Last week the 2012 organisers were promising that the London Olympics would be the greenest yet. Normally we'd scoff at such a claim, but it looks like this time no one is talking out of their hat. By building part of the Olympic village on a radioactive dumping ground things will be very green. And glowing.
Documents seen by the Guardian say waste contaminated by an isotope of thorium, a nuclear fuel which can cause cancer, was dumped on the site in east London in 1959.
Not to worry. As all of London's transport problems will fixed by 2012 we're also confident that cancer will be cured in the run up to the games along with making spectators explosion proof.
Thank fuck the irresponsible bastards of 1959 have been replaced by more sensible heads. As the Guardian points out the biggest risk of contamination is if the waste material is disturbed so we're sure to leave it well alone. Right?
Last month engineers working for the London Development Authority began drilling test boreholes in a location to the south-west of the original dumping site on the Clays Lane housing estate. Earth has been extracted from below ground and scanned with Geiger counters to monitor radiation.
Ah. But this was to ensure that the poor suckers living atop the dump have been safe for the last thirty odd years right? Not according to lawyers who are trying to stop the tests until the residents have been rehoused somewhere well out of the way:
"We have challenged that decision because our client is trapped in the path of the Olympic steamroller and abandoned by a legal aid system established to protect the vulnerable."
At least we won't have to worry about terrorists acquiring radioactive material from abroad anymore...
