When you think of radioactive contaminants, you might imagine Homer Simpson sleeping at his power plant workstation while a critical leak occurs. Unfortunately, that image might not be too far off from reality!
First, radioactive contaminants are substances that contain unstable isotopes that emit radiation. Some radioactive contaminants, such as radon gas, occur naturally in the environment and are not a huge threat to our health.
What is a huge threat to our health is the isotopes that are a product of nuclear reactions, such as what happens at Homer’s power plant or during the testing of nuclear weapons.
You may not realize it, but according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as of September 2021, there are 93 operating nuclear reactors and 56 nuclear power plants in the United States. Many other nuclear facilities in the US are used for research, medical isotope production, and other purposes.
That means nuclear energy production is rampant in this country. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, about 120 million Americans live within 50 miles of at least one operating nuclear power plant, representing 37% of our total population!
The United States conducted nuclear weapon testing from 1945 to 1992, primarily in the deserts of Nevada and New Mexico, as well as in the Pacific Ocean. During this period, the US government conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests, both above-ground and underground.
The above-ground tests, conducted from 1945 to 1963, released large amounts of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. The fallout was carried by wind and deposited across the US and worldwide. Because of those tests, any place in the US could have radioactive contaminants in the drinking water!
Radioactive contaminants pose a substantial risk to our health and to our environment. When you are exposed to ionizing radiation, it damages the DNA and cellular structures in your body. This leads to an increased risk of cancer, genetic mutations, and other major health problems.
This ionizing radiation is also devastating to our environment. Once radioactive contaminants are leaked into the environment, they generally last there for long periods of time, some even lasting millions of years.
According to a 2019 EPA report on drinking water quality in the US, more than 90% of community water systems met the agency’s standards for safe levels of radioactive contaminants. But that means 10% are not!
Because of this contamination, there have been a couple of large lawsuits. The most famous case is the Erin Brockovich case. In the 1990s, residents in Hinckley, California, alleged that the company discharged hexavalent chromium and contaminated their groundwater, causing multiple health problems. Pacific Gas and Electric ended up paying $333 million to settle that case.
In 2015, many people living near the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington State sued the US Department of Energy, alleging that the agency had allowed radioactive contamination to enter their drinking water. That lawsuit is ongoing.
