
          The Risks at Oak Ridge
          By Thompson, JoanneJoanne Thompson
          Vol. 8, No. 2, 1986, pp. 15-16
          
          Ever since World War II, under the protective umbrella of national
security, nuclear facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, have operated
with minimal outside scrutiny. Companies under contract with the
federal government have been able to get legislative and agency
waivers to continue operations, while at the same time refusing to
disclose their methods of handling and disposing of radioactive and
toxic materials. Only in the recent past have citizens been made aware
of the true extent of the problem. In 1983, local media exposed the
fact that the Y-12 weapons facility illegally released over 2.4
million pounds of mercury into the environment during the many years
the facility had been in existence. Mercury poisoning causes nerve and
brain damage, and birth disorders.
          The transformation of Oak Ridge from a backwoods community to the
center of weapons research and production of weapons was never
questioned at the time. In the 40's, the country was at war. Security
was tight and who could argue with 80,000 federal jobs being brought
to east Tennessee. Oak Ridge and surrounding communities became
dependent on the federal government to sustain the local economic
base. With Oak Ridge jobs now down to 10,000, former workers
developing cancer, and landfills contaminating groundwater supplies,
the price of national defense is only now being realized.
          The recognition of the federal government's failure to be
accountable to its citizens comes at a time when the Department
of Energy is proposing to make Oak Ridge the site for the first
facility to re-package and store high level radioactive
waste. DOE proposed the development of this facility at the
same time it announced the shut-down of the Oak Ridge Gaseous
Diffusion Plant, effectively laying off over 2,000 workers. The
promise of jobs to help the local economy has always been the "big
carrot" in reducing local opposition.
          
            TRACK RECORD
          
          Tennesseans have grown increasingly skeptical that DOE can indeed
construct and operate such a facility safely in light of its own track
record on worker health and environmental damage. While DOE officials
claim that there are minimal worker risks at their facilities, there
is increasing evidence to the contrary. A paper. by Bob Alvarez of the
Environmental Policy Institute documents serious occupational health
problems at Oak Ridge facilities:
          * Leukemia mortality at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory--workers
in maintenance jobs who worked less than ten years show a 91 percent
increased risk of leukemia. Those who worked longer showed a risk 212
percent greater.
          * Cancer mortality at the Oak Ridge Y-12 weapons plant--research
found that the risk of brain tumorsfor workers employed five to ten
years was 489 percent greater than expected. Leukemia and aleukemia
risks were 900 percent greater than expected.
          An October 11, 1984 issue of the New Scientist
indicated additional problems:
          * Overall, workers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a 49
percent excess leukemia mortality compared to the general public;
          * Janitors, laborers, maintenance men and construction workers at
the Laboratory have a significant excess risk of radiation-associated
cancers;
          * Between 1943 and 1947, workers at Oak Ridge's Y-12 uranium
processing plant had "significant excesses of deaths from lung cancer
when compared to US white male rates";
          * Workers at Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant had "excess death from cancer
of the lung, brain, and central nervous system, Hodgkin's disease and
other lymphatic tissue," and
          * Workers at Oak Ridge's Gaseous Diffusion Plant exhibit "excess
deaths due to lung and brain cancers and respiratory disease."
          In addition, a study of 19,000 women working between 1943 and 1947
at the Y-12 plant was never finished--officals claimed that it was
difficult to follow up on research subjects who did not have Social
Security numbers and changed their names upon getting married. In late
1985, DOE officials announced that nine years of health data of
workers had been destroyed or lost.
          During the mercury investigation, it was discovered that workers at
the Y-12 plant curing the 1950's breathed doses of mercury vapor as
high as thirty times the prevailing health standards.

          The track record for environmental damage is as scandalous. In
addition to the 2.4 million pounds of mercury illegally released into
the environment, we have the following:
          * Over twelve million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste was
buried at the Oak Ridge Reservation since World War II--enough to fill
the 95,000-seat University of Tennessee football stadium;
          * TVA has identified more than 140 dangerous chemicals and
radioactive materials present in Oak Ridge creek bottoms, including
lead, cadmium, methylene chloride, thorium, and perchloryethlene;
          * Over the years DOE engaged in poor disposal practices, including
dumping wastes into poorly sited and constructed trenches and ponds
which have resulted in serious underground water contamination;
          * In 1985, DOE admitted to having dumped over fifty million pounds
of uranium chips into Dempster Dumpsters, then buried them in shallow
trenches;
          * In an eight-year period, DOE has had 740 NPDES (National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System) violations at its three Oak
Ridge facilities; and
          * Recent spills of strontium-90 resulted in shutting the water
intake system for the City of Kingston. City officials were notified
one day after DOE had notified workers at the Gaseous Diffusion Plant
not to use the water.
          Notwithstanding other unknown dangers, DOE has estimated that the
cost for clean-up of their facilities will run to over $800
million. As recently enacted laws, such as the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act, and Superfund Law (CERCLA), and recently promulgated
standards, such as National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air
Pollutants, are applied by the federal and state EPA's, more
information will become known about DOE past disposal and operating
practices.
          The Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition (TVEC) is one Tennessee
citizen organization leading the fight to keep the proposed temporary
nuclear waste facility out of Tennessee and to make DOE correct past
sins before proceeding with any new projects. TVEC has recently
organized Americans for a Clean Environment, a local group which is
monitoring past and future DOE activities at Oak Ridge. The
organizations recently delivered petitions to the state capitol
representing the opposition of over 100,000 Tennesseans to the MRS
facility. The Sierra Club Radioactive Waste Campaign is working with
TVEC, the Highlander Center, Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, and
other Tennessee groups to halt the spread of groundwater contamination
from Oak Ridge facilities.
          
            Joanne Thompson, Ph.D., is executive director of the
Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition and an adjunct faculty member with
the University of Tennessee School of Social Work. TVEC's address is
1407 East 5thAuenz e, Knoxville, TN 37917. Call 615-637-6055. This
article, and the one following [Debra Castaldo.  "Oak Ridge
Wastes Varied, Extensive"] are reprinted from The Sierra
Club Waste Paper, published quarterly by the Sierra Club
Radioactive Waste Campaign, 625 Broadway, New York, NY
10012.
          
        