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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1976)
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NO TRADE IN REQUIRED r i» use he IAI 2/*34°° 2/*39°° 2 / *44°° 2/*49°° “S, _ (Federal Excise Tax 38c to 62c par bra) ■74-14-19 F7S-14-1S 074-14-19 M74-14-19 374-19 L 74-19 UiNiV nr CHARGE’EM I VWmMLU S2 PEfl TM MKTI aamw ■ sok i urn sbu Opan an T^TT— account frrrnm HUSO I not I DOWNTOWN EUGENE FIRESTONE 345-15 lM I U.LS m- >e lift • tort Sis t aa.1 pa. VALLEY RIVER FIRESTONE mmmrnm Rm BmArt SJ ym Id MM M CRYSTAL TIRE COMPANY *44-11 IS IST-fc Ira ■yes aesArt 74 ye. Id. I ml* | ♦No brake department seed* m in la Me a. a-frt MyaMI u4 ya PAMY iktluAya Page 22 Radioactive waste Some radionuclides are con centrated more than others in biological chains. For example, while radiophosphorus made up less than one per cent of radioac tive waste discharges at Hanford, it accounted for 70 to 95 per cent of radioactivity found in most fish and invertebrates. Hanford’s 1975 Environmental Statement indi cates that concentrations of radioactive elements in Columbia River whitefish are 170 times gre ater than river water concentra tions for phosphorus, 100 times for sodium and 64 times for zinc. Investigators found an unusual pattern in radioactive zinc. Re leased at Hanford, it travels some 382 miles down the Columbia to salt water. Once there it is concen trated by oysters and other shell fish to the degree that Pacific Coast shellfish are reported to have a higher level of radioactivity than do shellfish studied any where else. Some of these shell fish are harvested, processed, and shipped to retail outlets everywhere, including restaurants and markets in Richland, where most Hanford employes live. Even after this roundabout trip of over 700 miles, radioactive zinc concentrations are still great enough so that total body counting of radioactivity in Hanford workers can distinguish between individu als who eat shellfish and those who do not. Hanford officials who have monitored radioactivity in the Col umbia say that levels have never risen above standards set for drinking water. Radioactivity has been declining since the last of the early reactors was phased out in 1971. Most current nuclear pro ducts entering the river seep in from low-level waste trenches. Hanford health physicist Jack Fix stated recently that by 1975 Col umbia River radioactivity was less than one-tenth of one per cent of current limits for drinking water. Does this mean that Columbia River radioactivity poses no health hazard? “Drinking water criteria alone should not determine maximum permissible levels of discharge," wrote Conrad Straub, Radiologi cal Health Research Chief of the U.S. Public Health Service, in a PERFECT PAIRS Chfirwf from our elegant col lection of mat'liing Keepmike wedding ring" in 14K natural or white gold. Keepsake TnrfHnnai Wrdd,n« R,n«. Give the perfect symbol of love. A brilliant perfect permanently registered keepsake diamond. Fine jewelry, watches and gifts. DoflA Jewelers Keepsake Comer WALLET MVEM CEMTEII Oa*y 10:00-9 Sal 10:004 £•» 11004 1964 study for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). "Other downstream uses may place more stringent requirements on permissible concentrations.” Straub pointed out hat if Han ford released radioactive phos phorus up to the quantities al lowed by drinking water stan dards, Columbia River fish would become much too hazardous to eat. He recommended new, lower permissible discharge rates of various radionuclides from Han ford at one tenth to one thousandth of former "safe" levels. uregon State University oceanographer Norman Cutshell surveyed Columbia River radioac tivity in 1974 and found that he could still trace nuclear particles originating at the Hanford plant several hundred miles out into the Pacific and as far north as the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Canadian Border. Looking at the bright side, Cutshell called the radioactivity a definite asset in scientific research, since Hanford radionuclides enable scientists to identify Columbia water wherever it ends up. "We know how far out into the ocean the river water goes," Cut shell explained, "and where the radioactive particles go.” Radioactive Rabbit Pellets Between 1952 and 1958 the AEC removed some 32 million gal lons of liquid nuclear wastes from underground storage tanks at Hanford and transferred them to unlined trenches called the B-C Cribs. As each trench filled up with a potent mixture of radioactive strontium, cesium, tritium, cobalt and traces of plutonium, it was backfilled with dirt and forgotten. The contents would sink 20 to 30 feet below the surface and com bine with the soil to form a perma nently buried radioactive salt cake. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of the way of living things for the long period of time needed for decay of the radioactivity. There would be no need to monitor the solid salt cakes. Between 1958 and 1960, how ever, native mammals, probably coyotes or badgers, burrowed into one of the trenches. Once ex posed, the radioactive salt cake became a focal point for wildlife as salt licks are rare in the area. Jack rabbits and small rodents licked the salt, then scattered radioac tive droppings over a wide area. Coyotes and birds of prey ate radioactive prey and in turn scat tered irradiated bits of bones and droppings over a still greater area. Hanford employes discovered the exposed salt cake in 1964 and plugged the burrow with asphalt. By then, however, an unknown quantity of radioactive fertilizer had been spread over a five and-a-half square mile area. Five years later some 55,000 cubic yards of gravel were spread over the buried trenches in hopes of preventing further wildlife burrow ing. In 1972 and 1973 Thomas O'Farrell and Richard Gilbert of the Battelle Laboratories at Han ford explored the area around the B-C Cribs with Geiger counters. Rabbit pellets by then eight to fif teen years old were still so radioactive that the two scientists had no difficulty in tracing out the favored haunts of long-dead jack rabbits of the salt lick days. Radioactive pellets were found in every dwecbon, they reported, al though the greatest density was to the south and southwest of the salt cakes. Here the vegetation was the heaviest, and here the jacks congregated by day to feed, to rest, and to spread radioactive manure under the sagebrush Most of the irradiated pellets were found less than a half-mile from the salt cakes. The most dis tant pellet was found about one and-a-half miles from the cake. Predators covered a larger area, about 20 square miles. Coyote droppings containing radioactive bone fragments of a pocket gopher showed up almost two miles from the salt cakes. Contaminated rabbit bones lay beneath a Swainson s hawk’s nest some six miles from the source of contamination. Geiger counters registered highs of 20,000 to more than 100,000 clicks per minute when held over rabbit pellets or bone fragments, as compared to a background count of less than 500 clicks per minute. “Animals can pose problems in large waste management areas by acting as an efficient biological transport mechanism for radionuclides which are thought to be safely buried," O'Farrell and Gilbert concluded. Need a hairstyle that will survive Oregon’s sunny-one-day-raining-the-next weather? The Hair Loft’s new shop at 19th & Agate has just what you’re looking for! 465-1202, 464-2565 2333 Willamette 1239 Alder 146(5.(9* Gyrwhwjthe (am** from (next-a«rfc?Hie Wtamerte, flaza) &oed Ueart) 6i«»Qrinder) Wednesday, October 20, 1976
