Palomares Two Years After

Page 1

Dr. Eduardo Ramcs Rodriguez Head of the Medicine and Protection Devision Junta de Energia Nuclear, Madrid, Spain A little over two years have gone by since the accident which has been the subject of two or three books and of news bulletins which traveled around the world several tines, and were presented under the most diverse journalis tic slants. For that reason, we decided to present an accurate, objective report in Monaco in 1966, on what we saw, did, and thought, for we conside red it our inescapable duty to inform all those who take an interest in and live with these problems of protection against ionizing radiation. Since all stories have a second part, we who presented the first report now want to offer its continuation, on behalf of the entire team of coworkers of the Me dicine and Protection Division of the Atomic Energy Board, which has worked enthusiastically and efficiently on the different aspects of the problem from the very beginning. As we said in our first report, the accident took place at a height of about 10.000 meters. The pieces of the planes fell over a very wide area. Many pieces of both planes fell outside the area carefully delimited to determine the zero line. Test made at the points where these pieces or fragments of the planes were found showed no signs of radioactive contamination; such contami nation of pieces was found only in the ones that fell within the circumscribed areas. This told us that the dispersicn of thu radioactive spray did not oc cur in the upper strata of the athosphare. If this had been the case, the con taminated area would probably also have been much wider, and the contamina tion would have been characterized quantitatively by two features which were not present in this accident: one, greater uniformity and two, lower values per surface unit. The variations in distribution, following the lines of the direction of the prevailing wind, with decreasing concentrations from the center outwards, and the most densely active areas (2 and 3) at the points of impacts, prove that the explosions of the conventional payload took place when the bombs hit the ground. BEST AVAILABLE COPY The dispersion of the houses and of the scattering of the parts may have chan- ■ ged the probability of the occurrence of a mecanical impact from what it would have been if the houses had been more tightly grouped in any of the af fected areas. The lack of this type of accident was very fortunate, for there were no regrettable bodily injuries to the townspeople. One of the lessons derived from our experience that should not be forgotten is that the pieces or fragments of ccntamined material, no matter how small, must be meticulously sought, for first of all, they will be found completely unsuspected distances away, and in the second place, many of these fragments, covered with dust which adheres to the usually greasy or damp surface,’ are very highly active. The potential danger of these fragments is very great, if they are picked up by someone (especially children) who blows on them to remove the dust. Because of the high concentration of the radioactive ele ment -(Pu or U) in the dust, that person way very well breathe in a quantity / large enough to be significant. It is therefore wise to advise all persons Who might find possible ccntamined fragments or pieces to take care not to Another lesson of special interest is that cultivated and wild plant life must be cleaned as well as possible, not only because of their contamination but because they may be hiding such fragments which would otherwise not be PAL0MARES TWO YEARS AFTER

Page 2

With regard to work on soils, we think that deep-furrow plowing or with the plows used to break still uncultivated ground, will produce sufficient rene wal in the layers of soil to dilute considerably the radioactive element. If several cuts are made on successive passes, dilutions so large will be ob tained that the land can quickly be farmed again (as happened in our zone 5). We think that the mixing of layers of soil containing different amounts of moisture will result in the formation of denser conglomerates, for the radio active metal core with high surface activity will adsorb inert particles of silicates or other compunds which surround it and stop it from being direc We have reviewed Reitemeier's study presented at the Geneva seminar in 1963, and believe that the greater dispersion of the radioactive elements in those areas which do not require the elimination of densely contaminated surface layers can be achieved by several passes with rotavators under a fine water spray. The entire arable part of zones 3 and 5 was treated in this way, and we verified its high effectiveness. Furthermore, the job takes little time when, of course, the motorized equipment which is nowadays in service prac- . tically the world over is used. BEST AVAILABLE COPY A difficult problem was the decontamination of the sides of the houses; how ever, we solved it by applying several layers of paint. We achieved two ends with this procedure: first, the fixation of the contamination so as to prevent resuspension in the air which would allow it to enter the dwellings through windows or openings in the walls; and second, the interposition of layers of dense material (in this case, calcium oxides) which absorb the weakly pene trating alpha radiation. Successively applied layers of this type of paint will create ever increasing security that traces of radioactive elements will not get into the ambient air. Of course, this procedure will not be so effec tive with other elements with more penetrating radiations. We think that the best form of treatment for contamined plants is incineration. However, there must be careful determination and selection of the area in which incineration is to be done, of the density of the amounts of plants to be incinerated (so that all of them will be completely reduced to ashes with no areas left unexposed to fire), and finally of the wind direction and velo city (to prevent the smoke from reaching inhabited areas.). We incinerated the dry bed of the River Almanzora near the beach, taking advantage of the night breezes which blow from land to water. The case of the town of Villarieos which is separated from Palomares by the river and by a hill, is also interesting. The zero line ends near the river, but nevertheless, we found a contaminated area in the town of Villarieos and its surroundings,.with much lower values than in Palomares, but still an area which we did not expect to find. The hill was not enough of an obstacle to prevent a low-concentration radioactive cloud from sailing over it, driven by the strong prevailing wind, and being deposited several kilometers beyond the zero line. Thus, we do not think the suggestion we made in Monaco that an area up to five kilometers away from the zero line be explored is at all exaggerated, but rather very conservative, for in each particular case there will be a possibility of meeting up with surprises of this sort. ^ •Dr. Iranzo will set forth the results and precise data on our work, which has continued uninterrupteldly since we first set foot on those sunny lands. How, life there has returned to normal, the disruptions having lasted only as long as was absolutely necesse.ry. If the harvests of their characteristic cr;o.' are irregular, this is a result of accidental inccusistencies in the climote.

Page 3

which this year , for example, was marked hy extremely low temperatures at the crucial times of maturation and harvesting of the crops (tomatoes, mainly) and the poor quality of the irrigation water, which is mostly inappropriate, according to the reports of the INIA. That whole area is an outcropping of sea bottom, uplifted by the tilting of the continental shelf many thousands of years ago. The low annual rainfall makes the salinity of the soil and of the running waters, that are trapped in deep wells even higher. Two years after the accident, we still have four atmospheric dust-collecting stations which, because of the results we have thus far obtained with filter papers placed at a height of one and a half meters above the soil, we are going to change to a height of one half meter, to see whether there is resuspenoion closer to the ground. He have placed two permanent meteorological recording stations at the two points of greatest interest. We take soil, water, and crop samples as well as samples of wild plant life and non-domestic animals, pre ferably the ones that can give us the most realistic indication of contamina tion because of long contact with the soil and plants, such as snails. A mo dest building is used as the place where we prepare and classify the samples. We have begun some experiments with the INIA to determine whether any of the fextilizers most widely used by the farmers in the area facilitate uptake of Pu by the plants. The presence of Pu in the lungs of a group of people, some of whom were exposed at the beginning and others who were chosen as controls, has been tested with a whole body counter. He also checked for the presence of Pu in three samples of the urine of these people, taken over 24 hours under the most carefully controlled conditions. The results were negative for both the urine analyses and the tests with the whole body counter. He have on file hundreds of readings for soils and plants, houses and a large number of lo cations, dozens of graphs, and many other facts which we hope to be able to collect some day in a single volume which will give these who have to face similar problems food for thought and study. The last three lessons that I want to point out here as I conclude this brief repox't are: one, the importance of dealing with the psychological factor in the common people. Apart from the implications of ah economic nature which may or may not be present in each- case, it is very important to be solicitous with these people and not to be sparing in employing all possible means to enlighten them and convince them of the groundless nature of some of their fears. In this regard, I want to make mention of the decision I had to make the very day I arrived in the area, regarding the appropriateness of evacuating it comple tely as a newspaperman had proposed to a mayor of a nearby town. If I had au thorized this, I am sure that even this 'long after, many people would not yet have returned to their homes, and the material and moral damage done to the region would have been incalculable. Hence, such a decision should be pondered The second lesson is that, while the Civil Protection Agencies can supply the personnel and the material equipment for field work, it is the National Atomic Energy Institutions, be they called Headquarters, Conmission, or Boards, that should keep strict scientific control of the thousands of details of a techni cal nature that come up constantly. r>oEARcHlVES The third and last is that well-trained prospecting teams, accustomedto hard work 'in the country, should always be kept available. I want to emphasize once again how much help ws got from our teams, which we would never have had if these teams had had to be organized on the spot. He hope that our modest contribution, together with that of our Danish collegagues, will provide useful study material and facilitate action in the case of another like or similar accident, which we pray to God will never occur. BEST AVAILABLE COPY

Page 4

EXPEPIENCE OF AN ACCXDENTAL CONTAMINATION BY RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS - PALOMARES 1.966. by Dr. Eduardo Ramo® and Dr. Emilio Iranzo. Divisidn of Medicine and Protection. Junta de Energfa Nuclear. Madrid - Snain. BEST AVAILABLE COPY Second International Civil Defence Symposium On Nuclear Radiation Hazards Monaco, October 10 to 15 1966

Page 5

EXPEDIENCE OF AN ACCIDENTAL CONTAN INA TION by Dr. Eduardo Rancor and Dr. Err.ilio Iranzo, Division of Vedicine and Protection. Junta de Energia Nuclear, Vadrid, Eoain. BEST available CQPY On 17 January, 1966 an aviation accident happened during an in-flight refueling operation v’hich caused the loss of a B-52 bomber and a tanker of the United Stales Air Force. The acci dent took place over the village of Palomares which belongs to the municipality of Cuevas de Almanzora in the Province of Al_ meria. Bits of the planes were scattered over a vide area co rresponding generally to the area between the municipalities of Cuevas de Almanzora and of Vera, and the edge of the Vedite rranean Sea between Puerto Rey and Villarieos. Palomares has about 1200 inhabitants and is situated on the right bank of the Almanzora River near it*- mouth and the beach. The village is not, properly speaking, an urban nucleu*- but is irregularly dis tributed to the point where there are no streets. Groups of hou ses or isolated house*- are located at random over an extensive zone of uneven terrain which is crossed by a road, paths and innumerable ditches for the irrigation of gardens of neighboring farms. Tree growth is poor, but in the surrounding valleys and depressions irrigation farming is carried on over a vide area. The landscape is desert-like v ith broken and sleep mountains .bet ween which lie the utterly dry beds of torrential streams; likewi se the entire bed of the Almanzora River is dry. Vegetation is semitropical - data pain s, century plants, prickly nears, holm oaks. Cultivated plants are m.ainly climbing tomatoes, broad beans, yellow corn, alfalfa, cereals and some orange and leme^^g-j^-^smypc On the Vera side of Palomares are wide areas of Irrigated lands and orange groves, and toward Garrucha a semi-desert area. This zone is bound on the northeast by the fc-ierra de la He rreria and on the north'west by Las Algarrobinas . The coast oppo site Palomares is flat and shallow; the beach, which is rocky, for ms a slight arc from Punto del Rio to south of Garrucha. The cli mate is mild. Winters are warmi and summers rattier hot but with

Page 6

soft sea breezes. Annual rainfall averages 200 L/xn2 per year but is extremely irregularly distributed as it falls in only a few days, frequently causing overflowing of the dry beds of the Al manzora Plver and various ravines. Prevailing winds are from the east and southwest. Agriculture is the wealth of the region with tomatoes as the most Important crop at present, followed by broad beans and yellow corn. The climate permits at least two harvest annually. Offshore fishing is plentiful. Slellfish, cephalopods and various fish are the most important species and are in great demand In the nation's markets, BEST AVAILABLE COPY if …