The aluminium smelter at Bluff has stockpiled more than 100,000 tonnes of cyanide-laced hazardous waste less than 100 metres from a fast-eroding Southland beach.
The smelter company will not reveal its plans for the hazardous waste, despite international industry guidelines it has signed up to that say it should.
The government said earlier this month it remained completely blind about what contamination the closure of the smelter at Tiwai Point might leave behind.
Spent cell liner waste contains hazardous chemical compounds including fluoride and cyanide, and produces explosive gases when mixed with water. It is sometimes called SCL, Spent Pot Lining, or SPL.
Tiwai Point smelter stockpiles 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste near Bluff beach
21 Feb, 2021 07:31 PM
11 minutes to read
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Photo / NZH
RNZ
By Phil Pennington of RNZ
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter at Bluff has stockpiled more than 100,000 tonnes of cyanide-laced hazardous waste less than 100 metres from a fast-eroding Southland beach.
The smelter company will not reveal its plans for the hazardous waste, despite international industry guidelines it has signed up to that say it should.
The government said earlier this month it remained completely blind about what contamination the closure of the smelter at Tiwai Point might leave behind.
Tiwai Point smelter stockpiles 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste near Bluff beach nzherald.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzherald.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kingston Fossil Plant and Oakridge Nuclear Facility – an unholy alliance of radioactive pollution
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The apparent mixing of fossil fuel and nuclear waste streams underscores the long relationship between the Kingston and Oak Ridge facilities.
Between the 1950s and 1980s, so much cesium-137 and mercury was released into the Clinch from Oak Ridge that the Department of Energy, or DOE, said that the river and its feeder stream “served as pipelines for contaminants.” Yet TVA and its contractors, with the blessing of both state and federal regulators, classified all 4 million tons of material they recovered from the Emory as “non-hazardous.”
Kingston Fossil Plant and Oakridge Nuclear Facility – an unholy alliance of radioactive pollution nuclear-news.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nuclear-news.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.