Environment
Idaho Imports Radioactive Kuwaiti Waste
May 1, 2008 
When a local company sells a product off shore it usually qualifies as “EXPORT” sales, but what is it when they are selling space for contaminated uranium waste that is IMPORTED?
Local media and the mainstreamers in Longview, Washington are all over a story about 6,700 tons of sand from Kuwait contaminated with depleted uranium and lead making a rail journey from Longview to Grandview, Idaho–a route that will cross both Canyon and Ada counties.
The 306 containers of contaminated sand will end up at the Grandview hazardous waste site owned by American Ecology. The sand became contaminated with low levels of depleted uranium following a fire at Camp Doha during the first Gulf War in 1991. The U.S. Army then discovered potentially hazardous levels of lead in the shipment.
Seems to us a better final resting site for this nasty stuff would be somewhere in Southern Iraq and NOT IN MY BACK YARD.
We can’t wait to hear from former Guvs Phil Batt and Cecil Andrus who spent a good portion of their terms keeping nuke waste out of Idaho or arranging to get it moved out. While the sand emits radiation, it is much lower than transuranic waste.
Here is what the on line WIKIPEDIA has to say that appears to be pertinent:
“Depleted uranium munitions are controversial because of numerous unanswered questions about the long-term health effects. DU is less toxic than other heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury, and is only very weakly radioactive because of its long half life. While any radiation exposure has risks, no conclusive epidemiological data have correlated DU exposure to specific human health effects such as cancer. However, the UK government has attributed birth defect claims from a 1991 Gulf War combat veteran to DU poisoning, and studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents continue to suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. Until such issues are resolved with further research, the use of DU by the military will continue to be controversial.”
The spin docs for the U.S. government will tell us it isn’t really THAT dangerous…which begs the question: “Why not leave it in the Mideast?” No doubt someone will be able to tell us importing the radioactive junk will mean jobs for Idaho.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
May 2, 2008, 6:16 am
Okay lets see if Otter has any back bone and will stand up for the people of Idaho.
Can’t believe they still want to store there junk in our state.
May 2, 2008, 7:34 am
I am a freelance writer and speaker on the subject of Uranium weapons. The U.S. government purposely has placed DU in at least the following places that are known (more are suspected): The USA (includes Hawaiian Islands & Alaska), Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Korea, Japan, Guam, Puerto Rico, Somalia, and islands off the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts.
It is our (USA) radioactive poison, placed around the world by our government. Why should we not take back our own poison and put it in our own backyard?
After all, it’s only fair. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Or, as ye nuke, so shall ye be nuked. As Justin T sings: What goes around comes back around… right?
Google the following phrase, with the quotation marks, to learn more:
“cathy garger” + “depleted uranium”
Thank you very much for bringing up this subject. And if it is a comfort to you? I am being nuked, too, here near DC/Balto, with the Aberdeen Proving Grounds that is poisoning us with Depleted Uranium in the open air, and with the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant that emits Radionuclides into my air and the into the Chesapeake Bay.
We are all being toxically and radioactively poisoned with this stuff. It is Uncle Sam’s best-kept secret…or… apparently not for too much longer will it be a secret!
By the way, please know I do not wish any single human to be harmed by this stuff. The point I am trying to make is that each and every single life on this planet is special, important, and very precious. We have been radioactively contaminating Asia since 1991 and the US since circa 1943.
And now the poison is coming home to stay with its owners. This is sad and tragic, but we all fell asleep at the wheel and now our nightmares are being experienced in a big way, as evidenced by large radiation-induced diseases in epidemic proportions, such as cancers, diabetes, auto-immune system diseases, and many other disorders.
We are killing our own, right here at home.
Cathy Garger
May 2, 2008, 12:21 pm
Just how much energy in the form of fuel did it take to haul all that sand across the world? This is just an outrage! There has to be more to this story. Can someone follow the money?
May 2, 2008, 6:24 pm
Hey, couldn’t they use some of it to plug up the “rat hole” where they found Saddam?
What are we going to send them in exchange to fill up the big hole this will leave over there?
And I’m with TJ on wanting to know about the shipments — what ships are hauling it, how much fuel does it use up, how much does it cost (for ships, crews, fuel), then how much will it cost to haul it from the seaside to Idaho?
Guess they might as well send it here, though. The Feds seem to think the whole state should be a nuclear dump anyway.
May 2, 2008, 8:47 pm
The company that bid to receive this is licensed to receive low level waste product and is obviously equipped to handle it. I fail to see what the big deal is here. We had some sort of accident on foreign soil and are being required to remove it. I believe the waste is probably the result of our M1A1 depleted tank rounds. I have no reservations about it being stored here. However, I do have a problem with being required to remove it by a country whose rear-end we saved 15 years ago. If the thanks we get from the middle east is “get YOUR garbage out of here” while we are being raped economically by those same nations, then our position should be “Sorry guys, we are going home now, and good luck with your problems! Oh, and by the way, we aren’t going to buy any more of your oil because we will be drilling ANWAR and the Pacific Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to get our oil. In addition, we have just told our oil companies that although we won’t nationalize them, they have just been given instruction to sell all their products in this country. No more selling our oil overseas! Ya’ll have a nice day now OK?” At the same time, we need to explain to the world that even though we won’t send our soldiers to save your sorry butts from terrorist activities, we are putting you all on notice. If you harbor, or allow terrorist organizations safe haven, we will bomb the living hell out of them on your soil. Are we clear here?
And Cathy, I have read your offerings. You are one scary human being! The best advise I could offer you is that you would probably feel better if you made an aluminum foil outfit. That way the radio waves couldn’t get to you!
May 2, 2008, 9:32 pm
Why should we bring it here? Is there a particular reason it’s being moved? If it’s fine where it is, just leave it be.
May 2, 2008, 9:35 pm
My favorite part of the Wikipedia article was a paragraph further down. I copied it below.
“In the 1970s, The Pentagon reported that the Soviet military had developed armor plating for Warsaw Pact tanks that NATO ammunition couldn’t penetrate. The Pentagon began searching for material to make denser bullets. After testing various metals, ordnance researchers settled on depleted uranium. DU was useful in ammunition not only because of its unique physical properties and effectiveness, but also because it was cheap and readily available. Tungsten, the only other candidate, had to be obtained from China. With DU stockpiles estimated to be more than 500,000 tons, the financial burden of housing this amount of low-level radioactive waste was very apparent. It was therefore more economical to use depleted uranium rather than storing it.”
Long story short; The solution to the cost of storing hazardous waste is to turn it into bullets. Kill your enemies quickly. Kill your friends slowly.
What a country!
May 3, 2008, 11:43 am
Way to go, Dave. Why in the world would the US not dump the radioactive sand in Iraq or leave it in Kuwait? Its incomprehensible. Hopefully our illustrious Governor will thwart this horrid undertaking.
May 3, 2008, 1:55 pm
I am aware of a five sided building in Virginia which could house this sand much better than anyplace in Idaho. Not only does it have five sides, it has five floors above ground (plus two basement levels), and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles (28.2 km)[1] (28.2 kilometers) of corridors. This means that it can hold even more sand as it comes necessary (we are still shooting the sand with hot shells). Not only that, this building is well protected.
or the new sand could replace the 680,000 tons of sand dredged from the Potomac River which was used to reinforce the concrete structure. I am sure that it would not make that big of difference in the heath of the poor old Potomac.
And best of all, it would not encourage more shipments to Idaho – my yard.
EDITOR NOTE– One reader who refused to post told us, “The safest place for the contaminated sand is in the Vandal End Zone behind their goal…no one ever goes there.”
May 3, 2008, 2:06 pm
It is not Kuwaiti waste. It’s US waste. Cleaning up your own mess is just good manners.
The government of Kuwait didn’t choose Idaho as the repository for this shipment. The US government did that.
The people that made the decsion are glad to let us rant about the Kuawaitis.
EDITOR NOTE–You’d think that after Bush the First liberated Kuwati, they would give us some oil at a discount or at least keep the polluted sand which was polluted on their behalf.
May 4, 2008, 4:45 am
Hellooooo Butch you out there?
Make a statement.
Hummmm maybe he’s not at home.
May 4, 2008, 9:53 am
Butch may have increased the size of his wallet with this one. Or made some good “now you owe me at election time” credits.
Put it in his sandbox at home. Let his grandkids play in it. Make his windows out of it.
Butch just does not have Idaho’s interest at heart.
Hell, where is Dirk? Where is Wide Stance? Where is Sali? Oh, they don’t care about Idaho? what news that is!!
May 10, 2008, 2:51 pm
When DU rounds are exploded both the target and the round — in an extremely high temperature fire — releases nanoparticle-sized radioactive and toxic DU, and the metals of the target.
The DU can be breathed in as dust or ingested via the mouth — the toxic and radioactive dust is easily made airborne, just as dust and sand is. Breath in the dust, the sand whipping in the winds, and you’ve got radioactive and toxic particles in your body that will pass through your cell walls, poison you and mess up your DNA.