Decision time for St. Louis’ radioactive waste

Kay Drey, Beyond Nuclear board presidentOp-ed by Kay Drey (photo, left), Beyond Nuclear's board president, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Also see Kay's pamphlets about the West Lake Landfill, "The Safety of St. Louis Drinking Water Depends on You!!" and "Remove the Radioactive Wastes NOW!!".

As Kay points out, the Manhattan Project radioactive wastes at the West Lake Landfill are among the very oldest of the Atomic Age, and all these decades later, we don't even know what to do with the first cupful! And as is so often the case, as shown in the tragic photo accompanying her op-ed above, as well as a Beyond Nuclear pamphlet, and palm card, it is children (and women, pregnant women and the fetus in the womb, and other highly vulnerable populations, including the elderly, immune-compromised, etc.) who very often bear the worst brunt of the radioactive health hazards.

As reflected in the op-ed above, as well as her cameo in the powerful documentary film "Atomic Homefront," Kay is the institutional memory of such nuclear watch-dogging as at West Lake Landfill. Her vigilance has persisted for 45 years.