Citizen Alert
Citizen Alert is one of 39 environmental and peace organizations that won a landmark lawsuit against the U.S Department of Energy for failure to follow-through on adequate environmental cleanup during its 50+ years of nuclear weapons research, testing, and production. Part of this settlement was the establishment of the MTA Fund (Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund), which provided $6.25 million for tribes and non-profit organizations to assess and conduct independent technical and scientific studies regarding the multitude of technical, ecological, and health issues surrounding the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.
Clark University was chosen by the non-profit peace and environmental groups as the conservator of these reports to ensure they remain available to the public in perpetuity. The unconventional election of university as conservator is an innovative example, particularly within the era of Web 1.0, of higher education as protector and provider of information through wide dissemination.
The research and reports available in this series were conducted by Citizen Alert with their allocated portion of the MTA fund.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu.
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Analysis of the Nevada Test Site Early Warning System for Groundwater Contamination Potentially Migrating from Pahute Mesa to Oasis Valley, Nevada
Citizen Alert
This report is a limited technical analysis of the efficacy of the federal government's groundwater monitoring program down gradient of the northwestern section of the NTS (Nevada Test Site), and its ability to provide early detection and warning of radioactivity in water in time to prevent harm to people and the environment. Concern over the efficacy of the groundwater monitoring program was triggered by the federal government's repeated implication that since no radioactive contamination from underground nuclear tests had ever been detected in any of the water source locations they sampled around the NTS, then no contaminated water exists off site of the NTS.
A more specific concern for this work is whether citizens and the environment near the western periphery of the NTS are being protected from radioactive groundwater contamination that is potentially migrating towards them from the nuclear tests detonated beneath the surface of the NTS on Pahute Mesa.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 1 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at digitalrepository@clarku.edu.
