There are, currently, no fewer than seven wineries on Treasure Island. Grand future plans for the island call for 8,000 residential units, hotels, and the best views in all the Bay Area (provided you look past the proposed forest of dorm-like towers).
Only one problem: Just how radioactive is it?
A yearlong project by the Center for Investigative Reporting
culminated in an analysis of the soil beneath island residents' feet. The upshot: Reporters Katharine Mieszkowski and
SF Weekly alum Matt Smith claim their readings indicate a greater presence of cesium-137 than the Navy has claimed.
This isotope harks from the island's era of serving as an "atomic warfare school"; the cesium-137 that may be present could have been generated in the nuclear blasts that contaminated Navy ships at
Bikini atoll; vessels from the Pacific were overhauled and dismantled at the island generations ago, at a time when Navy ships were returning from atomic tests inundated with fallout.
Depending upon how dire Vetter's report is, it could, quite literally, be a hot ticket event.
Also appearing on the panel alongside the LBNL scientist will be George Moore, the scientist-in-residence at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey; Dale Smith of the Treasure Island Restoration Board, and -- no relation -- Matt Smith.
Those with an interest in attending can
click here.
