Officials at Hill Air Force Base inadvertently orchestrated a uranium bonfire in a waste incinerator at Layton. Over the past eight months, Hill sent a nine-ton batch of obsolete military hardware to the burn plant, unaware that the items contained "trace" amounts of depleted uranium. And when you're burning nine tons of waste, "trace" amounts add up. All told, five pounds of uranium went up in smoke. The Weapons System Program Office at Hill is at fault. The documents spelling out the contents of the materials to be burned, according to a Hill press release, "were not readily accessible." So, instead of taking the time to track down the paperwork, officials callously threw it on the fire, and Utahns be damned.
saved byEnergy Net on 2008-04-22
