Health threats from plutonium and uranium:Reuters and USA Today
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Thousands more people than expected face health and pollution threats from plutonium and other highly radioactive elements in vast amounts of uranium recycled by the U.S. nuclear weapons program over the past 50 years, USA Today reported Monday.
Recycled uranium was shipped worldwide from 1952 until 1999, when distribution was halted by revelations of its contamination with plutonium and other radioactive elements.
USA Today, citing an examination of more than 1,000 pages of new reports and documents on recycled uranium, said the reports showed that the recycling program yielded 250,000 tons of tainted uranium, twice the amount estimated two year ago.
It said the material was handled at about 10 times the number of sites revealed previously, reaching more than 100 federal plants, private manufacturers and universities.
Read the article here.
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