Another Toxic Environmental Legacy of the Nuclear Age.

At Portsmouth/Piketon on the Ohio River the Government operated a uranium isotope enrichment plan using gaseous diffusion of uranium-hexafluoride to increase the natural concentration ratio of U-235/U-238 (0.7%) to 4 or 5% for use in nuclear reactors. There is a similar plant operating in Paducah, KY. Both sites have a horrendous record of contamination of the environment (water, air and soil) with radioactive isotopes and toxic chemicals. In the past few years the Portsmouth site has been conducting demolition activities in the open air with a brief hiatus during Covid. This article shows a study by a professor at Northern Arizona University which documents measurements of uranium in the air over those years. The results show a clearly evident drop in this air level during Covid when demolition activities were suspended with an increase to former levels after these activities resumed. This proves that the operation and demolition of the plant released uranium particles into the air and that open air demolition at the plant is a bad idea.