The Government has agreed, following pressure from the American Department of Energy, to reduce the area of Palomares considered to have a high enough level of radiation (following the nuclear accident in January 1966) to just 28,000 square metres - about half of the earlier 50,000 m2. This remaining area remains earmarked for future decontamination by the Americans.
If the limits are finally agreed by all parties, then the land '...may be fenced off for all time', worries the Izquierda Unida, '...giving a permanent stigma to Palomares'.
Furthermore, the limit of radioactivity within the new radius would be accepted (as it were) at forty times higher than Spanish guidelines - and 400 times the limits accepted by the American Department of Energy and the IAEA. Worse still, affected habitable and agricultural land could remain at anything up to 100 times recommended IAEA levels.
More at El Mundo here.
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