Radioactive alligators? Head to South Carolina, says Last Week Tonight host John Oliver.
A shocking lack of planning for nuclear waste storage and the resultant effects of leakage from USA waste sites has reportedly left wildlife and humans with cancers and altered physiology.
On Last Week Tonight, America was likened to a house “built without toilets” as Oliver asked: “Why don’t we have a nuclear toilet?”
Horrifying footage of people dumping radioactive barrels of waste off the Jersey Shore made Oliver see red.
He said: “Incidentally, not all of those barrels sank. In fact in 1957 when two barrels were caught floating off the shore, naval aircraft were summoned to strafe them with machine-gun fire until they sank.
“That’s right! They shot barrels full of nuclear waste with machine guns.”
But the footage of unusually aggressive radioactive alligators bit the hardest at America’s problem with the tons of nuclear waste not properly stored.
Oliver said: “The Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where waste from poorly stored material leaked into the groundwater…just watch this alarmingly laid-back man explain the consequences of that — there are radioactive alligators on the site…”
His message was aimed as a jolting wake-up call to remind Americans that their elected officials and those put in charge of life-threatening nuclear waste need to step up their game and act.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs Sundays at 11pm ET/PT on HBO.