Hanford Water Radiation Less Than Airborne Fallout (Oregonian)

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Or Ru Of ~ d Fallout hrn hitborne iodine 131 ;&posed the public to far greater .hdiation doses during Haaford Nuclear Reservadan's first decade fhatl did h e r n&mctive discharges *to the Columbia River, an investi. 3 @though poeible doses of water. Borne radioactivity could have exceeded the maximum levels conridered safe today, calculrtrions by p e Oregonian' show those doses flt ~ e tapproached the high levels pmbably caused. by the early itdine fallour. The airborne iodine 131 fe ached Nortyhwesr residents $haugh milk apd foodszuffs from the middle lwOg through the early Nevertheless, analysis of U.S. Department of Energy documents released ia February suggests that a few people who freguently bhed in rad drank from certain parts of the The Oregonian's latest calcula. tiom attempted mainly to answer What doses could people have fowl. drinking Columbia River water and swimmirlg in that warer. way in the decade beginning in the charges reached their e?Previous calculadow. published by The Oregoman tan May, focused on airborne emissions of iodine 131 h r n 1944 through the early 1W - , I Ithe years befire filters effedvely capped the dkcbirge of t h t ra+oacA comparison el thpse releases with Hanford'q Gver contamination For example. iTriCities children could have gonen about 100 rems a month of thyrdid radiation from releases in 1945. A year of exposure at b a t bvd 1'd total bf 1.200 rems - would be fd times high as the maximum organ dose that is now considered safe [nr a niember of the pubhc to receive (Subsequent calculadons by the state of Washington and the U.S. Centers for Dike Con aoi - to be released in Richland. Wash., this Oregonian's figures. and perhaps tion health physicist with Ihe In co nmt l to those higb dgures, The Oregoniari's calculations show a much lawer )otenrial dose from Hhnford cmissiaas to a resident of Pvco near H+ord who d m & the city's filtered ever water in 1961. That person would have received about 8 rmllirems of radmion to h e That substance was one of the msr That same person's gasaointesri. nal tract would have received 28 rrulhms of radianon h m arsenic 76. At mere at times that radionuclide Quarters of the GI tract's radiation dose from drinking water. Word health physicists, asked to review Overall in 1961, Hantord repone say that the maximum Tri-Citiesres and GI tract dose w a 180 millirems. Shndards widely in use tor the safe rsdfation d w for the public at m y single body orem. The maximum exposure to the whole body is set at 540 Uirems. That is ,?qual to ~1 panel that wiil review the Hanthat he thoughr the iodine doses Nevertheless, he:added, there still other Hatdo+ ndiqnon sources. "What you have to be carefui abaut is the$e isobted pockers of pcaple chat get compararively high not be able to see them epidemioiogitally but their ris) is far greater than other people "

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la the case of tharfoet,the grortps ibrd mdiaiion in the 1- and'- were outdoorsmen, That was because ndloaerive phasghom 32 and orher bt~pes,cancenuated in the bodies ofwiuerfowl and &A U I y of ColumbiaRiver water in the €&nford Roach took a shon side nip dve hropes that rputineb included phons 32. among b n y ochers The closed amounts; of long-lived, Mast of the isotopes lost their ridioacd&y quickly or, 11 ingested assd through the body without topes - notably phosphorus 32 and dac 65 - worked their way q u ~ ddy into rhe iocd ciaaixi that begm with in rht foad.chan was a key fictor in the excessive radiadon doses that Nortbww outdoohen could have The ffanford documents releasea in February show that radiarion uz psu te from river sources from widely depending on lifesrple. eating habits and near ny KOH aford Specific groups named The groups which would have received the highest amounu of Hanford radiation at the time a Pcopie who reguiarly an kesh boar radiaaon from a four-ounce hrn 60 rmllirems from whrefbh aught AI m o l d in 1960 to 4 mil. fkomr fmm asemg ofbass caught ing or o the mse storing the B h bdore eadng would have reduced the phosphow 32 radioacdvfty by At the 6omillinm h e l it would The fish had theirbwestradiaac. tioity ievds when spring runofl diluted the rtamr cfauent In the river. tb the river h e I fefl in late Summer. Ash radioactivity began rising, and peaked from October 0 People who are waterfowl shor in the TllGtieS afea. A 1961 Ward study found that watcxfowl hunters bemeen Boise, Idaho. and Fresno. Calit, had a 1 in lsoa chace of shooting a bird that would give an adult 56 millirems d bone radianon &om phosphom 31 ¶na four ance seming d the meat, Then was a 1 in 250 chsinm ofgetthg ahid that would give 20 milIiruns per serving. Most of the contaminarrclbirds were in the immediate M-Citles area so the chances would have been somewhat higher for hunters there. cist at Haaford. points out that Northpnst Labaraton health physi. For Uregoniansaiho began enjoythe omission represents :a cruclat gap in the Hznford data. B y the spring of 1955, Tud dong the 0 PeopIe who regularly drank raw river water 4 dtbdugh it i s unclear whether anyone did. untreated river water af pas~oin U61 would have resulted in annual Upriver at Ringold e doses would have heeii at I$twice as high. Those doses nevertheless would have beea'weil below the ndioactb;irP readings in thar study were determined from the birds' heads - which rmght not dect the true revels h edible muscle tissue. The figures represent the best reade Recreational users of the river, who b e d usernal gamma radianon from radioactive substances that floated around in the water and that rlso were deposited in shoreline mad Exposure would have been ln Richlaad according to a 1964 rtactp, a teenager who swam; waterskied and picnicked there for 984 hours dunng a summer would have mdiarion to his endre body. That compares IO E millirems that the average U.S. rrsideat receives in a year from "backqround" sources. But radioammity readings in the rfver had fallen by 1969 because several ttacrors had been shut radioactive particles - the doses take just 25 6sb dinners t~ reach the m a y have been mnghly 10 percent of lJ00 mxlIlrems of annual bone dose the Richtand doses. However, the that today is cansidered safe for a' documents show no record of member of tbe public to receiya radioactivity readings being taken tixen ndiauon e ip osu qd be a cruczal question addressed by the consider what funhtr ,studies of For instance, p e p ople most likely to have been at risk ftom fish Rver as a food suple - were never spddy ' smdied to see if their eariag hsbip md lih yle were exposing them t b mofe Banford mdianon than other people. Raniord did €and stuhes showing little radioacavlty in eir bodies before h g caught bp$dians and other &ishermta,But Iqdians who reguhriy ate other kinds of ash that did have conadmced rirtmcnmry t o unknown .@aunt's of river The panel rmght also consider upscream t o rpayn. and sa galned

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Ibrd's peak relusts into the river. Among them is how:much drinking. OPS fission products that were mleased h m rupmnd reactor ltlel h that year, 1.88 fuel kprans oc*l inso tbe river, Hanfcsd repons say. Another 147,opO curies were rdcased in the following three Joseph R. Saldada longtime Ha. ford health gbyw said he thinks the resmation's water sampling would have detmed some mars made public,ia February do na contain enough information to , make specific gkulatbas of tbe ac. Msgest fuel mtm,aorrat Word sent a pound of Unnium and 5355 river. That single4incidenr could have given a baby 8 millirems of h e m to the bone,ft.om dnnking treared Pasco water, according to word ' som ctlcrilations. If t h e predominant theory of radiation damage is core ct. the doses from river sources would have posed a minuscule risk of cancer. Even if the theofy is wmng t h e stand out in a Stadsacal analysis. Over their et&. hose p p k might have a 1 or 2 percent increase in bone cancer and leukemia, said cist who fs radioacrive materials program maaager :for the Oregon Oepamnent of Enem. "ha1would mai "background': cancer rate of For people wbo they wen crpased m excessive Mord river radioactivity, the best defense is a chap lffirh a doctor. health phy& fesred if he had been exposed he would be reass? by the passage way past the peak by now of cancer doses to the bone from a foursunce meal of fish in 1962 ranged from 60 millirem8 from whiteflsh caught in 1960 at Rinpold. to 4 millirems from bass caught in 1962 at McNary Dam. , I n 1961, watertow1 nuntes from Idaho to Callfomia had a 1 in 1.500 chance of shooting a birc that would give 56 milllrcms of bone radiation from four ounces of me meat There was a t in 250 chance of getting 70 millirems per serviog. CIoSCr to the Tri-Cities, the chances were higher. made it into cows' milk. In 1963. 1 liter of milk daily gave M annual dose of 8 millirems to the Radiation fmm local oroduca w a s nediaible.