There are a lot of people beginning to realize that nuclear accidents are occurring all too frequently and many times they are covered up. When you are engaged in a war, you know that there is a chance of being wounded or killed, but how many people know that there is also a chance of getting radiation poisoning and dying? Several cases have occurred on our side and many, many more on the other. But how can this be, we didn't use any nuclear weapons since World War II? Technically that is correct. Maybe we should clarify that? While we haven't used any nuclear bombs or missiles, we have been using shells that have warheads that are made of spent uranium. These shells are usually fired from tanks. Since the material is a lot denser than what is ordinarily used, it has more penetrating power, to knock out other tanks and bunkers. What wasn't told about these munitions, is that they are radioactive. The ammo produced from depleted uranium is radioactive and chemically toxic. We know this, yet we allow our troops to be in close proximity to this stuff. Not only that, but in certain areas where we have fought sort of a guerrilla war, we have contaminated some of the local population that we were there to help. Believe me, help like this no one needs. What exactly is depleted uranium? Depleted uranium or DU as it is called, is a waste byproduct. It is created when uranium is enriched. After enrichment, the uranium can be used in nuclear reactors. In case you think that this stuff will disappear in time, please note that the most common element used is U-238 and it has a half life of 4.5 billion years, so it isn't going anywhere. It is going to lay there contaminating everything and everyone around it, until the sun runs out of fuel.

Here is something that just didn't seem to get the press it deserved. The US Army admitted that Hawaii was contaminated from radiation in 2007. This was caused by practice firing of depleted uranium ammunition. A survey was taken and it was found that air born radiological contamination had taken place in forty five locations. This had produced dangerous levels of Gamma Rays. It was found that rounds of this stuff were also fired by the navy. In 2004 an army spokesperson stated that the army had no depleted uranium rounds. I guess he never noticed that they had been using it since at least the last 25 years. Another area that is teeming with radioactive debris is Kosovo. There are pieces of radioactive shrapnel everywhere. The civilian cancer rate is rising and Leukemia cases are becoming quite frequent. It has been estimated that the use of these shells will be responsible for more than ten thousand deaths among civilians, peacekeepers and workers.

Another thing that has been found out, is that some bases that were abandoned had become nuclear hot spots, contaminating those that lived near them and maybe even those that didn't. A case in point is Greenham Common, in the U.K. There is a former U.S. Air Force Base there that was used during the cold war period, then closed. It is said that it held a terrible secret. That secret is that supposedly a bomber that was loaded with nuclear munitions burst into flames on the runway and burned for days. As it burned, nuclear particles were said to have been released into the air and these particles were said to have been pasted to the runway, by the equipment that the firefighters were using. Fast forward to years later. The pasted nuclear particles are said to have become unstuck and are now being carried by the wind to nearby towns and such. Maybe they are going even further. People are said to be dying from acute Leukemia in some of the nearby areas. This whole incident was said by the military to be nothing more than a fire that was brought under control. To make matters even worse, it was said that the British did a secret study and knew about the fallout, but this was kept from the public. We still deny the fact that this accident took place this way, even to this day, insisting on the just plain fire story.

In 2002, it was said that Iran had a nuclear accident and tried to cover it up. It all supposedly happened when uranium was being shipped to Iran. It is said that the accident caused the international airport in Tehran to be sealed off. Immediately after the accident, a flight from Dubai was intercepted by Iranian jets and diverted, even though the plane was low on fuel. The airport stayed closed for about six days. The closing was said to be because of disagreements between airlines.

In 1979 there was a leak from a nuclear plant that many did not know existed. In was located in Erwin Tennessee. The plant was allowed to hide the fact of the leak from the public, due to federal regulations. The company, had been protected by public disclosure because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has designated most correspondence with them as “official use only”. This means that such things as inspection reports and other correspondence are not being publicly released. Yep, public be dammed. The leak was secret for almost a year, until in came out in an annual report to congress. The congress was angry and the company's license was changed, but the details of the change were again kept from the public. The leak was of thirty five liters of highly enriched uranium solution. This stuff was so enriched that it is down blended for use in a reactor. It turns out that the Department of Energy’s Office of Naval Reactors, asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep the reports out of the public purview, because they were afraid that nuclear secrets would get into the wrong hands. It is said that the policy of “official use only” was misunderstood and was meant for only the production of naval fuel for submarines and was not meant to keep leaks secret from the public.

We all know about the real big disasters like three mile island and Chernobyl , but how many of us know about the four leaks that occurred, one after the other in the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Japan in 1981? The plant opened in 1970 and is run by the Japan Atomic Power Company. It is a combination of nuclear power generation and conventional coal powered steam electrical generation. In April of 1981 tragedy struck. Several improper discharges were made from the plant and cover ups were everywhere. As things went on, the reading at the plant went up to 15,000 times normal. The authorities warned thousands of residents that live near the site to not only stay indoors, but to wash off any rain that might have fallen on them. "There is a strong possibility that abnormal reactions are continuing within the facility," the press were told at a news conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary. The Japanese requested help from the U.S. military stationed in Japan, but they turned the Japanese down. They said that they just not equipped to handle such an emergency. When radiation was measured at over a mile from the plant, it was still ten times higher than normal. A forbidden zone was established around the plant. Bad things just continued to happen. Eight workers were sprayed with contaminated water. To finish this off, officials admitted that this plant had leaked radioactive waste into the town's sewer system for over four years.

In 1952 a nuclear plant in Canada experienced a partial meltdown. The plant called the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor, experience this partial meltdown when someone made a mistake. They had accidentally removed four of the front control rods. Millions of gallons of radioactive water accumulated inside the reactor. No injuries were reported. I have to wonder about that. In 1957 there was a fire in Windscale, a reactor located near Liverpool in England. Radiation was said to have been blown out and covered an area of about 200 square miles. . In 1975, the nuclear plant in Greifswald, in East Germany had a problem. An electrician was teaching an apprentice how to bridge electrical circuits and short circuited the primary electrical circuit for Unit one pumps. The fire destroyed the electrical supply and control lines of five coolant pumps. Luckily there were six pumps for each unit.

Nuclear accidents happen infrequently in commercial nuclear generating plants, thank goodness. When they do, they are usually minor, but those that are not minor can effect the lives of thousands and maybe even hundreds of thousands of people. When we look at the site that was contaminated by Chernobyl, we see a no man's land that will never be inhabitable in our lifetimes and maybe never again. All these plants are storing old nuclear rods and there are places that are storing things like medical waste. It is hard to say what the military is doing with it. Every day we are creating more of this dangerous stuff and it is only a matter of time before we are hit with a disaster that makes all the ones that we have experienced so far, look like child's play.