AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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FACTS OF THE CASE:

Dr. Bernardo Salas, who in 1996 was fired from his job at the Central Laguna Verde of the Mexican Federal Electrical Commission for speaking out about dangerous conditions at the nuclear power station, has reported positive developments in his case. An investigation of the plant, which followed a series of complaints initiated by Dr. Salas, found a number of deficiencies in the plant's operations, resulting in the removal of eleven plant directors from their positions, one of whom is under investigation for "inexplicable enrichment."

Investigators corroborated many of Dr. Salas's accusations, among which were:

• burning of radioactive material in the open air;
• secret burning of radioactive oil on the beach near the power plant;
• failure to utilize the internal emergency plan during a serious incident in 1993;
• manipulation of the radioactivity counter used to monitor the contamination of workers (the device was never tested when it was installed and it did not work);
• manipulation of the computerized worker contamination counter used to measure total exposure of workers. This may have contributed to the death from cancer of a number of workers;
• poor installation of a monitor to measure radioactivity in the area, putting at risk those who worked near the facility;
• incorrect calibration of monitors to measure individual contamination;
• purchase of low quality equipment instead of that reflected in purchase orders;
• purchase of defective radioactivity detectors, despite their removal from the market by the company that manufactured them;
• incorrect classification of radioactive waste products, which were then moved without adequate protection; and
• leakage of System Stand-by Liquid Control (SLC), which led to levels of contamination of workers in two months equal to what they would normally be exposed to in two years.

Dr. Salas, who was blacklisted by the Mexican nuclear industry after exposing the problems at Laguna Verde and suffered serious hardship as a result of his prolonged unemployment, is currently working in the field of ecology.

(Source of information for this update is Dr. Bernardo Salas.)

No further action is requested.

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