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August 22, 2007 at 06:38:56     Permalink Nuclear hazards in Tennessee were kept hidden from the public Diary Entry by Mary Shaw (about the author)

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According to an article by the Associated Press, "A three-year veil of secrecy in the name of national security was used to keep the public in the dark about the handling of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant -- including a leak that could have caused a deadly, uncontrolled nuclear reaction." The plant is located in Tennessee. The public was never told about the danger, until now. Why not? Well, as the article explains, "In 2004, the government became so concerned about releasing nuclear secrets that the commission removed more than 1,740 documents from its public archives -- even some that apparently involved basic safety violations at the company, which operates a 65-acre gated complex in tiny Erwin, about 120 miles north of Knoxville." In other words, they're so afraid of terrorism that they're overreacting and keeping important nuclear hazard information from the public. They think they're protecting us from terrorists, but they're really just keeping us in the dark about some real dangers facing us. Don't the people living near that plant have a right to know about any hazards that exist in their backyards? If you lived near a nuclear power plant (as I do), wouldn't you want to know if something went wrong? -----

 

Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views (more...)
 

 

 
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