Small Town of Sierra Blanca Grapples with Big Problem: Nuclear Waste

Living on Earth
The World

A small community just 20 miles from the Texas-Mexico border is poised to become a nuclear waste dump. Officials and engineers have been bent over their blueprints for 15 years, designing a low level nuclear disposal site for the sparsely populated Texan town of Sierra Blanca. State authorities say the radioactive waste will rest safely sealed in concrete and buried beneath the rocky desert. But the site has yet to receive its final licensing. And some residents are disputing safety aspects of the proposal. They also say the site was chosen because its residents are poor and Latino, and have little political clout. Ingrid Lobet reports.

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