Oympic stadium built on toxic dump

  • by Staff Writer
  • Monday, 21st June 2010

It has been revealed that West Ham United's proposed new stadium has been built on a radioactive waste dump.

The Olympic Stadium at Stratford, which is scheduled for completion next year ahead of the 2012 games has been erected on a site used in the 1950s and 1960s to dump radioactive waste, according to a story in today's Guardian.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) are understood to have reported in 2008 that up to 50 tonnes of radioactive waste - which showed levels of radiation three times higher than the accepted safe level - were found on the site when building work commenced.

However building was allowed to continue as when added to the general waste found over the immediate area of the entire site - some 1,500 tonnes in all - the level of radioactive material fell below the legal limit.

In all, it is claimed that up to 100 tonnes of radioactive waste is buried on the Olympic site - something that data analyst John Large, assisted by environmental campaigner Mike Wells and intelligence analyst Paul Charman, is keen to highlight.

"As part of the on-site assaying, the ODA contractors were clearly separating out exempt waste from non-exempt batches of low-level waste with the intention of sending this higher activity non-exempt waste to a radioactive waste disposal site," he said.

"At the best, this might be interpreted as a misplaced interpretation of the radioactive waste regulations or, at the worse, some might view it as blatantly cooking the books to save on the high cost of off-site radioactive waste disposal."

In reply, ODA Director of Infrastructure Simon Wright refuted claims that the area is potentially dangerous to people visiting on a regular occasion, stating: "The Olympic Park and all venue sites are completely safe with no radiation measurements above the normal background levels that people would experience in their everyday lives.

"We have been open and transparent about the contamination found on the Olympic Park site, a former industrial landfill site. As previously announced, a small amount of soil containing traces of very low-level radioactive material, classed as 'exempt' under current environmental law, has been safely buried in a cell on site, using a proven, safe and approved method of disposing of such material."

Despite Wright's claims, it is thought that no further development work will be allowed on the site of the Olympic Park due to the inherent danger of exposing 100 tonnes of radioactive waste lying just below the surface in a highly-poulated urban area.

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