Soviet and U.S. Nuclear Legacies

In response to “A Nuclear Nightmare” series, Sept. 2-4:

Few people understand that the problems with nuclear pollution in the U.S. are of a magnitude comparable to that in the Soviet Union. From 1944-1954 Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford plant discharged over 500,000 curies of radioactive iodine into the atmosphere, and kept it a secret until 1986. Because of the secrecy and lack of precautions being taken, preliminary estimates of the doses received by the unsuspecting population of eastern Washington state are higher than the doses received by those proximate to Chernobyl.

Just last month it was discovered, through documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that radioactive iodine was also released from the Oak Ridge plant in Tennessee, a fact which the DOE still denies. Additionally, at Hanford and the DOE’s Savannah River plant in South Carolina numerous reactor accidents were kept secret for up to 30 years.

Under the rubric of national security much of what needs to be known about releases of radiation and exposures to large populations is still kept secret.

MARK MORI, Hollywood. Mori’s documentary film “Building Bombs,” which focuses on nuclear pollution at the Savannah River plant, received an Academy Award nomination last year.