Unenriched uranium is about as hazardous as lead. Clearly, we should be concerned about any environmental releases, and under no circumstances would I argue against strict industrial hygiene laws or tough penalties.

However, I also think our concern should be proportional to the actual health/environmental risk, and not part of some knee jerk emotional response. Spills of equal consequences almost certainly occur at any site that mines or processes any heavy metal – I’m not saying that this is acceptable, but perhaps we should consider that the environmental remediation steps taken at a e.g. a cadmium mine are likely several orders of magnitude less stringent.

This was not a spill at a nuclear power plant. This is not a nuclear power issue, this is a metal processing issue and no one would have even noticed if it were not for the hysteria over all things nuclear.