Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Alarm over Uranium Accident

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 11 2005 (IPS) - Residents of the mountain resort city of San Carlos de Bariloche, in Argentina's southern Patagonia, expressed to Tierramérica their concern about an accident involving uranium at a plant near the city. The accident happened last October at the Bariloche Atomic Center when two researchers were handling a uranium sample, and was played down by plant officials, despite the fact that those involved were under medical monitoring for four months.

Official information on the incident did not arrive until this month, long after unofficial reports began circulating.

“We aren't ecologists. We're residents concerned about the environment and we need to know,” Concepción Moana, of the Limay Community neighborhood organization, told Tierramérica.

Incidents like this bring to the fore the dangers of having a plant like this just 10 km from the city and within the Nahuel Huapi National Park, she said.