No More Nukes!
2012-04-24 08:48:13 UTC
Vomiting road workers hospitalized after exposing mysterious
nuclear waste
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/18/vomiting-road-workers-
hospitalized-after-exposing-mysterious-nuclear-
waste/?intcmp=obnetwork
Road workers began vomiting and were hospitalized Wednesday
after being exposed to suspected nuclear material, unearthed
during a highway upgrade in Australia.
Meanwhile the country's nuclear authority was scrambling for
answers after the apparent radioactive waste was uncovered on
the Pacific Highway south of Port Macquarie, in New South Wales.
The material, said to include cesium, is believed to have been
buried after a truck carrying radioactive isotopes from Sydney's
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor crashed in the area in December
1980, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported. The isotopes are
believed to have been destined for the US.
The upgrade's project manager, Bob Higgins, said the workers
became sick after unearthing a strange clay-like material,
according to Australian Associated Press.
"As we've taken down the cutting there we exposed the face of
the existing material [and] came across a clay material that
when it's exposed to air it gets an orange streak through it,"
he told ABC Radio.
"There were a number of workers that felt a little bit of nausea
and there was a bit of vomiting when they were in close
proximity."
Specialists in the area were assessing what to do with the
radioactive materials, and if they pose any further risk.
And in scenes akin to a Hollywood disaster film, officials from
the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
(ANTSO) -- the government agency behind the Lucas Heights
reactor -- were digging through 30-year-old files for
information.
"We are currently going through our archives to find out
ourselves," a spokesman said about the details of the 1980
crash. "We're also ringing old-timers," who used to work at the
reactor, he added.
But if conspiracy websites are to be believed they may not find
much.
Several anti-nuclear blogs claim at the time 16 people near the
crash site suffered from radioactive poisoning and accused
ANSTO's predecessor the Australian Atomic Energy Commission and
the then Health Commission of a cover-up.
nuclear waste
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/18/vomiting-road-workers-
hospitalized-after-exposing-mysterious-nuclear-
waste/?intcmp=obnetwork
Road workers began vomiting and were hospitalized Wednesday
after being exposed to suspected nuclear material, unearthed
during a highway upgrade in Australia.
Meanwhile the country's nuclear authority was scrambling for
answers after the apparent radioactive waste was uncovered on
the Pacific Highway south of Port Macquarie, in New South Wales.
The material, said to include cesium, is believed to have been
buried after a truck carrying radioactive isotopes from Sydney's
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor crashed in the area in December
1980, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported. The isotopes are
believed to have been destined for the US.
The upgrade's project manager, Bob Higgins, said the workers
became sick after unearthing a strange clay-like material,
according to Australian Associated Press.
"As we've taken down the cutting there we exposed the face of
the existing material [and] came across a clay material that
when it's exposed to air it gets an orange streak through it,"
he told ABC Radio.
"There were a number of workers that felt a little bit of nausea
and there was a bit of vomiting when they were in close
proximity."
Specialists in the area were assessing what to do with the
radioactive materials, and if they pose any further risk.
And in scenes akin to a Hollywood disaster film, officials from
the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
(ANTSO) -- the government agency behind the Lucas Heights
reactor -- were digging through 30-year-old files for
information.
"We are currently going through our archives to find out
ourselves," a spokesman said about the details of the 1980
crash. "We're also ringing old-timers," who used to work at the
reactor, he added.
But if conspiracy websites are to be believed they may not find
much.
Several anti-nuclear blogs claim at the time 16 people near the
crash site suffered from radioactive poisoning and accused
ANSTO's predecessor the Australian Atomic Energy Commission and
the then Health Commission of a cover-up.