonium 244 Half life 80 million years
Uranium 235 Half life 704 million years
Uranium 238 half life 4.5 billion years

We can only assume that they just didn't care that the damage they
were doing would pollute the environment for millions
and even billions of years.

[brian ross]

The Australian Government believed it was going, as part of the test, be provided with Atomic secrets by the UK Government. It didn't happen. Penney, the Australian Chief Scientist acted more like an Englishman, than an Australian in considering the outcomes from the Atomic Tests. Australia held a Royal Commission that found that, under "Diamond Jim" McClellan in the 1980s. There were two main efforts to clean up the Maralinga Test Site, one in the 1970s, the second in the late 1980s. The British not only conducted explosion tests (ie exploding Atomic bombs) also carried out various safety tests to determine whether the design of the bombs were safe enough to store or if they were involved in accidents. They deliberately burnt the bombs and examine the fall out of them, or they exploded the normal explosive and watched what happened. The result was the spread of highly radioactive material over vast areas of the Australian landscape. The Indigenous people suffered as a consequence. Neither of the clean up efforts were exhaustive and the areas still remain radioactive. I took part in the late 1980s one. The 1970s one was primarily done by British forces. The Australian Government basically signed them both off with out checking them thoroughly enough. The result is we have unfortunately inherited a radioactive landscape.

[Bobby]

The Australian Government believed it was going, as part of the test, be provided with Atomic secrets by the UK Government. It didn't happen. Penney, the Australian Chief Scientist acted more like an Englishman, than an Australian in considering the outcomes from the Atomic Tests. Australia held a Royal Commission that found that, under "Diamond Jim" McClellan in the 1980s. There were two main efforts to clean up the Maralinga Test Site, one in the 1970s, the second in the late 1980s. The British not only conducted explosion tests (ie exploding Atomic bombs) also carried out various safety tests to determine whether the design of the bombs were safe enough to store or if they were involved in accidents. They deliberately burnt the bombs and examine the fall out of them, or they exploded the normal explosive and watched what happened. The result was the spread of highly radioactive material over vast areas of the Australian landscape. The Indigenous people suffered as a consequence. Neither of the clean up efforts were exhaustive and the areas still remain radioactive. I took part in the late 1980s one. The 1970s one was primarily done by British forces. The Australian Government basically signed them both off with out checking them thoroughly enough. The result is we have unfortunately inherited a radioactive landscape.

Its' a crime against humanity to destroy an environment for 1 billion years.