ON AN OTHERWISE quiet Thanksgiving weekend last year, the riverbank next to Revere Copper and Brass, the company known for making pots and pans that also made parts for nuclear weapons, collapsed into the Detroit River. The event was missed not only by many Detroiters but by most Americans, who remain largely unaware of the dangers of our crumbling former nuclear weapons sites. Michigan state agencies claimed that no radioactivity was released by the literal “fall-out”—or in this case, “fall-down”—but can they be trusted? Decades of misinformation about our nuclear weapons plants should put everyone on guard.
Work on the United States’ first atomic bomb took place at Detroit’s Revere site during World War II, and the facility continued to make uranium rods during the Cold War. During this era, intensive nuclear weapons production systematically contaminated lands surrounding such Department of Energy sites as Rocky Flats in Colorado, Pantex in Texas, and Hanford in Washington state. As we enter a new era when these now-defunct sites are either remediated or left to crumble, what do we need to know?
Water safety is only one concern. The fact that Michigan’s state agencies only found out about the spill after the Canadian side reported it should be a red flag. It took a full week for the state’s environmental agency to test the water at the Revere location, just downstream from the intake pipes for drinking water for most southeast Michigan residents. Michigan especially should be vigilant regarding water safety, with Flint residents still waiting for safe drinking water.
And why hasn’t the Environmental Protection Agency tested the Detroit River during the 30 years since Revere was granted Superfund status? A 2011 federal study of the Revere site stated, “there is a potential for significant residual contamination outside of the period in which weapons-related production occurred.” This is only a drop in the bucket of potential hazards to communities surrounding this and other nuclear weapons sites. Hanford is now the fourth most radioactive place on earth, with the nearby Columbia River seriously contaminated even amid Hanford’s Superfund cleanup.
The failure of state health agencies to adequately test known contaminated areas in a timely manner should concern all Americans. If water sources are tainted, what about other forms of environmental contamination? Some nuclear plants sent radioactivity into the air and soil for decades. What are the ongoing health impacts of this? And how does climate change pose new risks as tons of nuclear waste remain in temporary storage around the country?
We need a federal EPA that actively monitors these defunct sites without relying on outdated tests. My newest documentary film, Rocky Flats, highlights these issues in the Denver area but also sheds light on the very same issues at other sites. These challenges are not relics from the past, either. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 includes plans to increase, rather than reduce, nuclear weapons production.
Decades of piling up nuclear waste, the hazards of our crumbling defunct nuclear facilities, and the production of new nuclear weapons are issues that confront us all. Nuclear weapons production contaminates air, soil, and water—then and now. What will we do to stop it?
Nancy Wolfe, founder of Wherewolfe Productions, is a producer, director, writer, and editor.
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