(516.5065) WISE Amsterdam - As more and more information comes to light about the
plutonium exposure at Paducah (and its sister plant in Oak Ridge too), the evidence mounts. The
exhumed bones of a long-dead uranium worker have given a powerful boost to current employees'
claims of dangerous exposures. The long-overlooked medical evidence from the case of Joseph Harding
suggests that for some workers radiation doses at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant were far
higher than previously believed, and may have been dozens of times above federal limits, according
to one analysis of the data. The results of Harding's posthumous tests, conducted as part of a
lawsuit in 1983 but never publicized, offer the strongest corroboration to date of hazardous
conditions where workers labored for decades in a haze of radioactive dust that was sometimes laced
with deadly plutonium. "Uranium content of the bone was far in excess of normal expectations,"
wrote Alice Stewart, an internationally known British researcher who reviewed the results of
laboratory tests of Harding's remains for his estate. "The terminal finding overrules all earlier
impressions (from U.S. government officials) of NO internal depositions of uranium."
Moreover, the type of uranium found was "not from natural sources", and apparently came from the
plant's uranium enrichment process, the report said. Because uranium is slowly purged by the body
over time, the levels in Harding's bones would have been "several-fold higher" during the time he
was employed, the lab report stated.
Exactly how much higher is unclear. But Carl Johnson, a Colo- rado physician and radiation
consultant who analyzed the test results for Harding's widow in 1983, said Harding's uranium "bone
burden" in the 1970s would have been between 1,700 and 34,000 times higher than normal. Based on
those levels, the annual radiation dose to Harding's bone tissue would have been 30 to 600 rems a
year. Under current standards, US nuclear industry workers are allowed a maximum full-body dose of
5 rems a year.
The hazards for uranium workers are further underscored by unpublished research from a sister
plant in Tennessee. A draft study of workers at the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge shows unusually high
death rates for former uranium workers, as well as sharply higher rates of lung and bone cancers.
The draft mortality study of about 11,000 former workers at the plant was conducted by the Oak
Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Although the research essentially was completed in 1994,
funding for the study was dropped before it could be peer reviewed and published in a scientific
journal. The draft report, obtained by The Post, shows higher rates of death for all causes among
former workers, a finding that is significant in itself, given that government workers are
typically healthier than the general population because of higher salaries and access to health
care.
The study also shows higher rates of cancers of the lung (19 percent) and bone (82 percent) among
white male workers compared with the general population. Both cancers are sometimes linked to
radiation exposure. Researchers point to several factors that could have skewed the results,
including the inclusion in the survey of a sample of thousands of people who worked at the K-25
plant for a relatively brief period during World War II. Since many able-bodied men were in the
military during that period, the remaining work force may have been less healthy than the general
population, the authors said.
Contaminated uranium containing traces of plutonium and other radioactive isotopes was also fed into the uranium processing systems at the Oak Ridge K-25 site during the 1950s and -60s. However, according to the DOE figures, the amount of contaminated uranium used at Oak Ridge - about 40,000 tons - was less than the 161,000 tons at Paducah. The K-25 material may have been less contaminated because it had already been converted to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at Paducah before it was sent to Oak Ridge. K-25 also received uranmnium in the form of yellow cake which was processed into UF6 at feed plants at the site. Another source of feed was the uranium contained in spent fuel from the DOE's plutonium reactors. According to the DOE this uranium came to the plants slightly contaminated with radionuclides that include technetium, plutonium, neptunium and americium.
Both the Paducah and K-25 plants were owned by the federal government and operated by the same
group of corporate contractors: Union Carbide from the 1950s to the early 1980s, followed by Martin
Marietta and Lockheed Martin Corp.
The latter two are the targets of a lawsuit filed by a group of current employees who alleged
unsafe working conditions and environmental contamination. Former workers also have alleged that
radiation monitoring equipment at the Paducah plant was defective; in some cases, they say, "film"
badges used to monitor exposures contained no film.
Sources:
- Knox News, 10 August 1999
- Oak Ridger, 20 August 1999
- Washington Post, 22 August 1999
6935 Laurel Avenue, Suite 204, Takoma Park, MD 20912 USA.
Tel: +1-301-270-5500;
Fax: +1-301-270-3029 E-mail: ieer@ieer.org
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |