Page 331 - Beyond Decommissioning

Case studies of nuclear redevelopment 307

The Navy located hot spots and incepted the decades-long cleanup of the labora-
tories, buildings, and other locations where there was testing or disposal of radiolog-
ical substances, including a heap of molten metal and a 20ha landfill.
By mid-2015, 4000 trucks full of radiologically contaminated soil had been
removed. That is, in addition to the 20,000 trucks of chemically contaminated soil
and 12.8km of sewer and storm drain piping that were taken away.
In 2015, the first residents began moving to the cleaned-up former Superfund site.
These houses are the first nucleus of 10,500 units that will be built over the next two
decades on the former Navy facility and adjacent Candlestick Point, a good portion of
which will be for low- or middle-income owners and renters. The event marked the
culmination of 20 years of cleanup work by the Navy.
The celebration met, however, with a massive protest from environmentalists and
residents of adjacent areas, some of whom maintained they had been contaminated by
toxic and radioactive dust. The issue gained momentum in 2004 when radiological
tests identified 91 sites at Hunters Point with potential radiological contamination,
mostly around the former Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory.
Progress has been slow according to SFGate (2017). Having only 205 homes sitting
in a wasteland has required decades. Besides in September 2016, the process of hand-
ing over clean land was placed on indefinite hold due to an environmental scandal.
The cleanup and removal of contaminated material was estimated to continue until
2021, when the entire site should be returned to San Francisco, but this plan is quite
uncertain now. The site areas that cannot be fully decontaminated will be covered up
and capped before they can be made accessible to the public. Institutional controls
prevent any shipyard resident from growing edible plants, except in plots using impo-
rted soil, and leave other areas unusable for hospitals, schools, etc. There are some
relics of Hunters Point’s nuclear and military heritage that will remain where they
are. For example, the 8400-ton gantry crane that has become the shipyard’s landmark
is too big to remove. At the time of its construction in 1947, it was the world’s biggest
crane, capable to lift a battleship’s 400-ton turret. Another issue is offered by The
Conversation (2017). Brownfields redevelopment projects can also contribute to
the gentrification and economic displacement.

7.3.7 Denver Radium Case Study, CO (US Environmental
Protection Agency, 2017d)
The Denver Radium Superfund Site included some 65 properties situated throughout
Denver, CO. These properties were contaminated by RAW arising from the
processing of radium ore in the early 1900s. In 1913, the National Radium Institute
was established in Denver for the radium production: at that time, radium was con-
sidered as a cure-all in cancer therapy. It took many years to understand the danger
of radium.
The Site was added to the Superfund NPL in September 1983. The 65 properties
were divided into 11 operable units (OUs), based on their location, in order to simplify
the remedial process. City and County of Denver (2014) describes remedial activities
at each individual OU. The remediation project for all of Denver Radium’s OUs lasted
from October 1, 1980 to August 11, 2006.