There is a deadly and hazardous site of barren and highly toxic material waste material in Sequoyah County, located just 45 minutes from downtown Fort Smith that contains nuclear waste equivalent to the weight of 3000 Cadillac CTS vehicles.
That is just what we know of.
The former 'Sequoyah Fuels' plant located 48 miles and slightly southwest of Fort Smith and the aftermath of the waste left behind has been one horrific battle after another for decades that includes fatal accidents, mysterious deaths and an attack on the health and welfare of local residents.
If you are too young to remember all the tragic events that have taken place linked to that one property, or may have forgotten, let us enlighten you.
In 1970 Kerr-McGee Nuclear Plant opened in Gore and with the purpose of converting yellow cake uranium into uranium-hexafluoride.
By 1987 the plant, which sits close to the Illinois River and Interstate 40, began converting depleted uranium hexafluoride in to uranium tetrafluoride.
For 23 years this went on right here in the River Valley. The facility underwent three different name changes and ownership during this time. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Plant, Quivira Mining Corporation/Sequoyah Fuels Corporation and, later, General Atomics.
In 2008 a company named International Isotopes bought the equipment and intellectual property from Sequoyah Fuels Corporation. The equipment would be moved to a new location and used...but what then?
Thousand of contaminated acres used for a dump site for used-up nuclear rods from sites all around the United States remain at the location oday
Lets go over some of the history from this one location that is just a few miles west of us.
In 1974, whistleblower Karen Silkwood went to the media with reports of dangerous practices at the Kerr-McGee Nuclear plants and while on the way to meet a reporter, she died in a mysterious car accident.
Silkwood was not only on the way to meet a journalist but she also had testified before the Atomic Energy Commission regarding the contamination and unsafe practices in the plants . Silkwood also claimed she was suffering from Plutonium contamination.
In 1982, the company began selling hay off the 10,000 acres. The hay was fertilized with a waste by product from the plant called Raffinate. The definition of Raffinate is the part of a liquid, especially an oil, remaining after its more soluble components have been extracted by a solvent.
In 1983, the movie "Silkwood" about the whistleblowing activities of Karen Silkwood hits the theaters. Silkwood was a lab technician who was involved in making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor rods for Kerr-McGee and was alarmed over unsafe practices. It was said that she signed her death warrant by going public against such a powerful company as Kerr-McGee.
Her death is still a mystery and still covered in and a cloud ofsuspicion. If you are not familiar with the story or the movie, it's worth checking it out.
There were also reports of uranium being missing from the plant in Gore and early on there were no precautions to prevent employee theft.
In 1986, a shipping container ruptured at Sequoyah Fuels and caused at least one death. Someone allowed a UF6 tank to overfill and James Harrison, a man of Cherokee and African American heritage was killed.
All but five employees of the 42 on site were hospitalized . No telling how many other employees may have suffered residual effects from that incident. It is said that the plant never recovered from that first accident.
In 1992 another accident occurred and very shortly the plant shut down. Reports from fishermen on the Illinois River said a cloud covered the river from bank to bank. Reportedly, aa cloud of hydroflouric acid traveled as far as 18 miles.
In 1993 the plant was decommissioned but that isn't the end. When the plant closed it left behind about 11,000 tons of uranium contaminated sludge. It was just left in lagoons and low spots on the property.
By 2004, Sequoyah Fuels publicly stated they would spent millions to dispose of the contaminated waste permanently but then came back and said they couldn't find any other place to take it so they would make a permanent disposal site on that property and just store it there.
The Cherokee Nation has been fighting this situation for years. It is a good thing because no one else have addressed it with determination.
On a closing note we want to leave you with this data:
The time required for a radioactive substance to lose 50 percent of its radioactivity by decay is known as the half-life. The half-life for uranium- 238 is about 4.5 billion years, uranium-235 is 710 million years, and uranium-234 is 250,000 years.
According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, The site is expected to be transferred in October 2020, to the U.S. Department of Energy for long-term surveillance and control.
Obviously, the federal government thinks there is no need to hurry.