Tri-Valley CAREs
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
How serious will the next incident at the Livermore Lab be?
July 6, 2019
Source: East Bay Times
EDITOR,
I recently joined Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment as a legal intern. CAREs is a nonprofit watchdog organization that has monitored the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for over 30 years. Already I have learned things about LLNL that concern me as a resident.
In May 2018, there was an issue with the ventilation system in Building 132, which was causing fumes to be taken in and filtered back into the same building.
RAt LLNL's high explosive testing facility at Site 300 in Tracy, there were six violations found by the San Joaquin County Department of Environmental Health found in 2018.
But perhaps the most alarming report was in September 2018 when a Class III curium-224 source (a radioactive material) went missing.
The question is not if there will be more accidents, but when and how serious will they be. I am relieved that CAREs is watching out.
Nick Bastovan,
Livermore