Red Mud in Hungary: A Predictable, International and Major Disaster.
Subject:: The Hungary Disaster
Characteristics: The processing of bauxite mineral with caustic soda to extract alumina produces red mud residual. Red mud contains caustic soda, iron, alumina, silicium, sodium, calcium, titanium, manganese, vanadium, hexavalent chromium, lead and cadmium. Because of the accumulation of all these metals and minerals red mud is a waste toxic for aquatic life, pets and farm animals.
“Forest Fires: Beware the Radioactive Fallout”
The site Arzamas-16 is threatened by forest fires since the middle of July 2010. The exact location of the storage and waste on the site is unknown. The current management of plutonium storage, enriched uranium and nuclear warheads are the subject of diverging information. The military site is in activity since 1946. For more than half a century, experiments and nuclear activities have left undeniable traces on the site (see the assembly of photos). If the fire reaches strategic and radioactive sectors this could spark a major event but also cause global contamination. The Russian government and fire fighters lack of insight to foresee the risk caused by the fires around this dangerous site and to control them is shocking.
Forest Fires: Beware the Radioactive Fallout
Forest fires and slash and burn farming are a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gases which in his book “Forests: The Shadow of Civilization”*, Professor Robert Harrison suggests to call the “fever effect”.
Russia is an expert in the matter. Satellite observations show that the extent of forest fires is always downplayed by the authorities. 2 million hectares were declared burnt in 2003 while 14 million were observed. During the summer of 2006, cinders and soot from fires around St Petersburg caused high concentrations of particles and air pollution in Finland, Scotland and Northern England. Forest fires are an important source of mercury scattering in the atmosphere.
