Nuclear Dumps by the Riverside: Threats to the Savannah River from Radioactive Contamination at the Savannah River Site

By Arjun Makhijani and Michele Boyd

The Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina produced more than one-third of the plutonium for U.S. nuclear bombs, almost all of the tritium, and other nuclear materials (plutonium-238, plutonium-242, and neptunium-237) for weapons and non-weapons applications.  Past dumping and mismanagement and a failure to implement an adequate cleanup plan at SRS have created extensive water pollution beneath the site as well as risks for the future integrity of critical water resources in the region, including the Savannah River.  Current waste management practices threaten to make SRS into a high-level nuclear waste dump by one of the most important rivers in the southeastern United States.

Published by Alla Yaroshinskaya