The US Navy detected high levels of the radioactive isotope plutonium-239 at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard about a year ago, and the city of SF is wondering why they didn’t get around to informing us until just now.
When we see today’s alarming headline on NBC Bay Area saying “High levels of plutonium detected in San Francisco’s Hunters Point,” our first question would be… okay, what is plutonium? Plutonium is a man-made element used in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, and it is highly toxic and radioactive. And it’s the latest toxic material detected at the longtime chemically beleaguered Hunters Point Shipyard. This discovery is all the more unnerving in light of Mission Local’s report that that US Navy did not notify San Francisco officials of this radioactive presence until 11 months after they detected the airborne plutonium levels.
As a reminder, the US Navy ran the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard from 1945-1974, and conducted radioactive testing there after World War II. Now there are hundreds of people living there, though the site has been dogged by proof of toxic waste contamination for years. So the SF Department of Public Health is pretty alarmed that it took 11 months for the Navy to notify the city that they detected plutonium (specifically, the isotope Pu-239) at double the amount of what is considered the “Action Level” that should trigger further investigations…