“All over the city, plutonium continued to be the topic of rumor and gossip, like a celebrity awash in the aftermath of a fresh transgression. The official word was minimal. ‘We’re looking into it.’ ‘It’s not part of any present function of the plant.’ ‘It’s of no danger to employees of the community.’ The Department of Energy was sending a representative. According to a press release, the plutonium that had entered the plant was ‘an insignificant amount.’
“Reed swam through the theories and the official statements, the terse assurances of the well-oiled managers.
” … Reed pieced together a version of the story from the guys coming and going. It was part rumor, part speculation, part memories of men who remembered the tales from older, now-retired workers. They claimed the plutonium had arrived over a period of twenty years in secret shipments of reactor tails – spent uranium fuel rods that had been used in nuclear reactors to make plutonium for atomic bombs. The plant recycled the fuel by retrieving the last remaining traces of valuable uranium. But plutonium – and other bomb-making byproducts – had contaminated the material. When the stuff sped through gaseous diffusion, the contaminants lingered behind, clinging to the lining of the pipes in the Cascade.”
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With her health failing, she turned to The Times to help.
More: thetimesonline.com
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Here's the short of it: WWII ended with a bang, we patted ourselves on the collective back for a decimation job well done, but — oh, hell — we left a surplus of research
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The UKAEA’s holiday sex advice appears in the latest company bulletin for employees.
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