US government doesn't say when it will clean-up Palomares
"These are political decisions," says embassy spokesman
Jeffrey Galvin, the US Embassy spokesman in Madrid, on Wednesday said that the presence in Spain of a team of 11 experts sent to analyze the level of contamination in Palomares — where a 1966 mid-air collision involving a B-52 bomber led to a radiation leak around the Almería town — was not a sign that Washington is committed to removing the contaminated earth.
"These are not decisions to be taken at this moment; they are political decisions to be taken between governments," Galvin said. Cayetano López, director general of the CIEMAT investigations office, said that "in principle there is no need for further study."
Galvin said there was no timescale for a clean-up operation but López made the Spanish government's position clear: "The plan is a complete cleansing."
