2012年2月4日土曜日

Spain announced that the U.S. withdraw the land of Palomares with plutonium

España anuncia que EEUU retirará la tierra de Palomares con plutonio

El ministro de Exteriores afirma que ha "recibido garantías" de Washington de que retirará el material "con rapidez"

España busca desde 2003 que la Casa Blanca asuma descontaminar los restos del accidente de 1966

 
 
Spain announced that the U.S. withdraw the land of Palomares with plutonium


Foreign Minister says it has "received assurances" from Washington that will remove the material "promptly"

Spain seeks since 2003 that the White House assume decontaminate the wreckage of 1966

Palomares: 50,000 meters contaminated with plutonium

Miguel Gonzalez / Rafael Mendez Madrid 3 FEB 2012 - 16:22 CET
 
The Spanish government "has been assured [U.S.] of that quickly remove contaminated soils from Palomares." This was revealed this afternoon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, in a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart to Otmani Saadedin.
The withdrawal of thousands of cubic meters of contaminated land by the accident of 1966 on the Almeria coast is an ancient claim to the Spanish authorities so far have resisted the U.S. saying its cost and the fear of setting a precedent. Although technicians have studied various technical formulas, such as compact the soil to reduce its volume, Spain has always insisted that the final output is the withdrawal, since the contamination was caused by the U.S. and there is no store on Spanish soil for this type of waste.
Margallo revealed this decision to list the issues to be addressed tomorrow with Secretary of U.S. State, Hillary Clinton, who kept his first interview taking advantage of the presence of both security conference in Munich (Germany).
Kathleen Doherty, deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. told this newspaper this week: "We are working on a proposal to the Government of Spain and I hope to present the Spanish government soon and that will be satisfactory. Until not formally introduce not give details, but I hope it's soon. "

On January 17, 1966, the heaven of Palomares (Almería) experienced the largest nuclear weapons accident on civilians in history. A U.S. bomber collided in flight with the airplane-mother of that refueled. Fell four thermonuclear bombs, more powerful than Hiroshima. Two were recovered intact and two freed of the burden.
The U.S. Army took boat tons of contaminated soil, but were radioactive debris, including two trenches in which hid U.S. waste material cleanup. For decades no one dealt with the accident-beyond blood tests to the population until the late 90's the housing bubble reached the coast of Almeria. Earthworks began, and the Center for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) and the Nuclear Safety Council sounded the alarm. The CIEMAT is the heir to the center Nuclear Energy Board, which is responsible for maintaining the area. By removing the land to build plutonium could be released. Furthermore, with time the plutonium is decomposed into americium, more volatile and easily detectable.
The Act accompanying the 2004 budget, the last government of Aznar and included a provision for contaminated land expropriation. Palomares not cite or anything. The secret was the target. In 2004, came to the physical address of CIEMAT and Juan Antonio Rubio, surprised by the situation, decided to settle the issue.
The CIEMAT started an ambitious study to characterize the terrain. The technicians took 325,000 measurements over an area of ​​40 hectares and 1,848 soil samples analyzed. Placed 1.983 million U.S. dollars for the study. They located the trenches where they had buried the remains and saw that he had further radiation than previously thought. And fenced the land expropriated. Conclusion: There are 50,000 cubic meters of soil contaminated with half a kilo of plutonium, radioactive for thousands of years. The CIEMAT even had to stop the construction of a development on contaminated soil.
In parallel, the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero began a diplomatic negotiation. USA, which paid $ 300,000 a year annually for population analysis, he stopped in 2009. Negotiations were initially with the Department of Energy, but to join the the Spanish Defense noted that the negotiation involved cooled. On December 21, 2010, in a note verbale, Spain came to demand clean "without delay".
Spain requested financial assistance to the U.S. for decontamination. But above all, to take the cans and clean up the population of the stigma. Zapatero addressed the issue with Vice President Joe Biden in 2010 and the then foreign minister, Trinidad Jimenez, with Hillary Clinton. The State Department cables obtained by Wikileaks show how the U.S. Embassy in Madrid proposed to be paying to clean up the land but did not get clear answers from Washington.
U.S. concern about the precedent of decontamination, and has carried out nuclear tests in different parts of the world and thought it could trigger a series of similar claims. It further submitted that Spain and the United States already agreed in 1966, Hall-Otero Agreement, that the accident had been settled, that if reopened the issue now, what would prevent in the future if improved detection techniques have no other time to Spain for help?
Spain instead replied that the agreement was signed with a dictatorship and had contaminated debris large enough showing that he had been left thoroughly. The CIEMAT has even made the study of how it should be screened and compact the soil to reduce the volume to be transported. In the negotiations it was always clear that this was a bilateral issue between friends, a way of saying that Spain did not amount to Euratom and the EU, which could complicate the deal.

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