ML070660059
| ML070660059 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim, Three Mile Island  |
| Issue date: | 02/27/2007 |
| From: | Osborn M - No Known Affiliation |
| To: | NRC/ADM/DAS/RDB |
| References | |
| 71FR75280 00017 | |
| Download: ML070660059 (41) | |
Text
, R 10,UNITED STATES
- W - NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-000.1 loolwýZA'ý F -
rnI
-Fýý --, - /--( -"'/3 4 *J~ ~-~(-
I;L
_FT 14~
II'el I I I
_ __F I I" --- I--A-
-I- -___ I~ iT
OI- I iL[I7~~J-~~2exi I
~ -~-7 - _ -~o I ~I jjl 1-o AI-VA#k 1_4 L IL4 "f I! : I i P1 '141 I TI
Toronto, Canada July 18, 1986 In May, 1983, my father-in-law, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, told me that at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident, a full report was commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. He (my father-in-law) said that the report, if published in its entirety, would have destroed the civilian nuclear power industry, because the accident at Three Mile Island was infinitely more dangerous than was ever made public.
He told me that he had used his enormous personal influence with President Carter to persuade him to publish the report, only in a highly "diluted" form. The Presd.dent himself had originally wished the full report to be made public.
In November, 1985, my father-in-law told me that he had come to deeply regret his action in persuading President Carter to suppress the most alarming aspects of that report.
ane..R-ickover JANE RICKOVER appeared before me and swore as to the truth of the above statement.
Dated at Toronto this 18th day of JulyA 198 William F. Lamson Q.C.
Notary Public for the Province of Ontario ATMOACNMAIT I. xI
T,~e ~ ~ ,%~, ~/~t Q2k~12JX~ 6 ~Z~ ~ /
tý 7141'ý
elý Could you farm through fallout? 3*k2* A `-!A Scientists picked the Hanford plant hazelnuts, and West German deer have Reactor in Washington State for good reason. It is the U.S.'s version set off Geiger counters.
uppose a the suffers meltdown, spewing Hanford 7%
Nuclear of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy plant The Chernobyl experience provides a of its radioactive core into the atmo- that melted down in Russia two years better understanding of how farmland sphere. Winds headed east across the ago this month. The Hanford plant had interacts with fallout. The accident has, U.S. would bury some of this country's been leaking for years. Last year, in light in effect, offered scientists a real-world prime farmland in fallout-the kind 6of_7i'eirobrems spotlighted by the laboratory for combating radioactivity that sticks around for decades. Chernobyl accident, the Hanford plant in our soils.
Not likely, you say? Maybe not. But was shut down.
the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" But nuclear plants around the world In late-April 1986, winds carried ra-at one time considered it possible are aging, a fact that's not lost on people. dioactive particles and gases thousands enough to come up with this scenario: who deal in food-whether they raise it of miles from the Chernobyl Atomic "Truck farmers in central Idaho are or trade it. Energy Plant. Rain and snow cleared told to plow under leafy vegetable crops In mid-February, rumors of another the air but loaded vegetation and soils such as spinach and lettuce [because ra- nuclear accident in Russia sent domes- with iodine-131, cesium-134, cesium-diation sticks to vegetation]; Minnesota tic markets into a fury. Although the 137 and, to a lesser degree, strontium-dairy farmers are told to keep all their "nuclear" accident actually turned out 90. The fallout forced the Soviets to re-livestock in barns [to limit exposure to be a chemical spill, it's an example of move and bury 650,000 cubic yards of and prevent grazing on contaminated how nuclear problems have become an contaminated soil-about 400 acres forage]; in Madison, Wis., dairy sales everyday concern. scraped one Y'deep.
fall 90% in response to rumors of radio- Today, the 18-mile zone surrounding active iodine in milk ... " Throughout Europe, farmers are the plant in the agriculturally important Depending on the time of year, pre- right now living-and farming-with a Ukraine remains highly contaminated cipitation patterns and soil types in- situation exactly like the one outlined in parts, say the Soviets, although safe volved, South Dakota's sheep could above. enough to allow the return of some of turn up radioactive years later, having Although the Chernobyl reactor itself the 115,000 evacuees. Farming there is grazed on forage that has confused has since been incarcerated in concrete, impossible.
cesium-137 and strontium-90 with po- the damage from it persists. Some of the But that's just a small part of the tassium and calcium. Wyoming's beef fallout's effects in agricultiuraLareas are Chernobyl problem. Damage to crops, cattle, having accumulated cesium over livestock and farmland ranges far from hundreds of acres, could measure
- Cesium-saturated grazing areas in the site. Radioactivity from the acci-
"well-done" on a Geigercounter. And Lapland continue to contaminate thou- dent is still playing havoc with farmers' in the Northeast, with its nutrient-poor, sands of reindeer, at an estimated cost livelihoods.
rock-bottomed lakes, certain fish might of $182 million. Take Lapland, for instance. A forest-become the hottest food around.
- In Sweden, radioactive milk, fish and ed wilderness extending across north-Over the long-run, crops like corn wild mushrooms are still a problem. ern Norway, Finland, Sweden, Lapland and wheat would be in relatively good
- Northern England, Wales and Ire- lies about 1,100 miles from Chernobyl.
shape becausc their leaves-not the land report radioactive sheep. Radioac- The lichen that carpet its forest floors grain itself-would hold most of the ra- tive meat from Denmark has appeared are saturated with cesium- 137, a radio-dioactive particles. in Venezuelan ports. Turkey has "'hot- isotope with a half-life of over 30 years 22 F!AMA JOURNAI./A'P'ZL I988 ATT1AaIIA#EAJ7r 'I3
Europe in Chernobyl's after glow (that is, its radioactivity will be half as ' Av. Values > 10,000 Bq/sq. m.
active in 30 years as today). i Av. Values 5,000-10,000 Bq/sq. m.
Reindeer herded and eaten by the hAv. Values 1,000-5,000 Bq/sq. m.
Lapps graze on the lichen. Swedish au- Av. Values < 1,000 Bq/sq. m.
thorities have detected up to 100 times more radioactive cesium in those rein-
< * > 25,000 Bq/sq. m.
deer than permissible. Tens of thou-U 10,000-20,000 Bq/sq. m.
.7 4,000-6,000 Bq/sq. m.
sands of reindeer have had to be fed to mink instead of sold for human con-sumption. To lessen the economic blow, the Swedish government buys the + Cows contaminated meat at an estimated t= Fish .Denm
$182 million. = Sheep r The contamination elsewhere in Swe- =Deer Unt Netheriands /
den is abating. Yet some farms are qi= Mushrooms, today producing radioactive milk; fish ob = Hazelnuts in Sweden's nutrient-poor, granite-bottomed-lakes_ are showing higher and higher concentratons Ofradioactiy~e_ce-sium; and wild mushrooms-very pop-ular in Sweden-remain off limits, says Ake Bruce, nutrition expert at Sweden's National Food Administration.
It takes several years for cesium to migrate from the environment to food and then to humans. In most cases, con-centrations diminish. In others, radio-activity can increase. How long before it goes away? Sometimes very long.
I nnortern England, sheep from 635 farms suffer from radiation levels -ex--
ce6ding government safety limits, ac-cording to the Country Landowner's Association.
The problem is that the soil where these sheep graze has failed to trap the cesium. Two years ago, says Frances SOURCE NUCLEARENERGY AGENCY/OECD Livens, radiochemist at the Institute of THIS MAP SHOWS THE AVERAGE amount of cesium-137 and -134 in 1,000 becquerels Terrestial Ecology in Britain, "We per square meter, as measured on European soils from May 1986 to April 1987. Cesium thought the cesium would lock up in the concentrations are highlighted. Since the data were gathered, some of the cesium will soil in three months. We're finding that have washed away or have been trapped in the soil. But plants and animals are still the relatively acidic soils high in organic picking up the long-lived radioactive particles, even in some low fallout areas.
matter can't do that."
Livens speculates that it may take years before the cesium locks up in soils with little clay and minerals (tun- beans, requiring more potassium than "peats and thin, nasty soils." Mean- dra, sandy soils) or mostly organic mat- raess- s like rye, are likely to take more while, hun sof thousands of sheep ter (such as peats and tropical soils), ce- cesium up through their roots.
areban- ,d pjm ublic sale. The sium remains available to plants. In the short-run, according to George affected farmers may have to wait three To limit the migration of cesium into Ham, Kansas State agronomist, rice decades before they can sell their ani- the food supply, the USSR has had to would best resist the tissue-damaging mals on the open market. deep plow, irrigate and lime hundreds beta particles emitted by radionuclides.
of thousands of acres. Additional mea- Corn, sorghum, potatoes and sugar Scientists have discovered that, sures, says Harold Denton, a Nuclear beets are moderately resistant. Wheat, generally speaking, the stingiest soils Regulatory Cm s:sn (NRC) direc- oats and barley are very sensitive.
under the nuclear cloud's path are those tor, include treating highly contaminat- Processing removes much of the con-most likely to offer long-term harvests ed areas with calcium to fix radionu- tamination. Potatoes lose radionu-of cesium-137. That's because crops clides in the soil. "Then the areas might clides when made into starch; in milk grown on poor soils will take whatever be sown with crops such as lupines that they are filtered out during cheese-nutrients they can get. Plants on richer absorb radionuclides. These crops making. Other good crops are flax or soils will usually choose standard ele- would then be harvested and buried." cotton, because they aren't edible. "As it ments before chemically similar radio- Generally, cesium-137 will reside happens, rye, potatoes and flax are cus-active ones. near the soils' surface unless plowed tomary crops in the soils of the Cher-Carl Rosen, soil scientist at the Uni- under. Thus, shallow-rooted crops like nobyl area," says Denton.
versity of Minnesota, explains that cesi- potatoes or sugar beets are more likely um behaves like potassium in soil. In to be long-term problems than deep- Fighting fallout has proved disrup-basic soils, cesium is trapped by clay rooted ones like grains, says Gary' Paul- tive, costly, rarely practical and full of particles. Likewise, say Swedish scien- sen, Kansas State agronomist. He says unknowns, say experts. Our best lab is tists, cultivated, fertilized soils rich in contamination depends on the stage of Russia, but its experience, like its fall-minerals bind cesium ions. But in poor growth and even variety: however, soy- out, make take years to surface. 4
! i*D'LI J"*IJDP>:,LI,',PHIL i+)88 23
I 1 r
)t 4 t
I A 06
'7-',--
4 13i -,
~r. 2~' >r -
C ~~Xj nA~~~"'A t
.4 /~ ~
"g*r- i p Y(
.A
.7
//
/
I "p-i P,
~Žes -
Q//d~er ee47'-//
kP-'
7jo r1*/ 12O II
, I ý,, ý
{If6h 7))i z6iV}
5e-'eJ§ c/5jole"4~
?o~e ?-i
- oqpjAvý' L-ArE M5 i ?R (6,'
W_
4'Logdo$A b4efl4y IF27 b4AJDEI/OAA/ .20:
1D
Doa&ý 5LýUK H
~
)RK DISPATCH, MONDA Y, NOVEMBER 28, 1983. ';~- \'
fessor, said.
Irradiated W hen researchers said.
Researchers monitor- I.j
./N' "
returned to the forest lli pine forest lasl- spring for the first ed the forest for tae first five years. after it was a surprise time in 15ý years, they were "shocked because exposed, and. recovery seemed to be progres-I KNOXVILLE,' Tenn. re'vegetation seems to sing normally, McCtar-(AP) - Researchers who haive stopped after. five mick said.
exposed a pine forest to yfaars," he said. 1 .
I McCormick:
gamma rays 20 years headed a' ago in an experiment on thne, research, team. that. The. Hope Diamomad, '-1 the long-term effects of: e:xposed the forest and .the largest of all .blue.
a nuclear- explosion now: others to radiation in an diamonds, 441/2 carats;, isý
,ost are trying to find out why. attempt. to: discover one slightly, lopsided. It is 1pu- it took so long. for the of the. environmental probably due to the bot-f wo, trees to grow again. effects of a nuclear blast. tom part of the tear~drop kids So far, only: a few -The.. researchers shape being Out aw~ay so rapp-
.Cates seedlings have sprung up designed"-: a_ radiation. the original stolen jewel)
'the
" in the South Carolina. machine andfused it inW. could: not' be, identified.-
forest, Dr. Frank McCor- 1964 to expose 40 acres on The setting is a circŽlet of W
- s. mick, a University: of the-grounds of Savannah smaller'whitediaronds Tennessee ecology.. pro-.' River Plant, McCormick on a chain of diamoiads.
I 1 '-0 12.1 i74 10-I Sunday. Dec. 11, 1983 Philadelphia Inquirer A forest in S.C. fails to recover Pine trees exposed to radiation20 years ago By Patricia A. Paquette revegetation seems to have stopped" predictable," he said. "Honeysuckle As'ýoialed Pr',s after the first five years following and trumpet vines began moving in.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A South Car- exposure. It was expected that pine seedlings olina forest. exposed to radiation in Pine trees within about 25 yards of would move in next to replenish the an experiment 20 years ago has a radiation machine, invented for site. That didn't happen."
failed to replenish itself, and some the experiment, were killed. Some The weeds may have grown surviving trees are not growing nor- browned and died before the eight- thicker because of the radiation and mally, according to a University of day exposure was completed, he said. may have cut off light, so the seed-pI Tennessee ecologist. Farther away from the radiation lings couldn't grow, he said. Or the Only a few seedlings have sprung source, some trees died after several trees might not have been able to up in the affected 40 acres on the years, some became sterile and some reproduce.
grounds of the Savannah River developed three or four trunks after "Maybe there is more uncertainty Plant, said Frank McCormick, who buds on top of them were killed, about the ecological effects of radia-headed the research team that irra- McCormick said. tion" than scientists thought 20 years diated the forest with gamma rays in The amount of radiation emitted ago, he said. "We need to reduce that 1964. lie now teaches ecology at the during the eight days was more than uncertainty."
University of Tennessee-Knoxville. six times the amount that scientists Other sites on federal land were The few seedlings were not more estimate would kill a human, he said. tested in the mid-1960s, McCormick than four years old. and. researchers Researchers monitored the forest said, They include a mountain rain are not sure why the recovery was for the first five years after it was forest in Puerto Rico, a forest in delayed, McCormick said. exposed, and recovery seemed to be Rhinelander, Wis., and a forest at the When researchers returned to the progressing normally, McCormick Department of Energy's Oak Ridge forest last spring for the first time in said. National Laboratory, about 25 miles 15 years, they were "shocked because "Initial recovery was rapid and west of Knoxville.
m I
ATrAzAni 1vr s.
C .
UtP5R-847 11565 33,0+0.0 P'~n
-- ,6
-id,, o ,11.'292,1.18 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF PI.,VUS STROBUS L. AND PJIVUS SILVESTRIS L. SEEDLINGS SUBJECTED TO LOW-LEVEL CONTINUOUS GAMMA IRRADIATION AT A RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL AREA K. R. CHANDORKAR and G. M. CLARK Departments of Botany and Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S IAI (Received 5 August 1985; accepted in revised form 19 November 1985)
CHANDORKAR K. R. and CLARK C. NM.Physiologicaland morphologicalresponses ofPinus strobus L. and Pinus sylvestris L. seedlings subjected to low-level continuous gamma irradiationat a radioactivewaste disposal area. ENI,qRONMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 26, 259-270, 1986.-About 100 onie-vear old Pinus strobus and Pinus sylvestris seedlings were placed at the Welcome Residue Site (WRS,, 'a radioactive waste disposal area located near Port Hope, Ontario, and thereafter continuously exposed to an average gamma dose rate of 10.15 mR/hr. An additional 100 seedlings were placed at a nearby control site where the background dose rate was about 0.03 mR/hr. Seedlings from both locations were sampled on three occasions for the analysis of various parameters. Data collectcd at the end of the growing season show that, although the low-level continuous irradiation treatment had not affected the chlorophyll content of the new needles of both species, it had suppressed their normal rates of apparent photosynthesis by about 16-190/o and respiration rates by about 14-23%, and had reduced 80% ethanol soluble sugar content by about 14-25%. This_
treatment also suppressed stem elongation which led to considerable crowding of new ncedlcs and stimulated the outgrowth of lateral branches. These results suggest that both the morphological responses exhibited by the irradiated seedlings and the changes observed in the physico-chemical parameters of their needles were intermediated by the effect ofcontinuous irradiation on the level of free auxin, IAA.
INTRODUCTION constitute the main radioactive waste disposal area.
WELCOME Residue Site (WRS) is one of several We first visited the WRS in the summer of 1976 radioactive waste disposal areas maintained by to survey the types of vegetation growing within Eldorado Nuclear Ltd in the immediate vicinity and around its perimeter and to ascertain the of Port Hope, Ontario. This area was used impact, if any, on the surrounding environment.
between 1948 and 1953 as a depository for During this visit we found that the site was mostly radioactive wastes resulting from the extraction of colonized by a variety of grasses, mosses and radium from uranium ores. The refining of weedy dicot species (Fig. 5). Radiation exposure radium was terminated towards the end of 1953 rates in different parts of the site varied con-and, for the next two years, this area was mainly siderably, ranging from as low as 0.3 mRihlr in used to bury the dismantled parts and machinery areas with thick.vegetative cover to as high as of the radium laboratories. Presently it occupies a 100 mRihr around a lew barren spots. \'re also fenced-in area of about 30 hectares, of which the noticed a row of 10-year-old Scotch pine ýPrnus somewhat central, and also fenced, 5.1 hectares svlestris L.) trees growing along a drainage ditch 259 4 7TAcM EAfT 6 0
260 K. R. CHANDORKAR nid G. M, CLARK which flanks the southern border of the inner VVhile this study was well under way, in the fence (Fig. 1). A closer examination of these trees summer of 1981 Eldorado Nuclear Ltd initiated indicated that, not only thcir normal growth and work to retop the WRS with uncontaminated soil development.was siuppr:sscd, but also that they in order to reduce further deterioration through 21: exhibited a variety of anom)alouts. growth-l__re- wind and water erosion. When ihis work was
.sponses such as witches' brooming, needle fusion completed towards the "end of 1982, the and marked thickening ofstems and needles (Figs background dose rate over most of the area was re-2 and 3). Other than these modifications, the trees duced to about 2-2.5 mR/hr and that in the vicin-did not exhibit nutritional deficiency or chemical ity of the border trees to about 0.03-0.05 mR/hr.
toxicity symptoms as judged by the coloration of Since then, most of the Pinus svlvestris trees have needles; in spite of the fact that the soil was known been growing at a much faster rate than that
-. to be heavily contaminated with heavy metals which they exhibited before 1981 (Fig. 4), in-such as arsenic, uranium and thorium. G.amrna__ dicating that continuous external gamma irradi-exposure rates in the vicinity of these trees.ranged ation with an average dose rate as low as 1 mR/hr from about 0.3 to 1.2 mR/hr, which suggested could have suppressed the growth and develop-that the total dose which they had accumulated in ment of these trees.
nine years at this site was apprwxiimatel-y-.-25---
100 R.
Symptomatic of radiation damage as these METHODS responses were, it was not clear at this time whether they were induced by (1) continuous Plant material low-level external gamma radiation, or (2) low- One-year-old Pinus strobus L. (white pine) and level internal alpha and beta irradiation from the P. sylvestris L. (Scotch pine) seedlings were ob-absorption of alpha-emitting nuclides and their tained from the Ontario Ministry of Natural decay products, or (3) the combination of both. Resources Nursery in Orono, Ontario. About Evidence that these responses may not have 250-300 seedlings of each species were lifted from been caused by internal alpha and beta irradia- their seed-beds before budbreak and brought to tion or by arsenic toxicity was provided by sub- the Department of Botany, University of sequent investigations. Using the technique of Toronto, along with a sufficient amount of their activation analysis, it was found that in aqueous seed-bed soil. From these lots about 100 seedlings extracts ofseveral soil samples taken from the base of each species were selected for uniformity in of these trees the concentration of the alpha- height and these were transplanted ii*to st/ro-emitting nuclides and arsenic was well below the foam cups using the Orono nursery soil. They level that is considered toxic to plants, and that were then fertilized with 'heavy' phosphate nutri-the content of each of these elements in the stems, ent solution (N: P: K-10: 50: 10, Plant Products needles, cones and seeds of these trees was essen- Co. Ltd, Bramalea, Ontario) and transferred to tially comparable to similar tissues of trees grow- two adjacent cold frames in an outdoor lot where ing at a nearby uncontaminated site. Although they were maintained for 10-15 days under these analyses suggested that anomalous growth diffused light and watered as required. Seedlings responses exhibited by these trees may have been ofP. strobus and P. sylvestris were transplanted and induced by low-level continuous gsmma irradi- transported to the WRS at Port Hope, Ontario on ation, such a possibility appeared unlikely be- 16 May 1978 and 8 May 1979, respectively.
cause reference to literature suggested that con-tinuous gamma irradiation at such dose rates (i.e. Expcrimnntal arrangementand dsimctlr 0.3-1.2 mRihr) should have had little effect on Of the total number of seedlings of each species the growth and development of these trees, even taken to Port Hope, half was transferred to a after several years of exposurei.(19) It was therefore wooden platform (height 30.5 cm, width 40.7 cm concluded that further assessment of the pheno- and length 244 cm) which was placed near the menon was warranted and, hence, this study was eastern inner fence of the WRS lFigs 5 aiid 6).
initiated. "lhe remaining were transferred mo a similar
261 FiGSs 1-4. Photographs of P. svlvesiris trecs growing at the Welcome Residue Site.
Fig, 1. A row of I l-year-old P. sylvestris trees growing along the southern edge ofthe inner fence of WRS. Taken 1978. Fig. 2. Branch showing a witches' broom type of growth resulting from suppression ofnmain-shoot extension and outgrowth oflateral buds. Fig. 3. Branch showing thickened stem. abnormal (fused and thickened) needles and reduced stem elongation. Fig. 4. Trcc showing marked changes in growth pattern alter WRS was covered with uncontaminated soil in 1981, lowering the dlose rate to 0.03 to 0.05 inR/lhr. Arrow marks height at which 1981 growth vit*:I 1I.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OBSERVATIONS OF PLANT GROWTH ABNORMALITIES IN NORTH WEST QUADRANT OF THREE MILE ISLAND Mary Osborn 1/14/85 (revised & crrtd 2/85)
(~Io~je5 fpo oI)
Am7c#ME'ff 76
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES & OBSERVATIONS OF Since the spring of '79, I have observed, collected and photographed Z abnormal growth of flora in the areas around Three Mile Island. Regardless, or in spite of the arguments of how much radiation did or didn't get out, if 0 chemicals were released, or even a combination of both - these are my findings and experiences since the early days of the TMI accident.
First I will restate some of my experiences (I will not get into the reports of farm animals & pets, birds, insects or bumble bees dying or dis-appearing following the accident). I live in the northwest quadrant of TMI, in Swatara Township, approximately 61 miles away from the plant, Between Harrisburg 11-3-6).
and Three Mile Island (near the Host Inn, see: NUREG 0600, figure b
'-4 On Wednesday, 3/28/79 at six o'clock in the morning, my husband and I z were outdoors. We had a clean metallic taste at that time. (Our taste was not coppery or rusty or like burning galvanized steel as others have reported) M My son and I were outdoors from 7:45 am to 10:00 am; later that day we both had sunburn effects on our hands and faces. DI Thursday, 3/29/79, we drove to the west shore, to Ashcombe Vegetable t Farm near Grantham, to just get-away for a while. During that drive I had tearing and burning of my eyes. It was so bright, it hurt to see. I did not connect the skin and eye burns to the accident, although we joked about the z metallic taste sometime later as being vaporized metal from the accident. Q Friday, 3/30/79 (or black Friday as we call it now) after hearing sirens, -
,U church bells and the radio news of uncontrolled radiation releases from Three Mile Island, we evacuated. m The next week, on Tuesday evening, my husband and I returned home for -
winter clothing, medicine and teddy bears. During our brief two hour trip home I encountered an "unusual event" - the problem I observed was the accelerated growth of my umbrella plant (genus cyperus). New growth, fresh Z o
green in color, had appeared - more than a 3" x 5" card within 5 days!
(Friday to Tuesday)
We evacuated for eight days. Sometime later (I don't remember how many days), while giving my two year old a bath, I noticed a "small wad" of hair in the tub. His hair had thinned, you could see his scalp. (I think all of us in my family had some amount of hair loss and have met women from Middletown saying the same happened to them.)
That spring, one pinkish tulip had a petal growing 2" down on the stem. In the spring of 1980 that tulip "branched", it had two tulips on one stem. This has not occured since that time. -
In May of 1979, my daughter picked a bunch of wild field daisies, with two grossly deformed flowers among them. I also found three dandelions in my back yard that appeared to be similarly deformed. I have found many of these (n every year since 1979. (My neighbor who lived here over 25 years had never 0
(n 0
(n 0-0 0-
-I-
observed this before. I have lived here since 1969 and had never observed this either, anywhere).
In the fall of '79, my children picked up leaves from the front yard, to do crayon "rubbings". The leaves would not fit under a sheet of 81/2" x 11" paper. One leaf would not fit where two or three used to.
I have also found abnormalities on the west 'shore, in the areas of the Aamodt Health Study. The plants were found easily by observing shapes or colors that weren't normal.
In May of '84, Marjorie Aamodt and I took some of the specimens collected to a botanist, Dr. James Gunckel. He is the "world authority on modifications of plant growth and development induced by ionizing radiations". (See his affidavit attached, from the Aamodt Health Survey.) At that time Dr. Gunckel gave us two reprints of his research and mentioned clues as to what additional effects or symptoms to look for; thickening of leaves, leathery leaves, unusual dwarfing, multiple leaf axils (stimulations), reversion (vegetative-floral growth back and forth), etc.
To date, I have found plant abnormalities in these areas around TMI:
Londonderry Township, Derry Township, Lower Swatara Township, Fairview Township, Harrisburg, Newberry*Township, Swatara Township and Upper Allen Township.
The plants I've found are: daisies, dandelions, chrysanthemums, pyrethrum, sunflower, forsythia, marigolds, crown vetch, maple leaves, redbud leaves, rose leaves, queen anne's lace, corn tassels, some common weeds and a few others.
Also, very unusual growth patterns on two pine trees and dandelion leaves 31" long. (see list and sketches attached)
I cannot say "all" abnormalities found were caused by radiation or chemicals from the Three Mile Island accident, but I believe the fallout from the accident has caused most of the effects I've seen.
.. The fact that abnormalities are being found 5 years after the accident raises serious questions ........
Is there something in the soil now that is causing these effects? Is the plant releasing enough from clean-up or Unit 1 testing to cause this now?
Has the Chinese Bomb Fallout and weapons testing combined with years of continuous radiation releases from TMI done irreversable harm to our environ-ment? To our babies, children or families? To our animals, plants, water, air and earth? What Environmental Impact Statement ?
A key point to make is the finding that these abnormalities, modifications, or mutations occured in the same areas where people have reported having the metallic taste, skins burns, and other accident related symptoms. We have found people, animal and plant effects in the same areas where symptoms were reported at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. They have been discount-ed by some "experts" but not all. The fact is there is still no other explanation to these terrible effects. Everything I've found seems to tie into the accident and the more one learns the more this seems to be true.
I GLOSSARY ADVENTITIOUS BUDS: Buds formed where it shouldn't be, from tissues that shouldn't form a bud.
AXIL: Angle between leaf or leafstalk and the stem that carries it. Any new growth or flower bud that arises from an axil is called axillary.
BLIND SHOOT: Where normal tip of shoot that would normally have leaves or flower, but it doesn't; it just forms a long shoot tip without leaves or flowers.
BUD: A condensed shoot, often protected by overlapping scales. A growth bud contains embryo leaves. A flower bud contains embryo flowers or flower clusters.
CHLOROSIS: A condition in which leaves become unnaturally pallid, whitish or yellow. Usually due to lack of essential minerals.
DIFURCATION: Branching into two.
FASCIATION: Multiple stems from multiple buds.
MARGIN: The edge or boundary of any plant organ - most often applied to the border area of a leaf. (margin deformity see Redbud leaves.)
MORPHOGENETIC ABNORMALITIES: Form abnormalities.
VACUOLATION: Formation of a largely water filled cell.
Abnormalities have been observed in the following areas around Three Mile Island since the spring of 1979:
LOCATION CODE* (see following page)
DT DERRY TOWNSHIP LST LOWER SWATARA TOWNSHIP E ETTERS M MECHANICSBURG FT FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP NT NEWBERRY TOWNSHIP H HARRISBURG 0 OBERLIN L LISBURN ST SWATARA TOWNSHIP LT LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP UAT UPPER ALLEN TOWNSHIP note-There have been other reports of strange or unusual plant growth in the TMI area since the accident. Abnormalities are not limited to locations mention-ed here. My observations are up to the period of January 1985 and have been found as far as 15 miles from Three Mile Island. In many instances the findings seem to follow the "plume" pathways as evidenced by the reports of exposure at time of the accident by human dosimeters.
Abnormalities/mutations occur in nature, it is the frequency of these occurences that merits attention and concern.
OBSER VAT IONS TYPE OF PLANT LOfATION* ARNnRMAI TTh' flRSFRvFf CHRYSANTHEMUMS UAT MULTIPLE BUDS.
CORN DT, E SEX REVERSAL.
CORNFLOWER ST WHITE, SHOULD BE BLUE (CHLOROSIS?).
CROWN VETCH ST CHLOROSIS (FRENCH VANILLA COLOR).
DAISY E, ST STEM FASCIATION, tUT CU AXILLARY FLOWER HEAD.
DANDELION E,ST,O,H,M DEFORMED FLOWER HEADS, MULTIPLE BLOOMS.
DANDELION LEAVES FT HUGE, 31" LONG.
FORSYTHIA E, LST MULTIPLE BUDS.
MAPLE LEAVES E,L,ST,LST MARGIN ABNORMALITY, THICK & LEATHERY, PUCKERED, CHLOROSIS, SOME DWARFED, SOME HUGE.
MAPLE TREE ST, FT BLIND SHOOTS, EXCESS SEEDS (WOULD NOT SPROUT).
MAPLE TREES LST, ST, FT DEAD AREAS ABOUT 15' IN DIAMETER AS IF "PLUME" WENT THRU.
MARIGOLDS FT STUNTED, STEM FASCIATION, NO FLOWER PETALS, ALL FLORETS, LEATHERY LEAVES.
ONION/GARLIC WEED ST, LST REVERSION.
PINE TREES E, ST UNUSUAL GROWTH PATTERN FOR PINE CONES, UN-USUAL MASSIVE GROWTH.
PYRETHRUM ST STEM FASCIATION, THICK LEATHERY LEAVES.
QUEEN ANNE'S LACE ST, LT PINKISH FLOWERS, WOODY STEM.
REDBUD LEAVES ST MARGIN ABNORMALITIES.
ROSE LST WHITE ROSE ON ALL YELLOW BUSH.
ROSE LEAVES LST, ST LEAF FUSION, STUNTING, CHLOROSIS, AXILLARY BUDS FORMED.
SPIDERWORT NT,ST EXTRA PETALS & STAMENS.
SUNFLOWER E, L, ST STEM FASCIATION, AXILLARY BUDS.
YELLOW BUSH TYPE WEED ST WRONG COLOR (CHLOROSIS?).
- see previous page for location code (A) (B)
(A) AXILLARY FLOWER HEAD (B) STEM FASCIATION (C) DEFORMED INFLORESCENCE, TOP VIEW (D) NORMAL SIDE VIEW (E) NORMAL TOP VIEW (D)
(Shape and form characteristics are similar in dandelion, sunflower, chrysanthemum and daisy) 5/84 Swatara Twp, Etters area- FIELD DAISIES A,B,C, CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE D, ENLARGED (A)
(C)
(o)
A, B, 5/82 OBERLIN (A)(B) DEFORMED FLOWER HEAD C, 7/82 HARRISBURG (C) DOUBLE BLOOM D, 8/84 SWATARA TWP. (D) NO DEFORMITY AREA DANDELION CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE 9/84~ NO DEFORMITY SWPITPRA TWP. CHRYSANTHEMUM A~REA CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE (B) 9/21/84 (A) MULTIPLE BUDS about 14 miles n/w (8) PETALS AREA CHRYSANTHEMUM CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE (A)
(A) 4/83 (A) MULTIPLE _!-UDS ETTERS
&QE T 7 CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE 1T
/2/ 5 NORMAL TWIG ACTUAL SIZE (A)
(A)
'N K 'N 7/l1e/P.-- Mn,Zýý ' N PEEOC~f-ITTY
( C-C: TE P LE cc 4flT DEVELOPED ACTUAL ESZE N
10Q/84~ NO DEFORMITY SWATARP W MAPLE LEAF ARE C ACTUAL E:ZE (6) 7/8/4 (A) NO DEFORMITIES SWATAR4 -WP. (B)(C) MARGIN DEFORMITIES AREA4 REDBUD LEAVES ACTUAL SIZE (A) 7/84j (DECAPPED? & THEN)
AXILLARY BUDS DEVELOPED SWATARA TlP.
A~REA BLAZE ROSE BULIH ULUS'L IL LAL IUAL bIlZ (A)
(B) (C) 6/81, FUSED LEAVES A-, B, LC 1 E:-:R SWATAPP ROSE BUSH C, St,.§TAPf\ TWP.
SEX REVERSAL (MALE TASSEL PRODUCING FEMALE CORN)
TASSEL OF CORN REVERSION 9/84, 8/E2 WILD GARLIC/ONION WEED ETTERS, HERSHEY R.D.
AREA 9/82 SWATARA, LOWER SWATARA AREA
,I The Scribbler,,,"'
Boyeorge orn, Another Agricultural Oddity of thie- eason Weehave reported on a few of the weird plants That ,issued from this most abundant of growing.seasons, and we1 now have
.the 1984 garden winner. The envelope, please. Mellors.
And the winner is: sexual-. -' -
ly confused corn. This has been aripesyear for what ordinarily is a rare~abnormality:-.tassels producing their own ears.
Lou Gable, a deputy game - "-'i-,
warden ted -someofofColumbia R2, spot-this strange corn Jac " -**.-.:
on aMountville-area farm not a . ,' ,.
long, ago. 'ie informed Penn Brubaker
'State extension agent Arnold Lueck. Lueck'has since heard-about several other outbreaks.
. A brief explanation. for city slickeri: CorA is btsexual.Tbe 1tassel is t-ale organi. The ear is the female organ. The tassel.
sheds pollen on the ear, and the ear makes baby kernels."
normaIThat's what happens circumnstances. under Abnormal-
_Jy, on rare.occasions, male tassels i*..*.. :...
change sex sand produce their own .4 miniature ears with kernels - as if they didnti need the regular ears at Nobody knows precisely' wh*y
.this happens. Lucck says All is
- spe-culatiun. especially3rthis Year when the abnormality is relatively
- widespread. . "
-The affected plants likely ex-perienced some kind of environ-mental shock," he notes, "as ex-treme cold or-a virus infection. "
Such conditions have been known to produce sex. change, in corn plants."
The corn Gable. spotted, and which is pictured here, is field corn. Lueck says he has also seen the ah~rration in sweet corn. (The Corn tassels that gave Scribbler once spied a mirage with birth to their own ears onr- white, sequined glove dancing -
in his bowl of corn flakes, but we're not going to develop that themne.)
Ar C
- I 5
t2... I.'
p
.- 4.; ~
- 11 Record find?
Erma and Donald Croce of Hershey hope their find will mushroom into a record breaker. The couple pulled the 55-pound specimen from a stump in a field along Route 322 just east of Hershey yesterday. They plan to have the mushroom - which they claim is edible - weighed and measured at Lebanon Valley College before submitting statistics for possible inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records.
-J6-
Below are excerpts from the booklets Dr. Gunckel gave us. This explains why even knowledgeable people have difficulty in accepting the fact that radiation damage occurred in the plants around TMI.
Most of the radiation effects described are quantitatively rather than qualitatively different from those known to occur in unirradiated plants. (273)
You have nothing that is not known in nature - you seem to be speeding up the frequency of these events. (279)
Most, if not all, radiation induce effects are teratological responses observed in nature, but the frequency of such events is markedly accelerated. (373)
.A large variety of leaf anomalies has been noted in irradiated plants. In any given species, one or more of the following changes may appear; dwarfing, thickening, roughened or uneven texture, puckering of blade, curling of leaf margins, distorted venation, fusions, cup-shaped or tubular leaves, color changes, and premature abscission. (272)
Irradiated flowering plants may show: increased height, thick-ening & fasciation of floral stalks, delayed and/or reduced flowering, premature or increased flowering, color changes and somatic changes, or high degree of sterility and modification in form and number of floral parts. (597)
Fasciation of stems, while not uncommon in unirradiated plants occurs so frequently in irradiated plants that it may be considered a typical radiation effect. (375)
It should be emphasizedthat the results for one species should not be extrapolated to another, as the responses of different species or even different forms or varieties within a species may vary. (595) An example was given-if you have an apple orchard with many aifferent kinds of apple trees, and they were all exposed to equal doses of radiation, some trees could be injured while other trees are unaffected.
Dr. Gunckel and Dr. Sparrow wrote in 1961, "it is obvious that the naturally occuring ionizing radiations were producing their biological effects since time immemorial, and that the cumulative effects of these radiations might conceivably be of considerable evolutionary significance.
The recent concern over small increases in background radiation due to radioactive fallout reflects the opinion of many biologists that an increase in the background level of radiation, if continued over long periods of time, may produce significant biological effects, mainly genetic."
Publications of James E. Gunckel IV. The Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Plants: Morphological Effects, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol 32, No. 1, March 1957 Modifications of Plant Growth and Development Induced by Ionizing Radiations, Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, Vol XV/2, 1965 Aberrant Growth in Plants Induced by Ionizing Radiation, with Arnold H. Sparrow, Abnormal and Pathological Plant Growth, Brookhaven Symposia in Biology No. 6 (1954)
Ionizing Radiations: Biochemical, Physiological and Morphological Aspects of their Effects on Plants, with A. H. Sparrow, Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, Vol XVI, 1961
.)
_V7>
ýIt j i 7 ~DJ (~1 ')&
The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club Editor-in-Chief:James E. Gunckel 11i1dole Al.-I.. N 1lllU R:ay 32, 29,4 AFFIDAVIT 9 I hove carefully examined a few specimens of cammon plants, collected shortly after the accident at TRI and compared them with specimens collected more recently. The current abnormalities are probably carEi ed forward by induced chromcsomal aberrations. There were a number of anomalies enti rely ccmparable to those induced by ionizing radiation -- stem fasciations, growth stimulaticn, induction of extra vegetative buds and stem tumors.
Most of the stem abnormalities described in the literature, and In my own experience, are induced by relativply high doses of X or gEmma rays extending over a period of usually 2-3 months. Notable exceptions, however, are similar
.responses to beta ray exposure from radioisotopes (p 3 2 , Zn65, CaS) and for only. 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />. In other words, it would have been possible for the types of plant abnoraalities observed to have beeh induced by radioactive fallout on March 29, 1979.
In discussing the general biolocal effects of irradiation, some clari-fication may be helpful. In plants, the dose rate (e.g*, mr/hr) is much more Important than total dose (e.g., mr/yr) in inducing abnormalities. Further, the "quality factor" for gamma and beta radiation is not the same as generally assumed. In fact, I have Incontrovertible experimental results to show that beta rays are at least a quality factor of two in plarts.
I am the world authority on modifications of plant growth and development induced by ionizing radiations, having researched this area for 34 years at the Brockhaven National laboratory and at .Rutgers University. The three review papers appended attest to my expertise.
tjanle F.Ounckel P.?1.
State' s TMI study c'louded-by survey method doubts U By Frank Lynch
§uniiail rJ-atriot-*'_Xws The state's recently released study of health effects of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident may, have been flawed by expanding the survey areas beyond the pre-scribed five- and 10-mile zones.
According to 1980 census fig-ures, the state Department of Health included 28,610 people who live farther than five miles from the Londonderry Twp. plant in the population listed for those who live within five miles.
Another 122,000.A people who live farther than 10 miles from the plant were included in the popula-tion of those living "withini" 10 miles.
THE RESULT, according to ep-idemiologists and statisticians con-tacted by the Sunday Patriot-News, is that if there actually were adverse health effects such as increased cancer cases among those living close. to the plant, the fivures would be diluted by ex-
. panding the base population.
"It seems like a strange thing Areas included in 5-mile populaltion study toQ," said Dr. Robert A. Hult-quist, Pennsylvania State Univer- Areas included in 10-mile popul ation study I
sity professor of statistics. "I think you would substantially dilute [as- cess cancer rate [in the five-mile ago, concluded that no adverse the totals listed by the Health De-sumed cancer rates] to get even a zone], and not excess rate beyond health effects had been found so partment, 44 percent of the popu-few miles away." the five-mile zone," he said. "The far in people who live around TMI, lation figured in the five-mil'e Dr. George Hutchison, Harvard lareer nooulation would dilute the site of the nation's worst commer- statistics live outside that zone, wr, professor of epidemiology, con- overall cancer rate.' cial nuclear accident on March 28, while 42 percent of those said to beb, .,,
curv'ed. 1979.
"Let's suppose there is an ex- THE STUDY, released a month Comparing census figures with See STAlE'S-Page A10 6
umu*
I erry St. Hbg 561-1209
,1.% Discount to Sr.
- 'qA.F/LA2fo Citizens o 6 c7rj A I0-#uttbaUi Patriot-,eews, Harrisburg, Pa., October 6, 1985 DR. MALCHODI & DR. KLEIN, DDS State s TMI study clouded R.D. BOX 35A LEWISBERRY 938-1415 204-206 MUMPER LANE DILLSBURG 233-8044, 432-9762 From Page Al within the five-mile zone had Digon noted that death certifi- 10% Discount Offered To All Sr. Citizens about the same number of cancer cates and cancer incidence infor- .3t 2 3 ?.'7P/ m "within" the 10-mile zone actually deaths as would have been expect- mation from the state's Cancer Re- mu m
live farther away. ed. gistry, are available according to Health Department spokesman "minor civil division" - or by For example, all of Lower Pax-ton Twp.'s 34,830 residents were Bill Lindeberg said, "We think we township and borough.
included in the 10-mile figures, al- have a pretty solid report, and we Since the minor civil divisions,_
though only 2.000 of them live in stand on it." do not align with the five- and 10-'
the sliver of the township inside TMI'S UNIT 2 reactor mile circles, officials included all the 10-mile radius. Some Lower overheated and released some ra- of a division in the study even if Paxton Twp. residents live as far dioactivity into the environment in only part of it is within the de- y as 16 miles from the plant. March 1979. Government experts and scientists have said not enough scribed zone. Aei t/)hDr (Yd6/e.2*
Digon said it was decided to Anti-nuclear Health Department officials defend the way they gathered radiation escaped to trigger any significant health problems.
use. the divisions - even though their use inflates the population
-protests spread their data. They say the data were But doubts have persisted over numbers - because it will be easi- PARIS (AP) - About not diluted by the excess popula- the last six years. er to conduct follow-up studies. 3,000 people, chanting to the tion included, and that the study Norman and Marjorie Aamodt, strains of accordion music, could not have been conducted had "YOU COULD do it [try to di-formerly of Chester County, and marched through Paris on 'Il they attempted to stay close to the now of Lake Placid, N.Y., conduct- vide the divisions to stay close to imaginary 5- and 10-mile zones.' Monday to protest France's ed a study latt year that concluded the zone circles]. But you can't do resumption of nuclear test the number of local people dying that for too many years because blasts in the South Pacific.
"IT WOULD be a tremendous from cancer increased sevenfold the reference books [needed to job. almost humanly impossible" since the accident. Of 3.5'7re-r6. keep track of residents] would fill Several hundred anti-nu-to conduct such a study, said Ed- Meanwhile, the Columbia up a room," he said. .? clear protesters also demon-ward Digon, principal author of (N.Y.) University Department of Therefore, he said future comr- strated Monday in Orleans the report and chief of the depart- Epidemiology is conducting a two- parison studies also will include in central France, Rennes in ment's special studies section, divi- year, $420,000 study of pregnancy those living outside the zones. the west,, and Poitiers and sion of epidemiology research. outcomes and cancer rates since Harvard's Hutchison said that Agen in the southwest.
Digon said the report should the accident. to do a study expeditiously, "there The protests were small have noted that some of the people And the Health Department is a good argument for using town-included in the study live outside will continue to monitor cancer ships and boroughs rather than us- by French standards, in-the zones. Such a notation had cases in the area for future studies. ing areas defining a circle around volving far fewer people been included in an early draft that Three Mile Island." than the typical union, stu-he wrote, but was deleted during THE MOST recent study was But he said that that study dent or other anti-govern-the editing process. Leaving the made to find out what, if any, method should have been de- ment demonstration. But explanation out, he said, was an health effects were suffered by scribed in the report. "If there is they were still one of the "error." residents living certain distances not any footnote [explaining that largest shows of opposition But Digon stressed that there from the plant. Five- and 10-mile some areas are actually not within yet in France to nuclear was not an increase in cancer. He zones were selected for compari- the described zones], then you testing.
said the four communities entirely son purposes. have a problem."
4
. A JIK__A 'N /f 1Pý 4L
/J~I6 f// /9 4