"When we see today's alarming headline on NBC Bay Area saying High levels of plutonium detected in San Francisco's Hunters Point, our first question would be okay, what is plutonium? Plutonium is a man-made element used in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, and it is highly toxic and radioactive. And it's the latest toxic material detected at the longtime chemically beleaguered Hunters Point Shipyard."
"This discovery is all the more unnerving in light of Mission Local's report that that US Navy did not notify San Francisco officials of this radioactive presence until 11 months after they detected the airborne plutonium levels. As a reminder, the US Navy ran the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard from 1945-1974, and conducted radioactive testing there after World War II. Now there are hundreds of people living there, though the site has been dogged by proof of toxic waste contamination for years."
The U.S. Navy detected elevated airborne plutonium-239 at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard about a year ago. Plutonium-239 is a man-made, highly toxic and radioactive element used in nuclear weapons and reactors. The November 2024 air monitoring result for Pu-239 approximately exceeded twice the Action Level concentration. The City and County of San Francisco expressed deep concern over both the magnitude of the exceedance and the Navy's 11-month delay in notification. Hunters Point was operated by the Navy from 1945–1974 and underwent radioactive testing, and the area remains residential with a long history of toxic contamination. A UC Berkeley nuclear physics professor said it would take roughly 1,000 times the Action Level to reach a much higher health-risk threshold.
Read at sfist.com
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