nuclear military exemption withdrawn

[kalianna]

The military is no longer exempt from Hawai'i Countyʻs Nuke-free law.  Outgoing mayor Mitch Roth let it become law without his signature. 
 
https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2024/...-repealed/

[TomK]

It seems to me that this is a perfect example of local government spending time and money on something that doesn't matter other than it appeals to specific groups. How does this benefit anyone living here? No one will build a nuclear power plant on the island or store large amounts of radioactive material because the island's geology is too unstable. Including the military in this changes nothing.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It’s the depleted uranium shells used at Pohakuloa.  They’re heavy, and can penetrate tanks.  They’re heavy so soldiers need to train for aim and accuracy.

[TomK]

It’s the depleted uranium shells used at Pohakuloa.  They’re heavy, and can penetrate tanks.  They’re heavy so soldiers need to train for aim and accuracy.

I'm not surprised that depleted uranium is behind this, but so many other things need fixing first that have a greater impact on everyone's life here.

[leilanidude]

Once again... depleted uranium...

Waiting for Obie to remind us that most large passenger jets used it as ballast...

High density:
Depleted uranium is significantly denser than lead, making it ideal for creating compact, heavy counterweights needed for aircraft stability.
Past usage:
Older models of passenger jets, particularly large aircraft like Boeing 747s, sometimes incorporated depleted uranium counterweights in their wings.

[Obie]

"Natural uranium is made up of three isotopes: U-234, U-235 and U-238. "Depleted" uranium has a lower percentage of U-234 and U-235 than natural uranium. DU is about twice as dense as lead, making it useful in commercial and military applications. Uranium in a form that dissolves easily can be toxic to the kidneys if ingested in large amounts, such as by inhaling dust or drinking contaminated water. The DU at the Army sites is not believed to be in this soluble form.

A number of Army sites have DU fragments from spotting rounds left from training with the Davy Crockett system from 1960-1968. The Atomic Energy Commission, the NRC's predecessor, gave the Army a license to make, test and distribute the spotting rounds. Under that license, the Army distributed the rounds for training. Each round contained about six ounces of DU. At the Army’s request, the license expired in 1978, after the Army had stopped producing and distributing the spotting rounds.

In 2005, the Army found tail assemblies from the spotting rounds at the Schofield Barracks on Oahu. This discovery prompted a review of all sites that trained with the system. The Army found DU at other sites, including the Pohakuloa Training Area on the island of Hawaii. Under NRC regulations, the Army must have a license to possess this material. The Army applied for a possession-only license in November 2008. It was not until 2011 that the Army identified all the sites where it used the Davy Crockett system. At that time, the NRC and the Army decided to continue with licensing the two Hawaiian sites and to address the remaining installations through an amendment. The license was issued in 2013 and amended in 2016 to include 15 additional sites.

The DU is mostly in large fragments. It is on operational ranges not accessible to the public. Data the Army collected and analyzed, and the NRC reviewed, show there is no immediate health risk to people who work at the ranges or live or travel nearby. The high density and large fragment size mean the DU cannot easily become airborne or move off-site."

[HiloJulie]

Wouldn't this law as written, preclude any form of environmental cleanup of nuclear materials regardless of who caused the contamination? And now, include the military from doing anything?

[leilanidude]

I was trying to point out the absurdity of the law in that:

Older models of passenger jets, particularly large aircraft like Boeing 747s, sometimes incorporated depleted uranium counterweights in their wings.

I guess the president won't be visiting and all those 747 cargo planes among others, won't be legal to stop here...

[Obie]

It's absurd that Hawaii County Council continues to try to regulate things they have no control over.

The NRC license and regulations require that the DU remains in place because it's safer and will cause no harm to anyone or anything .

At one time every airplane that flew into Hawaii had DU balance weights and there was a ballast box right in front of the cockpit that had hundreds of pounds to balance out the airplanes after they were built.

[terracore]

It seems to me that this is a perfect example of local government spending time and money on something that doesn't matter other than it appeals to specific groups. How does this benefit anyone living here? No one will build a nuclear power plant on the island or store large amounts of radioactive material because the island's geology is too unstable. Including the military in this changes nothing.

"David Charles Hahn (October 30, 1976 – September 27, 2016), sometimes called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" and the "Nuclear Boy Scout" was an American nuclear radiation enthusiast who built a homemade neutron source at the age of seventeen.

A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother's house in Commerce Township, Michigan. Hahn's goal was to build and demonstrate a homemade breeder reactor. While he never managed to build a reactor, in August 1994, Hahn's progress attracted the attention of local police when they found concerning material in his vehicle during a stop for a separate matter. When Hahn warned them that the material was radioactive, the police contacted federal authorities, worried that he may have an atomic bomb. His mother's property was cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ten months later as a Superfund cleanup site."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

I posted this solely because I love the story. I agree with the premise of your statement.