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Worse & Worse
Fracking Goes Radioactive
Grassroots Environmental Education, based in
New York State, where extensive underground
hydraulic fracturing—known as fracking—is
proposed for tapping pockets of natural gas,
has issued a report exposing major radioactive
impacts of the practice that’s underway in
several states and planned for many more.
The Northeast’s Marcellus Shale region
is coveted for its rich gas deposits trapped in
a substrate far below the water aquifer. Fracking
not only uses toxic chemicals under high
pressure that can contaminate drinking and
groundwater—it can also release substantial
quantities of deadly radioactive poisons, bringing
them to the surface, where they have the
potential to pollute air, water, soil, food crops and animal feed. The report notes
that the radioactive material includes, for instance, carcinogenic radium-226,
with a half-life of 1,600 years, which remains toxic for up to 32,000 years.
E. Ivan White, a staff scientist for 30 years on the congressionally chartered
National Council on Radiation Protection, observes that such radioactive material
could easily bio-accumulate over time and deliver a dangerous radiation
dose to potentially millions of people long after drilling is completed. He states,
“Neither New York State nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would permit
a nuclear power plant to handle radioactive material in this manner.”
Doug Wood, associate director of Grassroots Environmental Education and
editor of the report, says: “Once radioactive material comes out of the ground…
it is virtually impossible to eliminate or mitigate. Sooner or later, it’s going to end
up in our environment and eventually, our food chain. It’s a problem with no
good solution—and the [state] is unequipped to handle it.”
Wood believes that releasing radioactive radium from the ground is a moral
issue. “We must not burden future generations with this. We must say ‘No’ to
fracking now,” he says, “and implement the use of sustainable forms of energy
that don’t kill.”
For more details, visit Tinyurl.com/RadioactiveFracking. Join with others protesting
fracking locally; find action tools at GlobalFrackdown.org.
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A good head and a
good heart are always
a formidable combination.
~ Nelson Mandela
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