Saturday, August 21, 1999
Metal has traces of radioactivity
BY JAMES MALONE
The Courier-Journal
PADUCAH, Ky. — Traces of highly radioactive plutonium and neptunium contaminate portions of 61,000 tons of scrap metal at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, according to a draft report.
The report, prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy by an Oak Ridge, Tenn., consulting firm, also says uranium and technetium, less toxic radioactive elements, might be leaking from the scrap piles into off-site surface water and sediments. It does not address possible contamination of the environment by the more dangerous substances.
“Uranium has been detected in the surface water runoff from these scrap yards during storm events,” the report says, adding that the uranium leakage “may be significant” and that “exposures in the vicinity of the scrap yards may pose risks to human health.”
The report evaluates three options for removing the scrap piles and concludes that the best is to decontaminate some of the metal and sell it and dispose of the rest, at an estimated cost of $32.5 million.
A member of a citizens advisory board for the plant urged that the project be approached cautiously and called for ironclad safeguards to assure that contaminated metals not appear in products that come into contact with people. The Energy Department said it has made no firm decision about what to do.
The report says the scrap needs to be removed to reduce the risk of exposure to plant workers and the potential hazard to nearby residents and people who hunt and fish in an adjacent wildlife area.
Cleanup of the “underlying soils and burial grounds,” which also may be contaminating the environment around the plant, cannot begin before the scrap is removed, the report says.
The scrap-metal project is just a small part of a multibillion-dollar cleanup at the 47-year-old plant, which once enriched uranium for bombs and now makes nuclear fuel for commercial power plants. Much of the scrap is radioactive because it was once part of the machinery that was used to enrich uranium. Some of the metal is not identified, described only as “classified.”
Recent disclosures that the plant once had processed spent nuclear fuel tainted with plutonium and neptunium raised suspicions that the scrap also was contaminated with these dangerous elements, and the draft report confirms that.
Robbery suspect shot dead by police
Five fatal police shootings in two years
Two Ross teens killed in fiery wreck
Riverfront park a place to breathe
Stadium conspiracy alleged
Blood supplies dwindling
Companies display blood-drive determination
HIV fighter gives condoms to prostitutes
Dear Teacher: Thank you in advance
City gas station breaks city rules
Boy gets at least a year for taking shotgun to school
Former Batavia teacher to serve 5 years
How to help earthquake victims
Middletown teen-ager recounts earthquake terror
Patton defends area-code change
GET TO IT
Kings Island hosts surfing contest
Many charges leveled in fatal hit-skip
Boone Co. planners want study of boundary
Boston firm wins Lincoln Court rebuilding contract
Butler Co. candidate field swells
County jail nurse accused of smuggling in marijuana
Driver gets year in jail for pair's deaths
Expert gives city schools credit
Fired police chief to sue again
Hoosier riverboat casinos rake in record haul in July
Juvenile center's efforts paying off
Men plead not guilty in murder, child-porn cases
Metal has traces of radioactivity
New juvenile justice center officially open
Photos depict Ohio's infantry
'School' for needy students
TRISTATE DIGEST
UK president kicks off capital campaign
Veteran pols pleased with achievements
Who's running for office Nov. 2 in Warren County
