George Mathias
A BRITISH developer has come under fire for plans to build on land potentially contaminated with radioactive material in Spain.
The plot, in Palomares, Almeria, was the site where a nuclear armed US B-52 bomber crash landed after colliding with a refuelling aircraft in January 1966.
The bomber was armed with four 1.5 megatonne atomic bombs, two of which exploded, spreading nuclear radiation across a wide area.
Photo: Flickr
The company, Bahia de Almanzora, is British owned and has outlined huge plans to build some 1,600 homes in the area as well as a hotel and a sports complex.
The plot sits just one and a half kilometres from the zone deemed to be still contaminated and dangerous.
The area in Palomares has been cordoned off ever since the crash.
Jose Ignacio Dominguez, a lawyer from Ecologists in Action, condemned the decision, telling the Guardian: “The plutonium isn’t just in the fenced-off area because it’s carried on the wind and by animals such as birds and rabbits.”
Dominguez said tests conducted by the group found ‘dangerously high levels’ of radiation outside of the crash zone.
Company director Fraser Prynne told the Guardian the contaminated land was ‘nowhere near the development.’
“This stuff about particles flying about is nonsense,” he said.
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