A National Park Service employee has revealed that buckets of radioactive uranium ore were stored in a museum at the Grand Canyon for two decades. Elston Swede Stephenson put out the word in an email to all Park Service employees earlier this month. Stephenson is the safety, health and wellness manager at the Grand Canyon.
Three five-gallon paint buckets brimming with radioactive ore were apparently stored near exhibits from 2000 to June of last year. Stephenson says National Park executives stonewalled him when he repeatedly asked them to inform the public.
The Grand Canyon is the second-most visited park in the National Park system, with more than seven-million visitors a year.