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| Human Radioactive Contamination 1990 April Philadelphia, PA., USA - According to an article in the 6 March 1990 Philadelphia Daily News, a nuclear power plant worker was charged with spiking the lunchroom water cooler with radioactive water. (MACE (US) Apr 90; WISE 331/27/4/90). 1990 June Kapl, New York, USA - A parking lot at Knolls Atomic Power Lab (KAPL) in New York is contaminated with radioactive waste, yet workers have been permitted to work there, even though AEC and the US Dept of Energy knew the radioactivity was far above Federal and State limits and may pose a health hazard. ("Schenectady Gazette" (US) 22/1/88, WISE p.4 NC 303, 9/12/88) 1989 January 18 Savannah River, Aiken, SC, USA - Eight workers were contaminated with radiation at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) in Aiken, South Carolina. Six construction workers, a Department of Energy (DOE) inspector and a Health Department employee picked up radioactive particles on their shoes and in their hair. Neither the source of the contamination nor the type of radioactive material have been identified. ("Guardian" US 1/2/89; Public Citizen. 2/89; "Greenlink" gp.press 17/25/28 Feb and 4/2/89- WISE-307 24/2/89). 1989 February FMPC, Fernals, Ohio, USA - Contamination of two employees from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a DOE weapons facility have led to an order barring all EPA inspectors from that plant. The plant, the 'Feed Materials Production Center' in Fernald, Ohio, processes uranium for nuclear weapons. The EPA placed the plant off limits to its inspectors on February 9th after tests showed agency personnel attending meetings at Fernald had been exposed to uranium oxide. ("Guardian" US 1/2/89; "Public Citizens" 2/89; "Greenlink" gp.press 17/25/28 Feb and 4/2/89; WISE-307 24/2/89). 1989 June 12 Ohio, USA - The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission imposed its first fine ever against a military organization on 12th June when it fined the US Air Force $102,500 for failing to report a nuclear spill. Drums of Americium-241 stored in a shed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the state of Ohio contaminated at least one employee, who opened the drum during an inventory. Cleanup costs exceeded $2 million, and the base's radiation safety director was placed on a 2-year probation for knowingly storing the illegal substance. ("RadBull" (US) Aug. 1989; WISE-319 20/10/89). 1988 August Nine Mile Point 1, New York, USA - A worker at the Nine Mile Point-1 reactor in New York apparently swallowed a small radioactive particle of Cobalt-60. The particle - approx. one-microcurie - was detected after the worker set off an alarm when leaving the radiation area. The utility operating the plant is trying to determine the source of origin of the material and how the worker, who was wearing a face shield while under the vessel, came to ingest it. ("Nucleonics Week" 11/Aug/88, WISE 297, 2/9/88) 1988 September 17 Ohio, USA - Officials at the 'Feed Materials Production Center, a facility in southwest Ohio, US which processes uranium for nuclear weapons, said that 35 workers may have been exposed to Plutonium when 11 barrels of nuclear waste were opened there. (Greenpeace/Greenlink 18/8/88, WISE NC298, 23/9/88) |
1988 October 26 Savannah River, SC., USA - At the Savannah R. nuclear materials plant in the US, traces of plutonium were found on 18 employees. Plant officials suspect an exhaust stack leak was responsible. (Greenpeace via Greenlink 21/11/88, Greennetlgn Nuclear 21/11/88, WISE NC 302, p6, 25/11/88) 1988 December USA - Ten employees at a US irradiation facility were exposed to radiation. Three had measurable radioactive contamination on their clothes, in their automobiles and in their homes. The contaminated areas were removed and stored at US-RSI (Radiation Sterilizers Inc) waiting 'low level' radioactive waste disposal. Extensive radioactive contamination was also found in the admin. offices in 27 areas. 70,000 medical supply containers and milk containers plus all that were irradiated between APR 29 - June 4 were recalled. The RSI complex houses a total of over 12 million curies in the 252 capsules of Caesium 133 it uses as its radioactive source system to sterilize medical supplies. Due to abnormal discoloration in the vicinity of the welds at the end of the capsules, 129 of these capsules are suspected to be leaking. (RWC Waste Paper(US), WISE NC303 p.2/3, 9/12/88) 1987 July USA - A paper published in the July 1986 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by Theodore Puck of the University of Colorado and the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research, concludes that the true mutagenic efficiency of LOW DOSES of ionizing radiation in the approx. range of human exposure is more than 200 times GREATER than assumed by linear dose extrapolation. The actual curve exhibits a downward concavity so that the mutational efficiency is maximal at LOW doses". ("Radiation Events Monitor" WISE NC 276, 3 Jul 87) 1987 November Hanford, USA - Safety violations and worker exposures have been revealed at the US Government's nuclear weapons reactors in a draft Congressional memorandum obtained by the New York Post. One of its findings is that workers at the 'N' reactor, at Hanford in Washington State, were deliberately exposed to maximum allowable radiation doses. Also at Hanford, radiation alarms were turned off in a high level waste store because they were being set off by high winds. (SCRAM Journal Nov/DEC 1987, WISE NC 283, 20/11/87) 1986 November Oklahoma, USA - The Oklahoma State Dept of Agriculture has now licensed the use of treated "nuclear waste" called raffinate as fertilizer. Opposition is mounting for a public hearing and a write in campaign to have the license rescinded. (WISE NC263 21/11/86) 1986 December 17 TMI, PA., USA - A cleanup worker at Three Mile Island nuclear plant was injured and contaminated by radiation yesterday after being hit by lead shielding in the reactor containment building. ("The West Australian" 18/12/86) Click Here For Source |
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