[ RadSafe ] FYI, Researchers find Amchitka seafood safe for now

[Herren, Roy WS.]

Public release date: 2-Aug-2005


Contact: Charles W. Powers
cwpowers at eohsi.rutgers.edu
201-214-4937
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey 
Researchers find Amchitka seafood safe for now
Clarify concerns about the future
Anchorage Alaska - An independent consortium of university-based
environmental scientists announced today the results from three 2004
expeditions to Amchitka Island in the western Aleutians to assess
radionuclides in that marine environment. Three nuclear test shots were
set off under Amchitka by the U.S. Government during a six-year period
beginning in 1965. The study can be found at www.cresp.org Seafood
Safety 
"The findings should provide assurance to both those who depend on the
Island's marine environment for subsistence food and for the significant
commercial fishing interests of the region," said Charles W. Powers,
principal investigator for the consortium. He noted that expedition
scientists sampled and analyzed for radionuclides many types of biota in
the seas at Amchitka and a reference site, nearby Kiska: "Rutgers'
Joanna Burger developed a program that has assessed these two marine
regions as completely as has any previous single-year study of a defined
marine area." 
In fact, the university consortium found that all levels of
radionuclides were "far below" any human health food safety standard and
were similar to levels found in other marine sites in the Northern
Hemisphere. Further, the levels in these organisms are lower now than
they were immediately following the nuclear test shots. These biological
analyses may now form a baseline for future testing of biota. 
The consortium conducting the study was the Consortium for Risk
Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), an interdisciplinary
multi-university organization that for a decade has independently
studied and reviewed risk issues associated with the cleanup and
long-term stewardship of legacy wastes at US Department of Energy sites.
Its principal investigator Powers, is Professor of Environmental and
Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ.
CRESP-related Universities whose scientists participated in the Amchitka
study in addition to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks were: Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey, Vanderbilt University, the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, University of
Pittsburgh, and University of Alberta. 
Collaboration 
A distinguishing characteristic of the CRESP study was the collaborative
process that generated it and then shaped the actual work. Prior to its
undertaking the study, four diverse entities (the State of Alaska, DOE,
the Aleutian/Pribilof Island Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service) had to agree on the plan developed by CRESP. And that plan
specifically called for involvement of affected groups in the study. "It
was the most rewarding and productive collaboration in my 30 years of
marine research to have the honor of working with Aleut fishermen and
other colleagues in the expedition itself", Burger said. 
The Physical Data 
Analysis of current biological contamination was linked to other
studies. The group's geophysical studies present no evidence that the
nuclear test materials have entered the seas there. Although its work
was limited in scope, the team directed by University of Alaska's Mark
Johnson did not clearly locate near-shore seepage of the island's own
groundwater. Exploration of the island itself by University of Alberta's
Martyn Unsworth turned up additional new information. By using advanced
remote sensing to explore the rock substructure, it has found clear
evidence that the likely path to the sea of any nuclear material that
leaves the cavities created by the nuclear test shots will travel more
slowly than previously thought. 
Challenge for the Future 
Vanderbilt's David Kosson drew an implication from the geophysical work
he coordinated for this project: "In one sense, these findings pose a
difficult challenge for those responsible for protective monitoring of
the remote Amchitka Island since the presence of long-lived radioactive
materials will require long-term attention to a site that may eventually
pose potential risk to future generations." There is no currently known
technology to address the radioactive shot cavities themselves; hence
future surveillance is needed and the study serves to provide baseline
data for that effort. 
The Catalyst 
In 2000 the Governor of Alaska specifically requested that DOE agree to
fund and to ask that group, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with
Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) to do such an analysis. After the
Secretary of Energy agreed and a 2002 CRESP/UAF workshop suggested a
technical path forward, the State and the Department signed a Letter of
Intent that assigned the four party team (see above) to approve a plan
for the needed research and to help assure the independence of the CRESP
study. 18 months after CRESP was given partial funding and the actual
go-ahead in February 2003, it is reporting these substantive results. 
Interpreting Complicated Data 
One of CRESP's challenges was to analyze biological samples for a long
enough time to know what levels of radionuclides were actually there
(since some radionuclides are present in any marine system). It had then
to distinguish whether what it did find might have come from the nuclear
tests - or was from other sources such as fallout, or even was
naturally-occurring. For example, CRESP wrestled with what it meant to
have more algae samples showing plutonium from Amchitka and more fish
samples showing Cesium-137 from the reference site at Kiska. In all
these cases the data was consistent as levels were both safe and what
would have been expected anywhere in oceans in the Northern Hemisphere.
CRESP PI Charles W. Powers says: "CRESP people are committed to
explaining how we thought through all of the complicated issues posed by
the data since the public deserves to have the same peace of mind that
we have about what we found." 
Study Distinctiveness 
*	Voluminous (300 pages of direct report and more than 1000 pages
of appendices), many of which will now go directly into the academic
literature. 
*	Required recruitment and coordination of unusually diverse
scientific talent. Fourteen senior scientists from 6 major universities
were involved in the work. 
*	Field work in a very remote and taxing environment: Six senior
scientists leading 18 additional researchers and 4 members from A/PIA
launched into the Bering Sea toward Amchitka and Kiska from Adak Island,
already the western most settled community in the Western Hemisphere,
and worked in cold seas and heavy winds most of the time. 
*	CRESP people, including those from UAF, made clear and
unambiguous efforts consistently to reach out to affected Aleut
communities as they defined their scientific plan and then included
Aleuts on the expedition itself to aid in collection of samples. 
What is CRESP? 
It is interdisciplinary multi-university organization through which
senior scientists and their laboratories have, for ten years, studied
and reviewed risk issues associated with the cleanup and long-term
stewardship of legacy wastes at sites involved in the nation's nuclear
weapons production process that began in the 1950's. CRESP was
specifically created to address the recommendation by the National
Academy of Sciences that the U.S. Department of Energy's Environmental
Management Office needed an independent academic mechanism to research
and review risk problems related to nuclear waste management. Its PI,
Powers, is also President of IRM, a non-profit whose current work is to
administer the Consortium. 
Who developed the Science Plan for this study and edited this report? 
Joanna Burger, Ph.D., Rutgers University Professor of Biology, head of
the CRESP Ecological Health Center of Expertise and leader of CRESP's
Amchitka biological studies; David Kosson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair,
the Department of Civil And Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt
University, head of the CRESP Remediation Center of Expertise and leader
of CRESP's Amchitka geophysical and radiological analysis studies.
Michael Gochfeld, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Environmental and
Occupational Medicine at RWJMS-UMDNJ, is an occupational physician who
was responsible for approving and implementing the Health and Safety
Plan for this rigorous expedition. David Barnes, Ph.D., Associate
Professor /PE, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department has
coordinated The University of Alaska-Fairbanks' participation in CRESP 
Powers and these four researchers led the Science Plan effort and edited
the draft report. Arthur Upton, M.D., a noted radiobiologist and former
Director of the National Cancer Institute, now clinical professor at
RWJMS-UMNDJ, led a subcommittee of the CRESP Peer Review Committee he
chairs in issuing a review of the draft. The Amchitka report editors
amended their draft in response and issued a final report. 
###
These reports and other Information about CRESP can be obtained from its
web site www.cresp.org 
Additional quotes about the Report from CRESP people: 
Peer Review of the Draft: Before releasing the report, CRESP did, as it
typically does with important studies, ask its distinguished peer review
committee to review its draft report so it could improve the final
version. Arthur Upton, former director of the National Cancer Institute
and chair of the CRESP Review Committee on behalf of its sub-committee
on Amchitka said of that draft: "The methods were well conceived,
expertly applied and have produced results that are definitive and
thereby enable conclusions that should be meaningful to all
concerned.... In view of the high quality of the studies reported, and
their failure to find evidence of the release of radioactivity from the
shot cavities into the surrounding environment, the results that are
presented should be reassuring to concerned stakeholders." 
Complexity from beginning to end: "I continue to be in awe of the
persistence and skill of the CRESP people. We sent them with every
protection we could reasonably devise, but the fact that the expedition
was executed safely and successfully in this forbidding environment is
quite extraordinary. And then we found that the challenge of analyzing
our data proved every bit as difficult as the expedition itself.
Intellectually honest and nimble people - when they are really competent
- will find a way to find out the facts. This is a study of which we are
all very proud," said Charles W. Powers, CRESP Principal Investigator
and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ 
Project Efficiency: "I am excited by the fact that we were able, within
the very short single season of work, to add so significantly to the
geophysical understanding of Amchitka and its marine environment. I
worked with excellent teams from four good research universities." David
Kosson, head of the CRESP Remediation Center of Expertise and Professor
and Chair, the Department of Civil And Environmental Engineering,
Vanderbilt University. 
Collaboration and Productivity: "It was the most rewarding and
productive collaboration in my 30 years of marine research to have the
honor of working with Aleut fishermen and other colleagues on this
important project to determine that our commercial and subsistence foods
are safe free from radionuclide damage for us, the sea lions, halibut
and the eagles of Amchitka." Joanna Burger, Rutgers University Professor
of Biology, head of the CRESP Ecological Health Center of Expertise and
leader of the CRESP Amchitka biological studies.