Nobel's investigations uncover the use of radioactive oilfield waste in household products and its pervasive contamination.
Workers are exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, handling waste with inadequate protection, and unknowingly bringing contaminants into their homes.
Regulatory gaps allow the oil and gas industry to treat highly radioactive waste as nonhazardous, posing serious public and environmental health risks.
Key quote:
"With fossil fuels, essentially what you are doing is taking an underground radioactive reservoir and bringing it up to the surface where it can interact with people and the environment."
— Marco Kaltofen, nuclear forensics scientist
Why this matters:
Prolonged exposure to radioactive materials can escalate the risk of cancer, and protective measures for workers are not just recommended, they are a dire necessity. Yet regulation and oversight can be as slippery as the substances being drilled from the earth.
New damage was reported just one day after Ukraine's energy minister said power was restored following a Russian attack that disconnected the site from the electricity grid.
Industry, with help from the state, has chosen to downplay or ignore risks to both workers in the fracking industry and locals who live near oil and gas sites, treatment plants, and sewage systems.
One geologist says the landscape is like "Swiss cheese" from a century of drilling. All those wells could allow fracking wastewater to travel to the surface.
Municipal officials and residents who live near the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Rostraver on Thursday voiced frustration and anger over its continuing operation and what they say is a lack of adequate state regulation.
Researchers found elevated levels of radioactivity on air particles measured downwind of fracking sites around the country. They say health effects are possible, though not imminent.
