RE: Plutonium byproduct found near Hanford reach spawning beds

[Robert_B_Rob_Sitsler@RL.gov]

Boy would I be interested in one of those GMs that reads out in "Sr-90
cpm".

Rob Sitsler, Health Physicist
Fluor Daniel Hanford
Robert_B_Rob_Sitsler@rl.gpv
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Weiner, Ruth [SMTP:rfweine@sandia.gov]
> Sent:	Wednesday, June 30, 1999 12:22 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	RE: Plutonium byproduct found near Hanford reach
> spawning beds
> 
> Norm Buske has been wielding "chattering Geiger counters" and crying
> wolf
> since at least 1984, and the Spokane Spokesman Review is notorious for
> this
> kind of story.  How can he tell it's Sr-90 from a Geiger counter
> reading?
> 
> Clearly only my own opinion
> 
> Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
> Sandia National Laboratories 
> MS 0718, POB 5800
> Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
> 505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
> rfweine@sandia.gov
> 
> \-----Original Message-----
> From: Michael C. Baker [mailto:mcbaker@lanl.gov]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 7:48 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Plutonium byproduct found near Hanford reach spawning beds
> 
> 
> 
> 
> FYI ... Mike ... mcbaker@lanl.gov
> 
> >Salmon close to radiation Plutonium byproduct found near Hanford
> Reach
> >spawning beds
> >
> >Karen Dorn Steele - The Spokane Spokesman-Review, June 27, 1999
> >
> >In the shadow of Hanford's old H Reactor, salmon jump as scientist
> Norm
> >Buske's Geiger counter chatters.
> >
> >This swirling stretch of the Columbia River -- near the White Bluffs
> that
> >overlook Hanford Reach -- is home to the spawning beds of fall
> chinook
> >salmon, who return here from the ocean.
> >
> >At the edge of this productive fishery, Buske has made a potentially
> >ominous discovery: radioactive Strontium 90 at 25 times safe levels
> in
> >mulberry bushes whose roots reach into the river.
> >
> >The radiation was found only 100 feet from some of the salmon beds.
> >
> >Strontium 90, a byproduct of plutonium production, is a highly toxic
> >element that attacks bone marrow and takes 38 years to decay to half
> its
> >original strength.
> >
> >Hanford contractors have already detected a spike of hexavalent
> chromium, a
> >powerful chemical and carcinogen, in the river at this very spot.
> It's
> >below H Reactor's old retention basins, where radioactive cooling
> water and
> >damaged fuel rods were dumped during the Cold War.
> >
> >The chromium is coming from a plume under Hanford in concentrations
> 25
> >times higher than what is known to harm juvenile salmon, according to
> a
> >1996 study for the U.S. Department of Energy.
> >
> >Buske's discovery this spring raises the stakes: Has Strontium 90
> followed
> >the same gravelly channel into the river as the chromium?
> >
> >Hanford officials say there's probably no problem. Others aren't so
> sure.
> >
> >known to harm juvenile salmon, according to a 1996 study for the U.S.
> >Department of Energy.
> >
> >Buske's discovery this spring raises the stakes: Has Strontium 90
> followed
> >the same gravelly channel into the river as the chromium?
> >
> >Hanford officials say there's probably no problem. Others aren't so
> sure.
> >
> >"This is a big deal," said John Erickson, director of radiation
> protection
> >for the Washington Department of Health. "It's a hot issue whenever
> salmon
> >are involved."
> >
> >Buske's discovery is "extremely unsettling and of serious concern,"
> said
> >Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast
> Federation of
> >Fishermen's Associations, the largest organization of commercial
> fishermen
> >on the West Coast.
> >
> >Eighty percent of fall chinook in the Columbia River come from the
> Hanford
> >Reach, as do 25-30 percent of all the salmon caught in Alaska, Spain
> said.
> >
> >There's no evidence that Hanford radiation is reaching salmon or
> their
> >spawning beds, but Buske's findings warrant a thorough government
> >investigation, Spain said.
> >
> >"People don't need to worry that fish in the Hanford Reach are
> radioactive,
> >but this cannot be ignored," Spain said. "We owe it to our industry
> and to
> >consumers to seriously address this."
> >
> >Buske reported his data in a June 23 draft report for the Government
> >Accountability Project, a nonprofit group with offices in Washington,
> D.C.,
> >and Seattle that monitors Hanford cleanup efforts.
> >
> >Buske is being paid $30,000 for his nuclear sleuthing for a year,
> said Tom
> >Carpenter of GAP's Seattle office.
> >
> >Although the Strontium 90 measurements are preliminary, the discovery
> >"raises public concerns for the health of an important salmon stock,"
> the
> >GAP report says.
> >
> >Washington state officials are working with Buske and DOE to decide
> what to
> >do next, Erickson said.
> >
> >"It may include verification of (Buske's) results and a state
> sampling
> >plan," Erickson said.
> >
> >Buske alerted Hanford and state officials to his recent findings. On
> Monday
> >scientists from Hanford contractor Battelle Pacific Northwest
> National
> >Laboratory and DOH accompanied Buske to the shorelines of the H
> Reactor.
> >
> >Buske used his Geiger counter to point out the most radioactive
> bushes.
> >Then the scientists gathered samples of mulberries and leaves for
> further
> >radiation analysis back in their labs.
> >
> >Battelle conducts environmental monitoring programs at Hanford for
> DOE.
> >
> >Battelle's samples won't be available for 30 days, said Ted Poston,
> manager
> >of the laboratory's surface environmental surveillance program.
> >
> >"In my opinion, I think the risk (to salmon) is very low," Poston
> said.
> >Strontium 90 in Hanford ground water doesn't reach dangerous levels,
> Poston
> >said.
> >
> >DOE officials also think the salmon are safe. They've traced a plume
> of
> >Strontium 90 under H Reactor to the river's edge, but no farther.
> >
> >Ground water samples from near the H Reactor in 1997 showed only two
> >radiation hits over the 8-picocurie per liter drinking water limit,
> said
> >Arlene Tortoso, DOE's ground-water project manager in Richland.
> >
> >"I don't see any danger to the salmon at this point," Tortoso said.
> >
> >DOE is containing the chromium plume with a pump-and-treat system. It
> has
> >removed 61 kilograms of chromium from ground water near H Reactor
> since
> >1997, Tortoso said.
> >
> >"We are now preventing most of it from reaching the river," she said.
> >
> >But DOE hasn't sampled the mulberry bushes below H Reactor where
> Buske
> >found the Strontium 90, she said.
> >
> >Hanford's officials are ignoring radiation that trickles through the
> porous
> >soils below the reactors, concentrates in the mulberry bushes, and
> >reappears in river springs, Buske said.
> >
> >When he discovered "hot" mulberry bushes near another reactor (N
> Reactor)
> >last year, DOE's response was to chop down the bushes, Buske said. He
> calls
> >that reaction "killing the messenger."
> >
> >Buske, who holds master's degrees in physics and oceanography and
> once
> >worked for Greenpeace, has been returning to Hanford's springs since
> 1983.
> >
> >He and his former spouse, mathematician Linda Josephson, discovered
> >hundreds of additional submerged springs leaking Hanford pollutants
> beneath
> >the river -- springs that Hanford contractors hadn't detected.
> >
> >Hanford sits atop two massive bars of gravel, a legacy of the last
> Ice Age
> >when gigantic floods from ancient Lake Missoula repeatedly surged
> through
> >Eastern Washington.
> >
> >Engineers from the Manhattan Project, the top-secret mission to build
> an
> >atomic bomb during World War II, ignored Hanford's geology.
> >
> >They chose the site because it was far from enemy airplanes and
> provided
> >abundant river water to cool the world's first plutonium production
> reactors.
> >
> >H Reactor was one of eight original Hanford reactors built from 1948
> to
> >1955 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
> >
> >Contaminated cooling water from the reactors was held in large ponds
> to
> >allow some of the radiation to decay to safer levels and then was
> dumped
> >back into the river -- a practice that would be illegal today.
> >
> >Hanford's water table is 300 feet below the Pasco gravels in a layer
> of
> >basalt called the Ringold Formation. Channels scoured in the Ringold
> basalt
> >flow east toward the river -- and are the source of Hanford's current
> river
> >contamination problems.
> >
> >Early Hanford officials were highly optimistic about how long it
> would take
> >for the radioactive and chemical pollutants to reach the river. In
> the
> >early 1950s, they estimated "travel times" of 50-180 years.
> >
> >They were wrong.
> >
> >The first contaminated ground water from Hanford that went beyond the
> >boundaries of the nuclear reservation was detected in January 1956.
> It had
> >only taken seven years for radiation in the ground water to reach the
> >river, according to a 1963 Hanford report.
> >
> >Last week, the nation's leading scientific oversight board said more
> >attention should be paid to Hanford's impact on the Columbia.
> >
> >In a June 24 report, the National Academy of Sciences faulted DOE for
> not
> >moving quickly enough to clean up contamination along the Hanford
> Reach.
> >
> >---
> >
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