ML20236L912
| ML20236L912 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/11/1986 |
| From: | Hayes B NRC OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS (OI) |
| To: | Stello V NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20236L758 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-87-531, RTR-NUREG-1179 NUDOCS 8711110116 | |
| Download: ML20236L912 (39) | |
Text
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March 11.-1986 4 Victor Stell' o, Jr. MEMORANDUM FOR: Acting Executive Director f
)
for Operations
]
Ben B. Hayes, Director . FROM: Office of Investigations q
SUBJECT:
NUREG 1179 OI staff members have reviewed what appears to be a near final draft or proposed final. report identified as NUREG 1179. The document reviewed by 01 contains . thirty pages of text, a series of figures, and four appendices. !
.In 01's view, at this stage of the investigation, public release of this information would not significantly interfere with the ongoing investigation.
However, portions of the NUREG refer to testimonial evidence of individuals ]1 (presumably transcripts). It is OI's view that any release of such testimonial evidence would compromise further OI investigative efforts. 01'is unaware of any other such information, evidence, etc., developed through the AIT investi-cation. If other such information has been developed, then OI wishes to review such information prior to its public release. cc: J. Davis, NMSS~ y- - R. Martin, OI:RIV. 9 Distribution: s01:s/f z OI:c/f ' l I
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1 01- OI . RAFortuna/jh BBHayes , 86/03/11 86/03/11 , DW: MEMOS 3/ Memo /Stello
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TAYLOR 87-531 PDR
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CASE NUMBER: A Tjo-ODB DATE' f - I 8 i
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TTTIE: ' Vee v LAfdrE6 C4k.E SEG'J &/A R fWM "OII I wth,4WWwsTMu h i ; PIANT/ VENDOR: S$c oc'YM ' f o g L s p Ae 'LeTY 'Gokc,OK t 7 INVESTIGATOR: D D D R.\S D Lt, ,
SUMMARY
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TAILINGS REVIEW
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VoL 1. No. 2 5. April-Nov.1986. Pnnted by REC thru Mel(enzie River Gathecing grant Qf t.g;h[ 7
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I .- W 3.a... l Phase
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HURRAY! AFTER g, YEARS, FIRST LOAD E ,T_AILINGS A LEAVES LAKEVIEW i i One of the most important milestanos in the consists of 12 trucks. , 9, long-aweited cleerg of Lakeview's' uteniue tailings " Things are guing very well," asys Felix RLors, ,~ and cxritaminated oveportation ponde took ' place on Lakeview tailings panject manager fcc.the Oregon,; .', September 8,1986, when the first truth load of Department of Ents,y. Wre back, on schedule.and { c uranitse tailings left the former mL11 site for the hope to continuing moving the tailings thraupi thefj .g ralline burial site. and of November, if, woother permits." :9 fy Leaded seei trucks are -1% weehod down and As of October 27,1988, about 12MDD cuble yarde surveyed before they leave Lakeview. After septying of contaminated tailings estariel tad been hauled U pg*f Q
. .the tallings et the Colline site, the trucks are out of Lakaview. ftiere f:qoes ,to move en additions 1 -
i again washed and surveyed. The tallings fleet 75,000 cubic yards this year. 1 - G y 7 ( sgNwt:sEE SITES . HISTORY E Tif hMITE XIfG'MIIC;ss W $,, i c;[$ ( lurenius ML11. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .p. 1 - 4 THE LAKEVIEW tRANIlm MILL ,g[.[# J 1*3 r
?sk Plant there Silkwood Weeked..P. 5 -
f[/4 [ J
, . . IIstlen Mill'in lesw flexico.........P. 6 - 14 Plant. . . . . . . .P. 15 - 19 HATED C0ffTAMIf4A ^e p"a e M 'A (3)
JWoota:Uranius gektehase.urentueAshing %es Plant....Swplement
. l ~m In Septedur 10ET,'. theM[ Atanic. 4 ~/
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m rmaiesion (N:C) saped e $13.6'o(11Ind' m IEI E E"II8Y,$tatament contract' with Lehaview M6dng Coope'ry(UC ( aM.,s4b@ 4
$fttried by the Radiation Education Council, the for construction.of a uterdias mL11'at Q$'
. . , O v , to produce uranius for the M M lJ e 1
'; gj TAIL 11ESJEVIEW'is ende pnmelh13 by fisiding from the p g g gggge, f A ( gJtiver,Gatherirg. As circulation is limited, Texas partners (See M. M1) probablyWM h "r 2 , shore,this, copy with relatives, friends eryl do with the siW of ths'centract, giy,,ig: ,
g
. . .; Grootlyt oppreciated.are letters to the signed after the E amounced it' had en 3vgelg ,
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, , (and'information regarding history or # uranita W the E M't balk at theMlp1g[
health concerne related to sites sentiawd overestimate of the sectait of uranius'avm41msn' e j ,6(, TAILINGS REVIEW. For more inforestion about thre Lake >1ew eres. The Texas partners ~ "" I[d;
.i ..' .., , .. sites,nplease contact Durles Barnes.
. financingthatmodemining'andmilliti[' '
g
.g . *Ron phifunho are extanded to Sally Sourgeois, Lance 8 Centre 11,. Pet Coetner, Jessie Deer in thile the Colorado pettners 07 Garth and I Thor % had beun the origind h'[
The Heckler family, Felix Rierr., Chris Shuey
, '.,x, y( , y Sutton. E#ective McVoter 1,1986, the King mine sita (1).
Legend has it that crw dey the I f1M, M'[
*: of the Radiation Ed; cation Cotsicil will ^
J denpa free Selse, OR., tas HEC - 01erles Barnes, pas 1M M Dr. M W i ,, 4 (Continued on next page) W m *, GeRhrd Delivery, Glendale,' Arizone, 85301.
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Q: . , his' dentist 'offico nevir b r: turn. Not every houC3 ' City-brsed Karr-McGee 011 Industriess Irv:.). I - in Lakeview botsted the huge, turquoise-tiled both But' buying ore from oth::r procise:rs wenn't , t2 that he had, either. Teaming g with his bmther especially profitable.'In September 19ED, the Texans Vence, a former. automobile dealer, the two mode , began negotiations with Kerr-Pk: Gee for . sale of the : uranius discoverys in, Colorado and Oretrn, and mld mill. In addition to a_possible comection through JOT Mining Conpany, Clint Nrchison, Jr., the partswrships fra $10 minion to the Nrchison. brothers and Sid Richardson (2). portrer the ran the company, traveled in meny of the sees social and political circles es Kerr-4 Gee - gg1E KDG URAN 11M MIE co-founder Senator Robert Kerr. Beh krchison ard Kerr had a eutual friend and businese sesocieta,- To owply utenius for the mill, LE partners U.S. Scnetor Clinton p. Anderson (For the fkrechimore opprhted the thite King mine, which consistad of a Andorien connections ese Vol.l1, No.1). , u third of a die of undergrots;d workings. We1. king Ser.ators Kerr and Anderson jointly founded Oie. First National Berk of Grantsi New Mesimo, hand (theyh
.[ throup the mine into which water constantly poured wee " uke sloshing through a ostch of ready dmed . jointly engaged in a private .ventas to emp1dtM
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ce, cwt ." Licpid containire vesnius, arsenic and heliusi,iditon was purchseed by the gasernment;ter C esecury wee puaved from th* dne to Thames Creek, rockets and w=<1- (S). - whim wee used downstream for irrigation and ProbablyseeconceselanltoVance'Thoeveurg,who
- s. livestock watering. '
stin held LRC stock, LE dropped its 1eems to the - Lft's laxas partnerst ties to Senator Joegh White King dne in Octobnr 1980. At tho'sans timeRh McCarthy and McCarthy1mi chone throu$ in July 19G8, Kerr-McGee bogen en exten'aive 'utenten 'esploretion ~ ' i wtun LfC sufuend to certify a e3ne workers mian, effort in the ares. The ein r==*JLy closed . N j abruptly in Movedser, se negotiatiere,9sithbh/ ^l
, ~
l demanded that miners sign a statement ausering they weren't Cosaunista and hgld that ebe constrts: tion Kerr-McGee contirued. 'Ouriql ' ten years of operatiani i wasiners wers only temporary esplayees. Of 84 the Lakeview mill had churved .aut 342,GE 'pomdefer? E usehore, 64 ==1kad out on strike. A sonth later, LE ,, yenow cake, worth $3.3 minion, fans 131,26 tone cattified another mien at the site and labor of uranius are. Left on site'were 64 acree ofLdrim3 i disputes cooled off for a dile (3). @ weste ponds and over 131,000 tons of radioactive
;In October 1968, einerJames Shelton suffered a tallinge weste on 30 acres. 4 fractured skull when he see partially buried by a ,
In March 1961, Kerr-McGee announced it had edne cove-in. Another miner had to dig' out his heed accpired LE.' The merger turned the capany into a' ad shuulders before first aid could be given. In s@sidiary of Kerr-McGee and tre Texan oil barone " its cpest for more uranius, LE punctured the earth received 32,776 shares of Kermec lhelmar Fuels et 250 sites to an, average depth of 500 feet, Corporation stock to divvy up. performing the scpivalait of 23 elles of druling. During October 1961, the car of UC's former By n=%c, the sonth when the Lakeview min togan auditor ard office seneger, Hugh Stapleton, went off opeastion, LfC had spat $8 million on mine arvi mill e p g m ff k repahdly fan w1eep.st construrAiom . - the wheel. According to a long-time resident of l- Undergramd mining at the mite King heltad in du s und to issder 111=gai money [~ early 1950 cNe to floodirig. Wetar W loose M and his doeth may have bem more then en accident. ; had ceuesd continuous pr**1=m. UC fired east of Meerahnet Kerr-McGee_ debated ehet to do with tho' miners and converted the aparation to an g the Lakeview du. In March 1962, the firm tried to pit. In August 1969, the Texas oil barone asserted sign with the 9hite King'mine 1m====, Benes. . their power and forced LE president Garth Thorrturg, idio had reopened and mined the mite Thartturg out of anno 0esent. In Wmt, 40 mine King. He, on the other hand, held m to the lease
~ workers went on strike et the mite King. It was W um du ud free Kerr-kGee. ,
J' soon permanently closed because needy all Um are Neither side budged so the mill never reopened. at the surface had been mirad and it was asireemible TO no uranius was r e J. the d11 to go rimmer. The sees sontb 3 Carth Thor +urg diaf probably came in handy ins a tax write-off for the of guyhot wounds thile hunting (4). pts Ker 4t Gee owned the site (6). - LAKEVIEW MILL Alm TE KDERCEE ONECTRW KDE-Mc0EE LEDAOS LAKEVIN SITE From Decenbar 1958 through Octeer 1959, tre Qn the company decided to miced the site in Lakeview min processed are free the White King. Gut 1964 AEC regulatory officials informed the first i then that source fizzled out, LE turned to that mill buildings an.1 equipment had to br producers from Hovede and Alaska. The Alaskan deceritadneted to federal etandards. The issue of producer was 7)T Rining Conveny of Oklahcar City, Oklahoma (possibly an' affiliate of Oklahome _ 1
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131.000 ' tons of radioactive tailings piled on 30 stockpiled in the f acility," tut during ths ancres at the site wasn't brought up. Septmber 1954 visit EC inspectors discovered L To sneet federal telease criteria, Kerr-McGee had 7,000 pounds of yellow cake, worth $67,000, in plant ] its mill site caretaker hand scrape gypsum off the emipnent. How that noch yellow cake. representing , j walls of radioactive 11@id holding tanks. The the processing of about 1,200 tons of ore, could I gypst n had served as a shield, blocking high levels have been in the plant is still a mystery. Upon l of alphs and ganma radiation on tank walls. The more discovery, Kerr-% Gee agrimd to ship the uranita tre worher scraped, the more he aposed himself to concentrate to its Artrosia Lake, New Mexico, mill, f l radiatton and altborne radioactivity. Following .AEC inspectors also found yellow cake in a i limited cleanup uctivities, Kerr-NGee of ficials laboratory sink and excessive levele of remvable csked the EC to contet a final inspection of the alpha radioactivity at 20 locations in the plant. l plant.(7). h inside of the tank where the worker had scrapsd On a plant tour in September 1964, EC had rescuble alpha ccre.asination at levels 32 tians ; i ' inspectors discovered contastinated owipment and the EC deemtamination limit. thousands of tons of radioactive sands inside mill Out Et ha=*Prters decided not to push the tarkst After performing radiation surveys, they iscue with Kerr
- Gee, allowing the firm to skirt reported to AEC heedgaarters that the site was too its cleart4, responsibility and sell the site to a
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contnainated for released to unrestricted use (8), group of Lakeview businessmen, knam as Oregon , Amompanying the EC inspectors were Oregon Pacific Industries (OPI), who had no experierro in , I State 00:.rd of Health officials. Having been told the ruclear in&stry and wanted to turn the site ' that "the EC was present to essentially declare the into an inriastrial park. -
- mill ' clean' from radioactive contamination," the If atomic giant Karr-McGee, with ten yaers of versinn they devalap=1 of the inspection was uranita milling experience at five mills, couldn't markedly different from that cf the EC officials. properly decmtaminate plant equipeont to acceptahls Accortiing to an. Oregon State Board of Health levels, its jers coseann sense to thirk that EC f heed w arters could've expected these businessman maso, " Metal lined tarts were few in nuter and {
uruelly contaminated ... N drying ovens were to do it. ~ 1 comediet contaminstad but ramarkably clean, But that's iht happened. EC hndwarten considering the dJsty pror:essing of the concentrated issued a " storage only" liconee to @I and terminated Kerr-McGee's license. WI, which left motselal that had accurred in thin aren.." (9)
"In the overall cpinlei of the EC Inspectors, nearly all the centsminated swipment in the mill,.
gave Lp its plan to turn the site into en in&strial the decontaminationif this mill was the 'best pnanthie.' Level 3 exist ire rose areas that art above park and sold the prtporty two years later (11). )
- permissible levels. It was the Inspector'n opinion, -
however, to do nothing until the mill osners hear g Y' from EC. Headquarters in Weehirgten. D.C." 1 T Another choice was simply to mit and allow the g j
,n. mettee to pass from AEC hende into tiose of Oregon, diet esith,the Otegm-KC mgreencnt to ba signed f
'within the text'fas monthe ... It.is sey personal l Q; opintar<, however, that the latter statement was said CONTAMINATIGI AT TE ABAlc0ED WEV!!W SUE
. (I trust) jokingly 1" ]
. [4 .<
The next refarwee to the joint EC-Oregon j
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closecut inspection in State Health Departmant files Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) bought the is e letter dated (ktober 26,1Fft, which states, Plte in July 1968, but ende little use of it. Free f j ., March 1970 to Decoter 1973, the firm inased 30 1
. jyf ".At that time (September 1964), the otill was
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scres immediately south of the tallings pile to . l iGt pronounced as being decontaminstad as 'best 1,g' ' , possible.'" As far os Orsyn officials were farmer Jotwi Kcpacz for cultivation h th of h j I concerned, the site had been released to pile, cattle grazed. Desides the teillogs pile, the 80 acres of l
, unrestricted use (10). dried evapuratim ponds also caused probinne WrDg )
. In fact, the A[C hadn't declered the site clean the 14 yects the site was lef t abandoned. Winds I and hadn't allowed it to to released to unrestricted whipped, radioactive &st to hcmes within a half !
use. Muserous tanku had been'fotrd to be excessively mile of the ponds. Accordits to Oregn State Health f contaminated - one at levels 58 times the maximum Departannt official George Tocabs, "We first came I I allrwAle limit. in contact with the (conc 6;tned) residents around ! An EC inspectar sto had visited the Lakeview I mill in Jtre 1961 reported "that all final proict 1972. They ctaplair'ed about &st blouing into their hq,twon shipped we ... there is no ecurce material (continued on next page) 23-
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gy p e stated,"SeveralbeehiveslareIcr$tedonthe: L Q' ,u-
. northeastern corner of the evaporation ponds" and
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h' "despite the radiation warning signs and fences (i around the site, there is' evidence that the site.. ) ;y has been used to some extent by W ntere." (15),
. L J- because of the rekn and r=*ia=ctive'dast '
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. probises' ano thn site's location in north Lakevhe i
near heen and'indsstry,; fadoral erud stata l! [ # governments are; relocating contaebated seterial p . . ; ~ 7 from the taillrgs pile, evaporstlan pcodu and other l {( * ~ '
.g*w areas to the Colline Ranrh sita. Twenty-sh ynts i
" g . L .?]. , ,, .
efter operatione stopped et the LAnview W11{ the
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- ,jl , site is finally receiving the autimn' that it. j r .
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* $0Lfl25: WlITE KDC MDE & 1AGNMM RR.1;
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(1) "E Uranium Procurusent WMinge -
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1 Before the saatta on Re neteraip, Jent-l- ..'/h***t% . rammittes on Atemic Energy.' U.S. Contrees. gg L > g u _._ ' 6/16/62 - 6/19/82 "Sunesty 4tletary of Onnectic
'gg d 7 g gg g Uranitsa Prcoursuert under U.54 Atomic'Enmer M V :p
# re==I maion Contracts.' U.S.' BK. pQ/823 l4' "Laide 5 yatt's and getting'into their homes on window silis County W (LCE)." N ' ' ; W;[ 7 l,,
-7 0 : orid; things like'that ... There wre about six or (2) *uranim Magazine." 8/56.K SF3 LE' .112/14/58. i 3
eight homes in that ares." (12) (3) LE. 5/7/57. 7/24/58. 8/14/58s 4 Oregon '
' Federal arel Statu inspectors who visitad the '
State Board of Hailth esso dated S/3/58.
* . site in May 1974 discovered sips of a sotarcycle : L racetrack on the dried evaporation ponds and a jmp (4L Source (1): 4 LE.10/30/W.'10/8/50.10/22/50.
(5) Source (1): %1ng World." 3/30. 9/80p & " Karen in the middle of the tailings pile. Fielde nearby . Silkwoods Union Sistar." R. Asume.(1978. p. 2. 1 were blanketed with radioactive dsst sad earshy (6) Source (5): " Engineering & MLtdng Journal."- , areas next to the tailings pile were contasulneted. 6/61. P. 345s a oregon State anord of Health LL shotyn shells in the ares are evidence that the esens detod 3/23/82 & 4/25/ti2. site fund been used by tunters. Near.the ad11 (7) E/MC Docket 40-1988* "Repurt ,of Clace-out , buildings,' radiation levels in the old are stockpile Inspection." 9/25/843 and Grogni State Board of ares, the are mioeding dock, the ore crushing Health meno dated 9/22/64 building and the scale house were from 20 to 100 { (8) Source (7). tines natural backgramd levels (13). . From August 1974 througn Augset itW, MICO (9) Source (7).s condJcted extensive decontamination efforts at tne - (10) Letter dated 10/26/71 fman E. Press (State l HealthDivision)toSeratarM.Aepinell.. - sits, anchasings stripping out the interior of the contamLnstad mill' buildings'vtcuusing out (11) Source '(7): E esso dated 10/B/64 face R. . 's radioactive dset from the eili building, conveyor Paulus to R.C. Pages & LE. 11/12/64. 3/10/$6. house and sample buildings reenving radioactive (12) "Repart cri f.onditions of Uranius Ptillaita and trash 'and debris from numerous placess and covering Tallirgs at Lakeview, Oregon." E.19743 ' thocent. ire tailings pile with @ to the feet of Interview with floorge Toombs. 2/12/863 letter'
- 1 dated 12/12/73 fran C. Wynne (AE) to'Jotvi soil. 'Upon'oseting Oregon recpirements, MED cpickly sold ttwr e111 to Precision pine. thich turned the K w aczi & "Willamette Week." 2/11/00. p. 2.
. mill' building 'into a lumber elli (14). (13) Source (12). *
' The two-foot cover placed over the tallings in (14) Letters from L.R. Selkirk (MED) to Georgo t Toombs, dated 10/22/75, 2/3/16 & 8/19/76 4' l n
1974 at oost trapped only 26 percent of the letter dated 8/23/M from K. Putnan (State l
'E# . radioactive redan gas escaping, according to Sally Health Division) to F.C. Witeet (41C0).
Gautgeois's and for over 25 years radioactive dust has bluwn blow from tne dr1W to evapontion pond (15)Sodrce(14): & " Engineering Assessment of j 5 Inactive Uraniun Mill failings, Lakeview Site, )
,' area duriry dry suener months. ,
Lakeview, Orepn." U.S. Department of Energy Carretning use of the contaminated evvoration contractor ford, Bacon & Davis Utah, Inc. ; pund ares, a 1981 U.S. Departnert of Energy report
, 10/81. l f
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- t f', ,hdQ %LL 'THE NRC REGUL ATE .a worker had a highly-contaminated nose stear arc!
that he had rWoved a particle f rom it, greatly KERR-McJEE'S CIMARRON SITE 7 re&cing the count. Tre low count was recorded:- j
' Pipes near the ceiling were painted over in the
- Kerr-McGee Corporation's Cimarron ruclear fuels 1970s to seal in contamination. Years later, the l plants tiear Crescent, Oklahma, were the targeAs of contaminated material had oxidized into " hot public outcry after the death in 1974 of plant PU" der," which with dust, fell f rca the collirg is worker Karm Silkwoo:1 and revelations about horrid an area were respirators were not worn.
working conditions. But nest people assuned that the f-rampant contamination and worker overexposure ended On Novercett 13,190%, Cantrell rnet with an NRC j when the plants closed in late 1075. insper: tor, tot the resulting " investigation" was Nothing could be further f ecn the truth. n thing more than 6 most blatant whitewash. Typical Working r.mditions at Cimarrm in the early 1980s M the chaude was the E rsspmse to the first . f wrre 10 to itX1 times worse" than in 1974, says itan listed above: "Accordirg to the liconese ' forser Kerr-ACee anployee Ron Cantrell, who worked [Kerr-NGee), the individual hos been appropriately there from mid-WT4 to De: sober 1975 and from Au pst disciplined for his poor work behavior ,and re 1981 to Septacer 1963. " Things were bad back then,n r pWens am anticipated ... the licerwee M said in a Rarch 1906 interview, "but at least has retained competent professionals whobrked at a % people verre concerned about contamination." the facility cbring the early 1970s" and they i J3' When t.he plants closed amid controversy, most aper capable of detevninirg then an unplcybe is . workers were laid off. But a few who had suitable to work in a specified ersa. This demonshated their Icyalty to Kerr-R: Gee were kept allegation was not substantiated." _ on the payroll.' Their task shifted from fuel lhe EC said it' ween't concerned about detered-picoduction to tearire apart contmainetad machinery nasal smeets ord couldn't can less if workers ind ' 0-d glovebones (enclosures with glove inserts to cmtaminated pairs flakes in their noses. Combir.ing handle fuel), oftan frtm the inside out. two allegations in6 ona and tien dismisalng it, the Drawing frra his se::ord tamre at the plants, stated, % u if particles such as mirrt chip, Centrell racorded abat he rmsidered to be and metal atMms won lastge snNgh to be rwncued, contamination incidents and unsere work procedures, fra nasal swabs, they wadd fut be ccral& red
* ' ccecrisirg a list of over 3) items. Included weres respitable becmasu o' ttutr la:*ge aire ... This
- A tw Claerron offir4s1's son had poor radiation a ageMon was rot mbstant1WM . l y work habits and contaaltwtad himself and others Tme W h h E ipa @r made Mttle effnet
# This worker- received a pay raise ahead of others, to abstantista any of the chargs I
- thich was corstrued as a reward for lack of cars Thou9h MC officials' Ney han playecl tim, a tagi about contweiszticci to tresself while working to MC report shows tNy wers award M Sctrkat'o@sures get thu jdi &ne as f ast as possible; to airborne plutmius in'Decembsh1GB3 Wr! Af trL1 s*d j
- When werking in highly contaminated areas of the June 1984. Troy also knes that a workwr litdar) plutonium plant, on seversi occasione in 1961 and uranium while staise cleanits a ctsstturf to'licpLfy !
1982, valves frora, cutting off the air sLpply to cylinders of uranius tsnafluoride in $aptstwr 19tx f
- workers' erclosed suits. "It was lika breathing in and that six workers mere owrapoe*Ato airborm I Yedth a plastic beg over your head," he esid, "You radioactivity in October. .. X @QN N(
k had to rm like hell out of the toom "-urmesking ' On Merch D,1986gI walk.ed,tte Cimstron 'grourds M tpickly in'the lead cxntamirated place available1
.* The clothni change roos in tJw uranius plant was and new fishernen, picrticers ardla" chi 3d p1* yin 0
'x neer a p nd. Laos then 200 yards awayl wee"ar9 -
consistartly ' contaminated)
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- hlanercus plant areas had hose rmntaminaticn, but cren-ended shed with four barrela et 6
)anda i$ work toont on without respirator pnatectiong fenced df radioactive waste turial groundt.The tase
, 5- # 5 crew ' supervisor had actkers perform several jobs and aimanications 'confits .that Karr. >
'
- kiilux&respiratxs while he " stood lockcut" for McGeo is turyirn weste at the Cimarten alta, l lM ~ those Je were py:cosed to police the planti p $sibly from its Sequoyah~ and West Chjcago sites, 8 Catkla grazed directly over turied radiometive centurv to their lictruse requirernent whtich states, wests ard were later said to stockyards; "By March 31, 1967, the licensee shall (1) deconta ~
- Cantrell was called back three hour after he left minate the facilities and grourds to such levela so -
acrk tsecarse of radioactivity fcml on his nasal that they may be teleased for (nristricted use ..." esear susb.'He tiew his nose several times after
~e E ha left work and ths reensar uns low. Kerr-McGee Starving would-be author Charles Barnes is health physics personnel rechted the original desperately Ircking for stalwart publisher for book cotnt and recordud tre new nLaberg abcut Kerr-ACee. Any leads would be appreciated. $
- Cantrell overheard a health technician say that 4 Im 0
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arammmmma , E m M MS > o KERR-McGiE UNLEASHES AT(PIIC PLAGUE _ O_N, NAVAH0_ NA, TION In-coming ore was samled at a KerrJlcGee iore I
. . buying and samling station near the mill. For l '
accounting purposes, workers had to broom sweep ' By Diaries Bames uranlun ore resichJe from WW *eaaa w - - ~. . batches could be dusped. Airturne uranius tiJat 1 ' pn stamic plegJe was unleashed, on the' Nevaho problems inside the station were aggravsted tey use Netion rear Shiprock, New plexico, in August 1953, of compressed air gJns. *Lch were used to bloe when Kerr pt: Gee Oil Industries' Navajo Uranius uraniun off easpling and ore crushing @f. Division signed the firm's first uranius contract The new $3 minion Shiprock mi u experienced with the U.S. Atomic Ererg/ r*W (E) for probless early-in, as described by the nin seregers l construction and cperation of a asL11 to prearm "ble encomtered difficulty drying the (uranium) ! uranius for; atomic bombe (1). yellow filter cakec. The plan wee to dry it on simas f Local Nevaho legend had it that the Ancestors tables. But it gews Lp its moisture sharents even j had arrived in New Mexico t'y d11p from the Northland after long periods on the stese table, so findly, to ==r-spe the wroth of warring enemies. The ship gas-fireddryingpenswarieinstaHad.".(4);
- tumsd to rock and forsed the 1,750 foot tall Through March 195S, acidic and radioactive min formation from sich Shiprock derived its nose, solutions were chined by the westher, causing Karr-McGee officials were less interested in the chemical rrections that clogged pipes, pumps arid mespificient rock structurv than in the uraniun tarQs. Every connection in the plastic W
undnepsut in the region (2). throughout thr, plant lesked.
d Tim initial ord subsecpJant Shiprock AEG q contracts brought Marr-McGee $42 mLuion, but 09tISTEMING (F TE SIIPRDtX fqILt.' I
'].
Marr pkr,ee received another frisgo benefit. Because . . of the ain's militar) purpose. the U.S. Office of Despite au t*m, min's problems charing the first i Defense Mohuization issued a " certificate of six anths, Kerr-McGee's to brees and associates neccesity" and Kerr-pt: Gee received an 80 percent tax were smiling in June 1995 at the officia1' plant. $ 1 urite-off for constructica roots (3). < christening. th hand were company co-fou1ders'habert I ptin construction ,)ast off H1Wiwey 666 in S. Kerr and Oeen fk: Gee, E official .Sheldon F. southern Shiprock began in February 1954: the plant Wimpfan, BIA officials and Nevaho Tribei Council went on line in Novembm chairman Paul Jones.
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1"U.S., Senat'or Robert S. Kerr and his associates departed momentarily fra their ordinarily cpiet and - . limit),andpulverizingandweighingthefinal , almost close-mouthed ways to show off a bit,", product (220 times EC limit). The yeHow cake arse reported ari Urantun Magazine article about .the had an atmosphere choking with airborne uranium, chthtening, "The Kerr-McGee uranlun mill at . " Surface contamination in the concentrate ares f Shiprod is strategically nosed the Navajo plant, results from spills at several steps in the -l since it is on Navajo land and Kersec is wooing the process," the study noted. Excesolve contaminetton Indians for reasons good and clear. Nothing would . was detected on floors near the drying trays and suit Karmac people better then to have their yellowcake filter press, and'the use of an air hoes e Shiprod v4M process au the uraniun ore prodJced to clean surfaces sede matters worse. on Novejo lands." (S) , The inspectors also sfiscovered that 11cpid from Speaking at the ri=ritation and food, Senator the ain's " leeching pit" was draining into the , Kart paid tribute to the Novaho's "proud history" , nearby San Juan River, .that "no safety asseures see l and told then,' 'You also have a great' future in taken as far as radiation isbw f and thet f helping usher in.tlw atonic age." bliepfen, who " records of persomel exposures are not kept." In Jeruary 1958, E officials again visited { headed the EC office that adelnistered and . negotiated uranius contracts, said the mill was "a the min. The yenow cake packaging eroe was '\se - sonument to the cooperation of all concerned." Jones covered with a fine film of final product'esst," '
, toldthecrowdthatNavajosweregratefultoKort they observed. After determining that Kor-RcGee and McGee for twilding the dll **ith will hadn't performed any surveys bf airborne ;
contribute to Novejo prosperity." (0) radioactivity, the EC inspectors cited the'fism fked J ronoming the dedication, the mLH eipped out' fanAng to comply with EC replaMons (10). i Kerr-kGee wrote the EC in nar===h=r 1988, i uranium around the clad at,a rete of 500 tone a day. Most of the uranius fed to the stanic plant saying that after four. years of operation, they f finally had an arkP*= diet conection and wantilm- y case from 22 Kerr-hGeo-controlled minus on the ticn system in the yeHow cake pedaging area. hear
. Novaho Reestvetion in Arizcrie (7).
1 surveys and New Roxico Bursou of pihlic Health _ - DEptDifEE NWBGIS CDETIONS surveys showed the du was in compliance with EC'
* ' " radiation levels, the fire eseured the EC (11).
. . frase gliopee into the !Riiprock mill in 1956 1 ' es efferised a reportar fra the negozine Explosives se i. a.amme i. cons Engineer. pictured stevoling uranium concentrate * '
into a borrel narc a drying oven was a Nevaho with Kerr-McGee sossed to,t$a on top of the world, uranius caked on his clothes. thrking conditions in but in lata 1958, cairnus clouds began' foreing en 9i the doestt horizon. Due to e huge overstyply.af
- n. l this part of ths. min were declarabla (8),
uranius, the AEC _ cut its urentum stockpila in half.
'R After'nestly three years of cperaticn in throwing the future of steele are inte 'moertelety. ,
-{
%jj %pe==ame 19W, AEC officials visited the plant to ~
cW' the first study of Kerr McGee workers i tharing 1958, eeny of the ses11er utentu(cospesdes u g .. 4h ?;' a art sent belly g .and,Kerr4kGeo psimost filled Ato } esposure to radiation. ,The five-day study r centracted casota.' The fine hqNutto'negitists'esJ%- 4 4 itimQgs,'peopleMe spent' considerable taas additions 1 contracts however,'en/EcJspaseansiisead! l tiireWin em stn,13s wEre'esposed to conoontre-J 3 tw raweet would in "sonatinised emiendly;sn uses E 1 4s bonior~ drborne redisetive 6,et in ==== of EC
,11asts.iIt should be 'noted that some of the workers of the abundance of uranius.' ,. . y Q' , ,, ]
' ,4 ucre endiflad dset seeks and any not of inhaled all A r==== pap =" I=Mi=hed on Kerr4kCee's hoes turfJ I
+"
ths'alzt osne uranius they were =pa=='i to, of (klahoes City, Gdahoes, chirped imperating deos, y s S[ Eldfeshoe people laboring in the yeMow cake Me government eccordin0 o en E speksamen, dit, t soon have uranius nnning out of its.es C...'It%Q k'[M, Nitairing aruf'pedca0ing areeUwero queers =pa==ri to levels that the Kerr-4Cee's Shiprock plant will tie'
- invairNO times the EC limit. Of thous, eipt scrkers
T iimre Srpa==ri to everage levels ever 100 times the me of the first to be shut down.' (12) ;
EC limit. Kerr-McGee's yellow cake shoveling and But who should coes rahyin0 to save Kerr- l
- McGee's na4=*aa but Senator Kerr's loneties glj packaging procedare genersted levels of airborne friend and business associate U.S. Senator Clinton l'
urwiius ty to 150 times the legal limit (9).
- 0 Anderson.of New Mexico.
Other jobs stirring tp large enounts of airborne Anderson, W merved en the W - l uranius were reking and roning yenow cake,onto cxmmittaa responsible for overseein0 t}e. AEC, fired/ . 1 drying trays (25 times EC limit), sampling the l yenow cake drums with an auger bare (21 times AEC (continued on next page) 4 id s ,
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Ka lf ~ A NAVMO SFDA.i.S MILIID thANILM YEl. LOW CAKE INTp A DHLM AT KDR-A:EE'S SHIPROCK Rill. IN 1958. ETE TE T)ERAL. (U5TY CDOITIONS MO TE LRANILM DUST CW TE ts3KDt'S CLDTES company had started ambJ[c ing adegaate radiological off a letter to that agency statirg, "This mill and survey * , Af ter revimsing Karr-McGee records, he the minirq cv,serations comected with it provide "There is little cxmparison between rep" enployment for a great many Navajos do are wards of 1. i ' 4 air sample results ard similar results from the government." Fcur acnths later the AEC signed a A . sapling of the mill," and, in his cpinion, the new $14.5 million mntreet with Kerr-McGee, saculing mill manager did "mt fully understand :. hat is the Americar) taxpayer with another 1.8 million involved in an effective radiation monitoring pomds of mneeded uranit.n concentrate (13) program, particularly in respect to airborne radioactivity hazards." (15) DIFFEENT SLRVEY ESil.TS AM) GOSS DEEXPOSLRES SEEPIE WASTE POES OnfLIN INTO SAN JUAN RIVER BJt possible closure c/ the mill hech't been Kerr-M:Cee's only problem. AEC of'icials showed to A nay 1960 EE report connented on tow at the plant in August 1959 to conduct radiation Kerr-McGee got rid of its licpid radioactive art surveys of their ow). Bearity little resarblarce to chemical wastes: "I tryrid effluents are discharged to the results touted in Kerr-A:Cee's Decarber 1958 a series of settlirg { including tailings) ponds from letter, the five day survey revealed excessive which part of the licpids are recyclsd through the airborne uranlun correntrations at 11 locations in mill, art the remainder is lost through evapor6 tion the mill, includirg tre lunch roca when swept. or percolation (seepage] into the mderlying soil." The cost dicching results wre breathing rcne Accordirg to a U.S. Charee; of Flines report, about sanples taken while workers were ergaged in various D,000 gallons of 11rpid seeped frta the activities in the yellow cake area. Samplirq of the radioactive waste pands each day. The ponds were yellcw cake drta generated sitterne etntamination located cn a bluf f near the San Juan River (16). 150 tiires the MC limitt workers preparing yellow AEC of ficials tad been aware of the seepage for cake sanples were exposed to a stacygering average years tut hach't (21ticized this rethod of disposal, airborne uranlun con:entration 1,357 times the MC even though seepage f rtn the ponds reached the San limit (14). Juan River, the major drirking, agricultural and four fronths later, in Cu: ember 1959, an MC inspector visited the mill to deteraire if the
, ,f6; *
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- f(C headquarters, "Mr. NGee assured the inspectors
['4 domestic wster supply source for tha area. Their.
. that all deficienceis in the Shiprock elll nauM be g Ltune would change.
~
;During a June 1960' visit,' EC inspectors found corrected," and his right hand men Vernon Mottoon
(' that' waste ligaids were seeping into the San Juan promised cceplete surveys of the mill would be . 4 Rivzt frota four different' places. These seeps were performed monthly and adequate dast collection , small, greenish colored streams about two inches e@lpmentwouldbeinstalled(20). , 8 deep and up to. half a foot wide.' Kerr-McGee and EC $$ 2 Mill. ION GALLON WILI. GES UIROMRTED AfD UE5 samples.of one' of the seeps revealed levels of
- blATER SOURCE WITH RADI0ACTIE Afc TUUC tfS1E5 l radium-226 twice the EC limit. "The Shiprock mill has a definita problem with seepage arn) should 'be But a sere two months later, on Aupet 22 -
'[ greatly concerned,' noted an EC esmo (17). Besides inedeqJete surveys of seepage, , 1980, tragedy struck the town of Shiprock mid people who survived on water from the San Asen River. ! - inspecters cited Kerr-McGeo for three serious, recurring violations of AEC repletions. Kerr-NGee . poised on en ' arroyo draining directly into'thei ' ' e air surveys free ne=*=r 1958 to August 17, 1959, San Juan Rive' ; , two Kerr-McGee-built edit pleubb 3
^
showed that of' 15 locations,13 hsd levels rewiring stood brjaseing with raffinete, s'11mid sixture of? ! the posting of signs reading "Coution . Airborne keroorne end radioactive weste. The ponde, comering; N
- Radioactivity," including the ' lunch race (18). an eres one and a half ti,nes as large sa a football '
ff aid to depths w to six feet, were ' fun to HAPHAZAfm thE OF RESPIRATGtS & AIREG40E LRANIts overflowing and had Men for four or five edghts," - according to a Kerr-kGee forseen'(21).:
"f Beginning au shout 9 p.m.iad estimated 2 . I'
- During their Sour of the,Kort-McGee mill. .
inspectors noticed the haphezard use of respirators. sillion gallone'of radioactively'ce'itseinsted toxice . westa pc.ared thrauti e 6-foot' hih 30' foot adde ' ' n F The mill's respirators were of a type similar to a rupture in the pond due, caeceding for four luurs - Wet omsk,' usiike present day' respirators that { ' 4 provide en artificial air s@ ply..hfien inspectors throuti a mile long arroyo to the San Juan Atwor,' { = thich was at a low river' stage (22).4 , y -
' entered the [ ore) crushing erse or Jhe, vanadium
- packaging assa,fthe mill personnel would hsve their The Shiprock suniMpal water, trestners plant ' 4 i
^
respirators henging from their belts e arouid their and the hellun plant @kained water agplies only 'si l far hLsidred yards downstress free there the edil' I
- necks," potentially catching radioactive particlee. 1 spill" reached the San JuaniR' ver. The h=Wplent j e2 "@on socing the,inspectcas,' these een would put their roepirators on 'and weer them the rest of also provided water to a housing project ami llevehot 7 living nearby. Water' farther downstrees wee used by t
'the tlAa the lir:pectars wars in the' ares." thrkers % '
doing the yellow ccAs ==mpling ad ptsperation wore llevehos for 'seny purpoossi ; r respirators dJring tte entire operationi but the At 8 a.m. on August 23rd, the Karr 4teGao es11 )
"s j.: s@esintendent learned 'er the ' spill and notified thf t j1J ye11aw cake parkeger dirh't weer a resoiretor (19).
Surveys siting the Jme 1120 inspection helius plant's@erintendent, amo already less ' shout; '.-
- it. Kerr-& Gee kept sun'aboutlths'ruptuee,We theM revenAed.cocessive levelsV alttorne uranium in the rest of the outside world,' failing to repast it 'to (
- 3e11oiviceks' packaging eies and the souple prepare-tte Shiprock water' plant, downstreme unter up S' i I h'[@1
,: t.8m@een. The'Istter was a veritable radiation gheuber y inindis~eni,diring sTdnius stjlevels operation, g to 875 tiene with theworkers legal state and federal health offscids end thAEC.M
==pn==ri Kerr-Mcfies to . was besk to.ite 'cleoMau p
h_,3 M IImLt."- A breathing rene soeple in tinjeckaging The next der, a grandson warf to thej,helius plant undar
%6 'and Id i h ares, ediere n'uorker had been observed not wearing a keepirator,' gave a reading 11 times the EC limit. discovered hJndrede of deed fish" , ., Jng' 5110 the specise fourd'iri ths river. The weste'hsd been #
y,
;(4h f$elt;la ths. opinion of the inspectors that k. I highly toxic. Snapping some photoo,',thu worter took{ '
. 3(9IKeMond Mr. Henegerns { top emnegament at Shiprock] thee to a local :== pap =e. < + -
- 7 .
Maiderfths AEC regulatory' progree a neccessary ' 93 'Mril oeur which all pr'ochetion prah1=== take
~
"WT TE FIRST TDE KDUHicgEE ' '
I
$5 piMeestance. It eppears that their compliance progres ' '
HAD LOST A TAILIIES pDe" I/I 10seswMrhed-into various' psesons' schechles, to be 7 p M takers core'or only then their neamal jobe are Numerous helita plant employees vers' alzendy ", yY r 'cenpletad; this is eviderced by the fact that the fed up with the Oklahoes company. Some reserked that , T" j piant nurssi dcies the air sempling." . Following the 9dprock visit,.the inspectors "this wasn't the first time that Kerr-RGee had inet 1 j flee to Kerr-McGee Corporate Handgaarters in a tailings pard." Others believed that the dierrhoe Q r]9 (klahoma City, (klahoes, to infore Osen McGee, they had throughout the suvier was r =n=ad tsy sospege 1 himself, of the firdings. According to a telegree to (continued on next page) ([ 3; 4 h . .- - . 1 _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ . _ . _ . l
t m ,.
' _]
y , , x ; AECinvestigatorscorcluded,"Itiscutopinion
- that the mill management had hoped t w W
' frcun the Kerr-McGee mill ponds. The hellun plant raffinate release would go undetected hu f chemist and others had felt their water was was discovered, they attempted t y
contmainated even before the Myst 22 scill (23). @antitias released," (U)- !> 'Five days after the spill, the local press , MV bannered a front-page story: " Mystery Surrounds ~ IM-REE FIfM5 MILI. FMIMN WITESS Death of Mah Found in San .luen River." .in the a < trtir.ls, ttu mill senegar admitte:f a das had burst a M C officials ended their investigation on
'few days before, but said "so far a6 iW is known," September 1, but were back in a acnth for a ." . follomap. In the interim, Kerr-McGee had ridded none of the wastes reached the river.
1he fact that Kerr4cGee hadn't bothered to itself of a potential liabilityl the fitu had fired, ,
' infans thes jolted personnel at the Shiprock water without stating a reason, a Phr. Home11, the grave- !
[ . i plant, medch provided water to 3,500 people. ' yard shift mill forseen at the ties of the' spill. Fortunately,'nowever, the plant wee rm elving water The investigators trocked him down in their. free getrees at the time of the accident. A senior attempt to piece together the se @ence of events. plant official letser told EC inspectors that "he Howell " stated that on previous occasions, he hed suspected ... that the uranita mill fremently been ordered to release herren raffinete directly allsaned raffinates' to overGow into the river" and into the arroyo shich carries the mill's cooling ' tt,st %e was very concemed about possible effects water" and that "he wee of the opinion that the mill of water contaminetton, primarily chemical, on the scopogs was contributing.a asetantial amount of localpopulation."(34).. contaminaticri to the rlwet'." .(28)
. Yellowing p Alie=tlan of the article, state and Kerr-McGee stil men $3er C.t.. Mise was more ,
, local' health officials.cnedacted the'mL11.- concerned about had ruhlietty free the press then Kerr-4tcGee officiale responded with a ririientrusely the effects of tho' spill. A rumber of his statoesnts >
low estimate of the amourt of wests'roleesed - a- .directly contradicted statements of other'Norr 4tcCse mars 15),(E0 to 200,GIl gallone, they claie=ri. EC 891oyee.18 others were potently falso and defied estimates put the assamt at 2 millirus gallone, with common senes. { an estimated 1,750,051 ge11ons zeeching the river. j
, .. a 1 Throup the replatory grapevine, EC officials .
learned of tte spill eigst days sfter the fact. By .. : y: >. the tien they and other health officials converged g'j~ 4 ion the scene, the bulk er the contaminated limid ,
..es 1.r_ .nd .g w le,t a, the ,ish ,s esempt skeletons. Killed ouer e Ebella stretch of ,
~,
'the river, the fished remains could not be snelyzed ,'
'because they had decayed and/or been.pertially "4 '
', .:l- ;,. r s '
M4,I fannoused by other animals (25). e(Aupet 31, U.S. Mlle Hemith Service /. .s sm, . , 3 b ,c%anoests,eters amasahed.mu armyo and/ an
~
J adjoardno
/,'l".'.*,'.".h /
Kg , , , g
,C ' cooking water drainess sseine, el1scovering that soil ji ?theauphut'most of tre sees contained alphe i
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frodioactivity 1,0cD timme greetar then
#,/ g l. W ismontmaineted soil eruf that 'the b1$ radioactivity -- I i
'ulthin the bed of the fland channel [ arroyo) was not
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.t *wastas soutinely rftschengel to the arroyo were found M to home lesels' of r=Ha-eeivity comparable to i
? arnples from the raffinete usate ponds (25). , , ,.; ( ;
, \~\ g
. The inspectore noticed that the stroyo was j
- A,,,.
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q _ jdy g' b sershy and esturated and that tte cooling water
, stress flowing at ti._ tjee of thstr visit did not
, y 6
di.inish in volu throup te= arayo to tt= sen ) "'"*
- 3 $t 6%
Juan, leading thee to believe that at least 75 . R percent of tte spill reached the river. The spill's -' cm .e, n es= ri mse licpid wasta had concentsetions of radium-226 fros
. 110 to 225 times the Ec limit for unrestricted
+ san =* ,
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w e areas,' with thorium-23) correntratione 30 to 80 _7 ;- ,
, /j",3, e ,',e tieds the legal limit.
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4 l
- 4.9 MILLION CfLLONS T SEEpACE'EADi MONTN 4 EC PR CpirnM ATTITUDC OF KERR-PcCEE (FFICIAL In its April 1961 reply, KerratCee calculated, According to an AEC mem, "Whcn Smith [ AEC amng other things, that its holding ponds lost about 4.9 million gallons of contassinated 11 @ld .
official) informd n!ise that he could not vinsalize each month, using the figure to show ttnt mili ponds me foot of liquid rupturing a dike of that size would never be filled beyond capacity (33),
'[tix feet high, 30-foot base). Wise stated that he EC evaluation of this 6-page reply would take could not. see thy there was so much concern over the another six months. Meanwhile, the U.S. Sureau of
- mantity of 11@ld released, nhetever the wantity
- ws: it was all gone. The ... statements tend to Mims mntacted the audio-visual braru:h of.the EC Office of Public Informat' ion atout helping out on a convince Smith that Mr. Wise is more interestad in Kerr-McGee file on uranlun. The EC beench was minimiring tne incident rather then attempting to sdzelt a realistic evaluation." (2g) permitted to " cooperate to the funest.," but was told that the " Commission had some poblems on AfCWet LSEEp0RTED 5 5I111 T1E F(1MtAP DNESTra;ATIDN health and safety with regard to the Kerr-4 Gee l, milling operation. and that to should keep,this in mind as the profset developed ... MC and the Bureau During the October visit, EC investigators diacovered that another'unreportad spill had of Mines would went to assure that the Government ocmcred during September 1960. ' A " fairly large would not be embarrassed." (34)
A September 1961 EC meno noted ei@t ! @antity" of toxic raffinate liwid laced with inedemacies in Kerr-McGee's second reply however, l cxcessies amounts of radioactive,meterial poured i from a large, broken pipe into the cooling water it was decidad to shelve setters mtil a March 1962 ctreen, through the arroyo and then presuesbly into inspection. This inspection, the el M AEC on-site l ! the San Juan River. The investigators sampled the review of the Kart-& Coe plant, would be en staalc ~ bombshell,'likely stoking the firm's decision to rid I cooling stream and found it carrying excessive lowels of radioactive enterial from the discharge itself of the Shiprock alu (5), point to the point it entered the San Juan River. ISIKERS OWDGPOSED, FDIR SUREY5 & Sflet VItLATIIBS Also sempled, in a dry partion of the San Juan River bed, were settling ponds that the fire had crw uend fori limid disposal and a bog created by Arriving on March 13, 1952, AEC inspectors Q[ determined that three yellow cake precipitation and P
. seepage from Kerr-RCee's messive, northern tallings drier operators - W. Ideever, J.N. Gegey and K.T. i-l pond. Escossive Ievels of radiue-226 were found in Farley - had been exposed to excessies are of T the tog and me' of the three asttling ponds in the airborne uranius from January 1961 to March 1982, riverhad(30). and that Kort-McGee had been incineesting radioactively antaminated notecial wittmut Et
[ NDENkdEE'S tRISTS sof SJFpED ' approval. Company surveys were in wi=1=etan of EC m w.,* 4 mies h='=== they were ir%+= to determine J' exposure to airborne uranLue arut the anomt h h[.. G1een hAupt andthe findings September of the Jme 1rwestigations, one 1980 inspection d airborne uranius relanced from the stil to the M ugiesir'espected the MC to slap Nort-fksee's our coseunity(38).. <- gp ; i-had conducted surveys, ImA hadMt
- @W gd gggi4C -legalabout more' worried compel a court urged battle withagainst it, correlated the results with a tied-estion study th
.W ,appassetly% dout 'the fuelth of people ido W determine actual worker exposuces. Kerr-McGee's own ;
; the'Sen Juon' River and working conditions at the breathing zone aseples fran Jeruary 1981 to pterth
' min. h the ers!, the fire was merely asked to 1962 had W average levels'of airbeene urenhas -
indest paperwntk to shoe it could aparets the mill at sideen mul geratione esopeding the MC limit, , ~
/ 3cioerinng to EC regalatiane in the future (31).
h@%.i E #, derr-kCae's initial reply in ikweeber 1980 with the sealing yellow cake barrel" aparation' ' generating everage levels 80 tines the legal limit V s J
$ ~e'deltted that tallirge and holding ponds worn 4 leaking, 'and that.soas of the sospegs entered the W the operator on top of the yellow cake dryer" (! d[fh$
sample 40 times the limit. Five other operatione had ,
. Sen' Juan. Ibt the fire dish't offer to take any levels et least seven times the AEC Matt.
; e 46 control the seepage, su:h as lining tt=
On seepage d contaminated 11@lds, AEC I ponds. Megarding exhaust of r=M-tive asterimJ s, - inspectors.veriff rd that six test holes had been the rep?.y listed nine stacks that vented directly to . , thre had excessive concentrations of , the steosphere. In March 1961, the EC asked Kerr- lum-226. Kerr-McGee data also shoned that an- % Pt: Gee to subelt additLonal inforestion and je d 46,000 gallons d sepage per dey were clarifications (32). .no from four seepage streams into the San Juan.
- (continued on next pange)
'l l- '
\ . , *; . Surveys taksi off Kzrr-kCee 1sased property arsa. Survtys were conducted, ecpipment was modified
- near the mill cpard house gate showed airborne and proce&res 'of taking uraniun concentrate onto a '
uranium was being discharged to unrestricted areas - vibrator ard sealing the barrel were eliminated. at levels nearly twice the federal limit. Two houses On April 16, 1962, the semi-shutdown mill was I were located about'100 yards west. of the mill's revisited and found in compliance with EC I F guard house. Within a half mile of the perimehr statidards. In October 1962, the EC wrote Kerr-McGee iU fence were 13 henames and a large fairgrounds, with recpiring that the N=pany memit comprehensive data
.. tammerous buildings, correls' and a grandstand. ' o'n tunerous aspects of mill operation and westa [
.; During their tour, inspectors also saw that disposal for renewal of its operating ' license (38)) j Kerr-McGee was %ining" six of .its former raffinate But by this time, Kerr-McGee officials sust '
y holding ponde far vanadium that had leached into the. have decided that they had had enough of their first
- soil from pand eespege. -
uranium processing plant. Dre was less then planth l ful at their Arizone mines, and the compen'y was busy l TWiEC LICM., CasEEL DEFECTS TO KEM-4CE% with uranius ventures in' Colorado,;(klahams, . Oregon, l J . . New Roxico, North Dakota, South Dakota and' Wyoming." i
. Following four days at the ei'll, EC inspectors The Shiprock mill was, low on the firm's stanic toten tievelled' to Karr-kCes H=adrpartera in Oklahome pole. Kerr-RGee'nover replied to the October 1962 7 City to infore Oman.McGee and two other company letter and tes never celled on the carpet for'its .
r
>. officials of the violations they had found. The AEC '" W Q ~
I offMais no'skabt felt s'little bit' apprehensive By March 1963,' uranius supplice at KeIrt-mGee's l
. then they discuemed their findings with the third Arizcre mines had dwindled 'and Karr-4Geo had sold $ 4
( and raisest mater of Kerr-McGee's top atcmic nestly 80 percent of the'uranlue marketable'iidi
,, : senegament tems - paul Martin, the former Chief ^ its second contract, so the company decided 0% ;
legal Counsel for. the EC Grand Junction Operations the Shiprock mill, its'Arizane mLnse and the F f b #1 ] remainder of its EC contract on the sales blai n E Offios, en important AEC office reopensible for ,
, c.,
. purdiesing urentina. '
, An EC mean states, "ba== pf the policy of
~
KEEacEE NMMIBE Sf!P ' v
~ *i c
sending copies of reports'of, and subsecpont correspondonos concerning inspir$1ons and , Ouring eight yents of mill operathn, Kerr :q l NGee A=part 94a,420 tons of radioactive tallings'
- invest 19etiam conducted at urenlun mills to the Granc e Jmetion (parations Office, k. Martin has weste in two aroes' covering 72 acres to prockscar 4'5- . !
provicuely had access to AEC reports and ' million pounds of milled uranium for atonic bombst' correspondence concerning hi, s present eiplayerl with the company raking in $42 million in,U.S.
- thether k. Rurtin has reed these reports, etc., is taxpayers' dollars. Kerr-McGee also prochJced 5.9 ,
not known. personn presently suployed at the Grand million pomds of venedius oxidem thich was sold 60 private in &str Junction offam have informally exp:essed their f concnrn avec k. Martin's posititriin relation t in and purchased the package for $1 million in Match equros meterial procument ations - 1963, operating the mill through August 1967, when ' [EC-Karr-McGee uranius desis). W the firm was serged into Foota Mineral Company.
. Dean McGee said he was mensre'that the Foots opersted.the plant until May11988.' These tmE .
t, ' condteents sede in Novater 1980 and April 1961 dupped another 700,000 tone of WAloective tallithe 1sttaa had mt been at and he assured the on site. Ttese contined tailings any have' caused - inspectors that he would take corrective smesures, g. travel beyond the boundry of.the mill
, Despite the repset violations at the hazard t site at concentrations exceeding EC re<platione [ l
,' worker health, AEE officials decided.notita take . during the last years of mill operation, according i
enforcement actian and to give Kerr-4 Gee one more to en EPA report (40). i I chance to get its act together. The firm would have h Mll cloud, T@ ph W k 2 $ ) a few weeks to correct the, situation and then EC ddWg vel on top of the 26-acre - inspectors imod rmisit the plant. northeastern tallings pile, which averagoc,"40 foot ' deep. The 46-acre southern tailings area, which pNtTIN. SE0mM TO ACHIEW EC MIAEE averaged 15 feet deep and had soley been used by : Kerr-McGee, was not stat'ilized and winds continued One imenilate action Kerr-McGee took that se to blow its redon gas and radioactive ist into t'he day was to fire me-third of the mill workers and surrounding comunity, reiulting in radiation drastically cut uranita pro &ction, thus sicpifi- exposures up to several miles from the site. cantly curtailing operation of the major airborne , uraniun (List generating aschinery in the yellow cake
]
s _____--______m.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . . _ _ _ _ . _
. O
~
e > g , , ,. .,, . , , 6] 3.., j
' FMER SECRETARY & TK IN'TE IE FILES SUIT AGAINST- I
*h. SITE REVERTS TO NAVAHO NATION: f;A010 ACTIVE KERR-PtCEE NO OTER LRANILM MIMING COPPANIES <
8 f, , WASTE PILE USEO Fm BLLLD02ER TRAINING ~ '
)
Belleving that the AEC nno milling conpanies In 1973, when leases expired and the site had done very little to safew ard their health, rsverted to the Navaho Nation,' the Navajo former Shiprock mill workers Elvin Smith and William i
, g Engineering and Construction Authority (NECA) set up
~
Tsosie,' with the help of former Secretary of the ; a training school' for certh-moving machine. Interior Stewart lkiall, broupt suit against operators. NECA would use the southern tailings pile Kerr-McGee, UCA and another r=pany in 1990. Smith, i es a practice ground for the next five years. a Shiprock millworker for fcee years, and Tsosie, !' According to a 1974 report,' the soutrern pile "is wh had worked there for eight' yesists, were both loose, uncovered and continually being moved by the partially disabled by fibrosis of the lungs.iBoth - machines' and student operators of L the Mov.ho Navahos had worked for Kerr-4ksee and VCA (44). training school. Nch blowing dJst is visible in . Though the decontmainetien efforts of the 1970s thisaree."(41) significantly decreased redan emissixi,enach cleanup ,i
. An estimated 10,000 people lived within two w rk remained, especially. cn the uncovered, southern miles of the m111 site. Within13/4 custters of a mile PN*
esere the Shiprock High School and residences, and < 1 t:ithin one half mile were farms, an electronics - AM & M plAK , plant and a 70-acre' fairgrounds site. Soil i R contaminated by windbloon tallings was detected up Describ4. hat he new tivn he visited the to 1,000 feet outside of the fenced mill and S prock site in the late 19ms, an Oklahone - tailings site to tho ' south, southeast and northwest.. Observer reporter wrote, aun a uindy day the Neveho's sheeps and goats grazed up to the fence. radioactive dust can be seen hionsing off the pilesi But those wie suffered the sost direct eatposure of tallings. It blows onto tem grazing land und what .'!
, to the .tailirgs' radiation were ECA's 23' taschers little land is m itivated. It' drifts across the- , /
and 30 students who were gouging and grading the desert and poisone cirurta addsit rain somadiere else. southern atomic pile. The 23 Instructors absorbed blows into the tensis .n b a rainy day the aseter added exposure as they' resided four niWd.d a week in flows off the uranius talHige to form radioactive l 8 trailers on the former mill site. On recommendetjan straems and puddles. Mi=ala drinking the water have t of the EPA, ECA began in Jemery ilf75 dirticting its sickened and died. Children playing in the water efforts toward stabilizing the tallinge piles and e h*V' d""T=d skin awes." @S) hacontaminating the'edd site (42). M ing from the h a k M 111ng Our Ones"a "In d <
' However a surprise lay in store for those idio 1881* Dr. Evelyn Odin, a W pediatri- .I
*""Y terre cheening @ the dsste. Describing the incident, clan, told the Alhirt=npo Tribme that she had boon directar of the Novejo Nation Envircruental f
disturbed by the number of behies being been < ramassme, i Harold Teo told a congressionni hearingt prematurely with stall heads. One child, she said,
%.. In the course of taaring down the aul building was born without ite esophaps and trettee joined
... we stumbled on, very literally studaled on, en togethers another wee been tetheaA en abahminal well
==6s* $100,W0 worth of .25 percent uranius (800 and with its Antastines'herging out." {
s poumde) in the roof of this mill MWie ... U038
^
%. John Ogle, also of Shipseth_hesiteted ~to' j f 6et' woo dte oves.d t. tween two layers'of plywood. blame the defects an radiation. Suk'he told the lj Ituppears that the original roof tea constructed of Tribme that 'my qpt feeling is'.that the incidence
.... plywood, then this roof became teethered, it was hen is te high.! Ogle said in6 e hem
, rep 1==d with a second similar cover of p1psocd" and seen three infants born with heart diessoas, taso
' covered with tarpaper and gravel.. with clef t lips and palates ,two esith skull defects, "The entire roof nas tdjacent to the mill too whh Doen's ayuirone, one telth e section af . , 'l roseter, dereby uranium precipitate was overufried. backbone missing and several with thyroid . ,
i tin'belf we that the uranium dast' wee vented out conditions." Kerr-ft:Cee and EA# cote had left a lot i toward and deposited on the roof ... To find this f dwestation in their weten. @S). ). { much .25 percent uranits was rather shocking ... A N Department of Ense w repet stated, I c=5ya== that thens millworkers did not know that " Shallow gresidseter beneath and eyecent to the . they were being exposed to u30s det in tre mill tailings site is also contaminated with , j vicinity or sgpow that in the alll itself these radionuclides and hoevy estals, originating ftm ; workers were not aware they were being asposed to pr cess waters that scoped fram ponds esting milling ; i ambient concentrations of M308.e operations." Dranius concentrations were detected at M I "Thus, Mr. Senator, um gassticn im that about levels up to 100 times bodegrusid levels (47). { workers within and without sill facilities the In addition, as of Ptty 1984, about 53 acres of , l relied on the milling company eral tts U.S. Atomic Energ r==lssion for health and safety 1 (43) (continued on nestt page) ;
( 3~ y , ,-
- ~
n- ;
-~-- - ~~
gA: l ,= ' ' c
'5 _
_o (continued from prGvious page) . . ... . land near tre piles had been contaminated by . In 1984, the 00E and the Navaho Nation opted '
- 1
' windblown and water transported tallings. So g for the cheaper tallings tenedial actim plan -
contamination ranged f r<se one tc.three f ont : Jeeps of- stabilization of the ts#111ngs en site. The $12 xU* saillion coeretion to cover the piles of Ke'er Asse tha 53 acree, 34 acres were within the San Juan River fleed plain. Two of tre ortginal mill and WA-Foote generatud radioactive weste wee
. completed in 1986(48).
hutMnge eleo had games' radiation: level.'in excess of Een standerd .' - _
"y 'r 1
soumzs ran moewar maPnock, N.M.,.nttt, (24) source (22)( ed "rareinoton Daily Tie .C n, a e/2e/so, y p, (' (1) "Festes." 10/15/au. P. 21: 'txpirisives '4 " Enginmar,' s to/ss. P.136 to 153 ."$usesty (25) Source >(22): EC esso dated 8/31/903 and. '
?Yarmi'igten Daily Times." 8/30/80. Si
. luetery of Domestic Uranlue Pvxurement -Under i i
, ' (25) "Shipresh, New Mexico, Uranius Hill Accident ef J tA4. EE Contracts." U.S. doe.10/82. V August 22,1sso." U.S. Public Health!Servies." y (2) soutco (1). 1/ss: U.S. Ptblic Hamith Servioni imeo dated -
(3) *she oeily Oklahomen." 11/1s/54 9/23/80, fro E.C. Toivoglou to K.S.-Kreues,.f/ N l (4) ' tuning Congress Jourrel.",s/56. P. 56 to Sol - -W .J (27) .(30) scnJrce (22). mes "tunsnoucrid.5 7/55. P '4e to 50. & J (31) EC esso dated 11/4/ sos and 1skter dated TM (s) "tarenaam Mage:Ine": 7/56. P.12. a/ss p.1s. .11/6/80, from H.L. Price (EC) to'D.A/FbCah*% T
,' ~
, (8) "kngineserirg & %1ning Journal." 11/55. P.140. (32) E somos dated reb.1_-afat.11esti and repskeQ $ ' jl (7) ammes (1): "Arizone State Inspector of Mine. dated 11/25#0 from Kerr-maces to AEC.D $; My y<1 answel missarte " 1es2 to 1983: and various (33) Report dated 4/5/01, fren 3.A? Amasall J M
, ; edning t=Mirations.
- (Kerr-4tcGee) to R. Lowenstein (EC). *n- JM" L (e) esuses (1). ,
(s) 'hupava 1mSL-iss Kerr-a: Gee oil Indastries, -
. O_ sum, ed (34) E esso to files deted 7/25/81..
( = E as d.t.d ., ,. 'e.; e e .se M (35) EC Compliance Inspection' Report ard asso'estal' j she>4coupational, Rndiation and Cmtamination." - 1
- 4/27/18s2: Ec secos dated March 23 a 30,.1este u.s. meC une voek operations Office Health end.
. and AEE tdatype dated 3/22/62. y D - Saraty taborotary." 2/7/58. '
(to) asc ossmet 40L203s: EC Compliance Inspection (37) Source Os). (as) source (38) ens letter' dated 10/17/s2, frei ai
' .' . napart deted 3/13/se. .
Niasemmar (AEC)'to G. H. Cobb (tart-McGee). -
'j (11) Letter dated 12/22/58, fro R.F. Bolton (30) S'marce (1): Kart-McGart Annual Report. 6/3043.
(Kerr-Maries) to 3.C. Delaney (EC). 1
' P.12: and " Mining World." 8/83. P. 40.
(12) 'Deily Oklaheann." 8/2/50.'P. 4A. (40) "Estiested Average Annua! Redon-222 Concentre- I (13) 9a== (1). . tions Around the Former Uranius' Mill Site in : 1 (14) "kerth 011 Industries, Shiprock, New Shiprock,'New Mexico." U.S. EPA. Office of - ! ftssics> Surveys Coreacted 8r Licanese Inspection d Radietim Progrees. 8/78. - Div., MC Idaho Operations Office." 8/17-21/59 j (41) " Phase Is Report on Conditions of Uraniu . (15) AEC seen dated 2/28/90.J M111 mite and Tallings et Shicrack, N.M."Li gM.1
* (16) "REE Audiation Control Progre. For Uranius Mill <
sperations." 5/11/80. P.11: "thJreau af Mine. (42) Source (41). l (43)anmfational Health Hazarde of Older Workes ' Inferestion Circular 8216.1985. P. 34 &' 35. in New Maxim.CHenrings Before ths U.S. Smete l (17) EC telegram dated 6/E/80s and AEC meno and Special Condttee on Aging. 8/30/79. p. 31 to j rampHancoInspectitan Report dated 8/25/80. ! 41,.00 A 07. (18)1(2D) StAJrte (17).. (44) "IkJclear Fusi." 7/21/80, p.11J (21) 'Idshe Operations Office Supplemental Irweetigatim of the August 22 - 23, 1960, (45) "The (klahoun 123 server." 2/25/79. P.15. (46) " Kill.ing Our Own." Harvey Weasereen & Normun 4 Holding pond Apture et the Kerr-McGee Oil j Saluson. P. %d & 187. Indsstries Inc., Uranism Mill, Shiprock, New .! noxico," and EC esso dated 12/13/80. (47) "Erwironmental Assessment of Raiadial Action at ' the Shiprock Uranius Mill Tailings Site - (22) Souses (21): ACC assos dated Oct. 4, 6,17, M, Shiprock, New Rexico. U.S. DOE. S/64. Volume 1. j 1980s and EC Compliance 01v. "Irwestigation of P. 78. 98,113 & 134. . l the Holding Pond Npture at the Kerr-McGee Oil d (46) "Formingtorv Daily Times.* 10/21/843 and Indsstries, Inc., Uranius Mill, Shiprock, New Personal comunicatim with Chris Shuey, Soutt>- ; Mexico," with attacteonts, dated 10/6/6% i west Research & Information Center. 3/25/86. j (23) Snurce (22). i
o,4 og ,f ;, ' i f ;' - - - $ M ff 9 , [' , ' - ,1 [g( ***'" ' w %; t August 27, an MC of ficial stened Kermac cfficiel-Mi 1"
' h. .e '
Don Strain to infonn hLe of tre; seriousness of the lKERRW8lcGEE URANIUM ASHING _ PLANT . . comany's failure to cetain an stanic license. QC ETIMINATES NORTH-DAKOTA FARM COPMJNITY "In prssing, Mr. Strain stated that in ! b M.
- iL rptrospect, his company bed been remiss in not doing g; \ s something sooneri that they had " stuck their heads- 4 4h
NDut-stEE SETS LP $ HOP' ' in the sand, imping the probles would pass away, 1 Eth mining in South Dakota' underway in' Spring an E esso revtated (3).- s KarrAGee sdsnitted an aplication in i' 19f0, Kerr-McGee set in motion plad to build a [0 ;B Septenber. In October, the fire reassed ashing 'even oranlue-bearing coal (uriniferous lignite) ashing
~ '
though it had rzrely been granted a 'stor6ga only" t-plantf neer. the community' of Grif fin in soumwest license. E officials he Wt issued an operating ' Al dorth Dakote. In May 1963i Kerr-McGee leased 12 ! d licanes'because the -wian was inedsspate. I
-ectos of farmiend ud,)acent to a railro,d aiding, and I
,p eithin a mmth had built ad spened an are buying . RADI0ACTIE AfD T0XIC DHEST I; !and ===pling station. Stockpiling and esen11ng began l
- as trucsc laade of are arrived construction soon Concerning are dryjng, roasting and loading, d[a ~c ' started on roasting facilities to reduce the
?', uranisse-bearing cool to seh. By August, one ashing the application stated, "These operations are condteted in;mhoused espigment and,, therefore, 111n ame operating and tuo more were being added* airborne radioactive setsrial tende to become During March 1964; thm kilne won eerking and rapidly diluted 'and dispensed." Each kiln had a : l
; the cesp' eny railed its first consorcial shipment of ra,Haartive ash' to its Anisosia Lake, New fWlco, 45-foot tall stock that estemuntei radicottive-
".g,gy meterid. e j
,g,ag,The' are e mpiing station h' d a iO-foot
'urendaan sill. Total cost of the ashirg plant, the ,, ,
. largest such facility in the notion, use helt a .Kerr-McGee officials downplayed'the fact'that s' _l adI1Lari dollars (1) ; --
forehouse wee' only 380 yards fasm the plant,fasying, processing wee se followes are use soepled at en ,- d the (=rM=d 3acetion 'WW phnti no "tNo ces station /dtmped in a stockpile am, nature mid concentratica of the dsachstge and ete- ' M* transferred to one of two Imrge birs et the plant . variable minds,.te propose thet"perheeter sempling ,
. for pulverizing and then fed by comeyar belt into f '
-[rediathr) surways at the alta baanierime) will est '
- one af three 120-foot long rotating kilne, there it be necesesty." (4)
- nose reested at. temperatures w to 1,400 dsgroom ?
In respones to an E letter, t2epony effichnis - '
' Fdireriesit. Each kiin held,10 tone d on, thisti said that radioactive tot use wanted 'out d the
. were roasted for three fours. stacks edth off-ges, tint 'emme skist'escepen out of <
The resultant seh uns transferred by comoyor the teilrced car & ring landing,' and that et the
.bdt, and Joeded into 70-ton railreed hopper cars for are receiving station " dust is generated sharing
, shipuent to how Mexico, dare it une slurried with sosph properation." No 'etack had air claening or.
L ciumicolo and procenaed into taraniaan concentrate. air filtering devices, Kcnr4 Gee stated.) g , _ Seaples taken by Kerr-4tGee at thol site? f STIDWE TEIR MAOS 1H TE SAID - boundary in July, and Octenut 1884 showed strborne t gut in all' the rush to esploit a nas source d uranitse concentrations W-Z the ===8ans= .?
,gi,mahia limit. RegertEng misterne radioactivity ;
, i vrendane, Kerr-fk: Gee offMain had forpttm an' spewed free kiln staceca, KerrJtGee reported.the thing :- they hadn't ' asked .U.S. Atomic Energy (E) average levd in July use 3 tlsee greakt then the ;
'officiale for paraission to operata the plant, a
~
E's maximum allowable 11edt far tatrestricted i direct viointion of federal len. . areas. The average level In October une 120 times ' In July 1964, nearly a year after the enspany this 11Aalt. ' L" : had tongun operation of its first, stooic kiln, the Karr McGee's in-plant breathing zone'souplas - E .sent Karr-ft: Gee a letter reading, 'It has came go, g,gtng warg , po. ,e stead nine plant 'arets k
. to our' attention that Kersec skeleer Fuels with airootne radioactivity in escoes of federal Corporation say tw turning 11pite.are containing 1heihi. One eres had a used5ng nearly four these I Fl , utentson' near' Bommen, North Dakota .n Ple m M I* gr w than the maxim m al3musble limit (5).
i us as to whether Keme is in fact procmW , .l j uranisse in North Dakota." (2) RADIATIN ~RLLES FM t0005 ; In mid-August, the r=pany confessed it mes j operating the platt without a license. To remedy the On paper, Kerr-7k:Cee unaker's hed to follow I
- situation, ccupany officials said they would prepare Mes e m 'All @yeen M andeavor to l 4 ' and submit a source eaterial licznse application. On prevent lignite calcine (uranium] chast from entering .
l
' (cinnued on next paae) '
l 3 L h j
m s7.FF.-McCEE mIFFIN, NmTH DAKOTA, ASHING PLANT When g;erled about the statement, Kerr McGee ,
-- of ficials dowrplayed the excessive radioactive
[y-
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discharge, saying that at their Ambrosia Lake I# # ' uranium mill the " concentration of radioactivity in f 4~"5 $ . stack ef fluent has varied f rcn 200 to 760 tires the r PPC and the concentration at ground level {in unrestricted arcq] has never exceeded the fpC." i ..
. p[ KerrJlcGee said the Griffin plant probably
'7 - wouldn't exhaust uranim at levels in excess of 210
., ) I.' '% . times the legal limit and, extrapolating fran their Anbrosia Lake surveys, radioactive fallout at ground
,{-
- . f.' M N
. . . s .4 level in unrestricted areas around the Griffin plant
.'1 *
, . sHN.D . .; - i ,
would be belcu the legal limit.
~
7 - ' AEC officials dich't realize this logic was
'g]-
4 severely flawed because the distances f rom exhaust
.f . .; - .; ._,,
.[ ' ' r g
stacks to perimeter fences were drastically
^j.,, [h ... *--v= h 5 ' .
different for the two uranim plants. The Kerr-Mc, Gee Ambrosia Lake mill sat idthin s 3
.pgeC N .t M
- / e; -
- g. 3 #f8' .i i restricted mill site comoound of 2,280 acres. In
- ' p.7 j. "
N
,: . contrast, the Griffin plant sat on an 12-acre rectangular plot, with thrs kilns operating less than
,,r.. O n' -s-100 feet frorr. trirestricted property .and the cre
,. y , i 3 ,[f
- c ; ' : , ,' . . . , loading conveyor belt inping radioactive adi irrto i
. ~ g,, ,k ,l -
d [ . r.S railroad hopper cars about 25 feet from traestricted !
-y
... ; : D ..' Q' }. and unfenced farm land.
y, : MdW Not bothering to visit the site or cardsct i ff # nJ ; j
- 'I g<. 's 4 'irep= Ant surveys, EC officials dion't diallenge i
S '
- Y ',' ' . .? e
.'*q
/ Kerr-McGee's thtrJ h> plication and granta! the )
y, v-
, ' ;. p , p .,
*. s .. . , > ,f ' . . g y- t i . company an cperating license in Jaruary 19EEi. /
'$ fo '. ' ' ] > 6, M M %L- .
A cne page gerwic AEC form states the AEC l con &cted an inspection of the plant cri Augint 18, l
.the boq by sservirg all rules ard by prac5W 19653 however, there is no record of any it,tpaction 1 good gearsonal hygiene habits ... The vacum cleaners shall tie used to clean up [ radioactive) ist from wans, led 9cs, pipes, floors and otter places BLACK SPE)W COWTESY (F' KENMcCEE wherannar practical."
alRespirators (sodified ist masks] cust be actn g try indivi&als performing;tte follosirg tasks g ,
' tax *Ang around the vibrating corweyor and the erwirwumrit, those dio fermed in the aree Esdt
[ursrdwm ash) prodzt el:Nators Mg insM3 need a geiger counter to tell them that radioactive h'
, thehopper plarst areet ard carsg any other cleanirg times when irriividuala up dist and spQis anywhere in are ira areas diers lignite calcine &st io airprne dM d h a% M W d
.in surricient wantities to t,a readily visible are rull tilt on stockpiled are, fermore notiers that
*Esplayees shall wash their hands and face before snow-covered areas near the plant were txre.1 bleck catituf 9ere other maxims. byplantfallout(8).
tofortunately, Kerr-McGee reglected to provide The Grfffin plant ashed lignite throu@ respirators to neigtborirg farmen* February 1967. In its three and a half years of operation, 80,00r) tons of uranium ash were railer' FXCESSIVE AImmtE mANIm LEVEL.S & Fl. ABED LOGIC from the site to New Mexico, there the ash mes processed into 607,000 pounds of uranium correritrate NEC officials reviewed the adiitional and 290,000 pounds of mr.,lMnsn. Kerr4L-Gum sold tri Kear,W.Cee applications, tut still had cpestions, estimated $4.5 worth of the North Dakets pro.essed Difficult to ignore was a Kerr-McGee statanent that manim to the AEC for its swlear weOns Wan.
'Stacsu { radioactive discharge] concentrations have The nulyt'denum was sold on the private maricet (9).
varied f ran 25 to 100 times the Ppt (maxinun permissible concentration} of airtorne uranim ... Conceritrations in tre flue gas are not expected to (Cont,nued i on next page) exceed an average of 210 times the ilmit." (6) --- _ . _ . - - - - _ _ - _ 1
~
- m .
i' j MC RELEASES CONTAMINATED SITE
'. KENR-A:OEE BAILS '0UT WITHOUT IEOMOfT INTECTION In' January 1%7, the firm told the'EC that it Six Wotking days after receiving the reCNest wanted to end its license, have the site released to and without condzting an independent AEC closecut mrestricted use and then sell the property. The EC ^~'
asked Kerr-McGee to stbnit a report showing that . inspection, EC tWarters officials terEinsted the liwee and rulsesed the site to unrestricted h contamination levels met federal limits. In April 1967, a company thenist was sent to . use. Kerr-McGee's tard was apparently as good as the ashing site to survey the facilities. According gold, er in this case, uraniun. Other regula% to his report, all contaminntad egaipsont and
~
official would later discover m the 12-acre plant , buildings were within EC limits. Though reportedly site about 71,7G) tons of contaminated material to within AEC limits, one of the highest readings of an average depth of three feet and another 25,300 ; removable alpha radioactivity.wes in the plant tons of. contaminstad meterial to an average depth of operator's control suce. Soes pr-aing enitp==nt half a foot on 25 acres of farm and grazing lands wasn't surveyed because the company said it would be surrounding the plaint (11). transported to Ambrosia Lake, an EC-licensed site. The off-site "wirublown custamination area" (h May 5,1967, Karr-McGee sont its four page extends 700 feet south of the ashing plant, 450 feet
- 1
" report" to the EC, 'asking that its Aicense be north,150 feet east and 100 feet west. Included in tirsdneted: "After you have had an opportmity to this aree ares a 500 foot section of U.S. Higiway 12
~
review the attached survey and conaar that we have to the souths a farehouse and fare buildings to the complied with all of your reg 4irements, we will north: and to the east, a 8(D foot section of the certainly appreciate tocaivig proper approval to dirt access road to nearby Griffin (12). transfer this agaipment ... We have the plant oft IMutt page) facilities sold to a customer who is east anxious to receive delivery of this anii =nt. t Also our coupeny l urgent.ly needs to transfer soes of the ani4p==nt to our coal operations at Stigler, Wlahoes." (10) -
;s .
$ . .e,- **
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)
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, i
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$5 l:
'* a, m 3
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. __ w.or- M BL %
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' * .; .* p.
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JOE 55 TE TRACKS FROM IE FAARING CDf90NITY Gr gtymy l, . i
( i y ' handfuls, Soderstrom shid, ard "It was acre likk . a ' hair than wool."'
'F#gt'ANIPALS STRICKEN Concerning himself, Soderstrom stated, "1 turned a dark bronze all over my bodf like someone Kerr-McGae had left a toxic and radioactive .
'who had layed on a oeach for a year and a halff His .,
.lagocy that could not be ignored by area farmers in
. bald heed had sprouted hair "like cat hair" and he i October 1967, a fatwer began grazing sheep and " felt like someone put sand in ny joints" cattia on land near the ashing site. Durirq spring Soderstrom wae forced to move from the lam 1968, he noticled that note than the normal runber because of the contamination. "I'd be living out d lasbs died and that* sheep failed to gain weight there yet if it wasn't for that," he said, "but as .
and had diarrhee; In July,'the farmer discovered the far as I'm concerned," they should asidean the stole - S q talar of cattle had changed from black to gray and damnedplace."(14) 4 they had excessive weight loss and severe diarrhos. Intervieund in 1979, mite and Soderstrcun both l Later in the sunser, the cattle end sheep were moved said they. were worried about radiaties from the
-( to another posture, but the yurig animals, which tsd been most severely affected, never recovered.
. site. White, who was living on contanimated land with his wife and three childreni said his wife had In' September 1968, tbs farmer contacted.the recently 'mdergone an operation to 'sumous cancer.
lancth Oskota state Department of Health concerning' Soderstrom said a man he had hired to work on the
'. the animals' deaths, Soil sosples taken from the . farm had recently died of cancer and that many of farm revealed that the pasture was contaminated with - his friends either have cancer' or had salad of it. s v- hip levels of colybdenum. Molybdenosis was ,
?(> diagrneed as the cause of .tbo deeth and disease. RADI TION $tsWEY FIISINGS men unter soluable molybderum is ingestad, it e=.=== a decrease in' the body's.asour64 of copper. In Jme 1979, North Dakota health officials Wat(t loss, depigmentation and diarrhea result. conducted external gamme, surveys et 27 3erations on Soil concentrations of as little as 1.5 parts per the former ashing site and discovered sediathn aduton(ppe)homebeenattributedasthecauseof readings ranging fras 37 to 120 timme the natural
, molybderuzeis. . .
background level. In a plowed and cultiosted Soil concentrations in the posture ranged from sunflower field south of the cita, readings ranged a las of ,1'.3 ppa to a hi@ of SLS ppm of nelybde , from 31 to 115 t1mos the normal level. Itedioactivity
- num. Fecal snaples from horse and cattle showed from in this field may have been caused by termer are 12.5 to 25.5 ppe of molybdenum.' A senple neer the stockpiles in this aree' (15).
' plant, somd 320 ppe,' and ashes found in' a' partially A 1980 survey by U.S.'Departmut er Energy a.=.nu=hed section of the plant yield 3,200 ppm. (00E) . contractors gave genen radiatlan' seedings frres
~
4 przording to a'1969 North Dakota State Hasith two to 50 times the natural beckgreapel level (16). , Departnant, - U.S. Erwironmental Protection Agency To meet fnderal , standards,'altet EDE. study . report., "The molybdenosis syndrame caracterland by reported 25,3(E tons of contamLneted setl would hevo e ' dramatic heir color change ard were diarrhos
- to be suceped up from 25' acres"of land mest the
, found in this'irweetigation was determined to result former plant site, including contandnoted soil 1 from soil contamination by a urmifercas lignits aromd fans buildings and a naturel'ges.estering; coal ashing plent. The ccatamination o the posture station. The wet was estimated sti $3rtstK2 in 1980 used fse the grazing of cattle and sheep resultad in dollars. Elevated genoeg reedings,eure' ailes fomd , ,
death of animals and wei@t loss of the surviving jj g g Q ,,;, ; animals due .to severe diarrhea. Molybdenosis has rnt a s h e tesement. been egen before in North Dakota / M) (h the former site,'71,7CD tons of contaminated thfortunately, Je ptobles ditWt go away in 1 o s and ,, 1 939. pieces of pipe ers all that is left er the' original
' structures. The OCE study recoreanded that a nine FNWE3t5 grapple g m-McCEE N foot deep pit, covering fars scres, should be -l excavated at the sehirq site md all contaminated In 1Er/0, Gary White, to lived en a farm near meterial should be dumped in it and then covered the site, lost five calves. 'The calves turned white and had diarrhee," he later told a reporter. Total cleanup costs were estiasted at $1.7 In the spring of 1973, StarJey Soderstron was
{ million in 1980 dollars: but Kerr-M: Gee won't be l running a hard of 2,5m sheep on his fann mar W cleaning 4 the mess it mode. The U.S. taxpayer will l
, ming site. The sheep began Wing in Wdes W havetopickupthetab(17). I j
(. Soderstrom ord his son hauled tNn to a mass 'xrial - - - - - - - - - - pit,. Wool fran the animals could be pulled in j f 1 L _-__ .-
y -
. . i 1
t,; , a. . e .m % -
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=; w-
- MAP OF CONTAMINATED AREA
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' o==a a-= p, '- --.., su. )
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- 52.7 -5 N
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- m y9. *\~ .'* **
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-l gotgr.se KENHicCEE NWnN DAkDTA ASKDC RLANT """ \
i I (1) Wrmering Asessement of Inactin Uranium Mill (8) " Report m klybdanosis in Farm Animals and Its q Tallings, sousen Site, Boween, North Dakota." Relationship to a. Uriniferous Li mite Ashing - C 1 Ford, Bacon and Doris Utah, Inc. Noventser 19811 Plant." Gene A. Oristianson (North Dakota State
" Minerals Yearbook." 1963 Edition. Page 8233 Department or Henith) and G. A. Jar r*= ort -
" Engineering and Mining Journal." Jme 1963. (Envirarmental Protection Agency). Cirr:a 190 ;
Page 283; "Rining Marld." August 1963. Page 448 (9) Source 1. j
" Summary History of Deenstic Uraniun Procurement (10) Letter dated January 27, 1967, from D.A.-
thdec U.S. AEC Cmtracts." Holgar Albretheen, { Nusd="m=,- (AEC) to J. Phillips (Kerr-R: Gee): j Jr. an1 Frartc ArIntey.. October 1982. Page 1328 letter dated May 5,1967, from J. Phlilips to j
. " Metal, Mining and Processing." March 196S. D.A. NL==#=n==rg and Kerr-McGesi"Papivityf
'pegen 17 to 203 Sussau.cf Mines Information Contamination Survey of'Karr-M: Gee f 1A '
)
?. ' Ndar 8304.13s. Pages 58 to 66. ]
Corporation's Limite Burning Plant, at Bauman, '
}2)NCCDdet 40.-7235, Soureo Raterini License North Dakots." Iby 3,1987.
sr 793: 1stter dated July 16, 1964, from E.R. (11) Letter dated May 16, 1987, from D.A. NLrssbeuner j Price (AEC) to D. Strain (Karth). to J. Aht111ps. j (3) Letter dated Atspot 18, 1964, from D. Strain to (12) Sourt.e (1). "
,1 fE.RTPricel and AEC aseo to files, dated (13) Source (B).-
(14) " Dakota Plainsman." December 1,1979. ' j
' p) Ke.ncee y==harappnest.ione 1,1964, dated fromSeptesber R.G. Page. 18, 1964 (1S) North Dakota 3 tate Department of Walth ==en
. - october 28,1564 - Nmate 23,1964 - and , dated June 26, 1979, reference: " Survey of 1 Jorasary 4,1965; ard AET, re: press fran D. A. Uraniferoua Lignite Coal Mining and Burning !
mwner dated Detober 13, 1964 < Ncatter 27, Sites." (16) Source (1). 1964 - Januay 7,198S - January 22, DGS. (17) Source (1) and "Results of the Mobile Gamme ( (5) Souren (4). Activities et Bauman, North Dakota." Gek Ridge j (6) Source (4). National Laboratory. Septe.eer 1983. (7) Form EC-591 docketed Aupst 2% 1965. J l
\ -
l
-- l )
a < - _ _ - - . _ _ - _ _ N
1 Alt.INGS REVIEW
- F_QUOYAH SIPPLMbcLEANUP AFTER JAN. '86 ACCIDENT
-e c r~
{F.g'$p;. : Wj. - 94 Wg;n,.-
. ~
KERR-McGEE SEQUOYAH URAHIUM KXAFLUURIDE _PR000CTION PLANT, GORE, OKLAHORA: [ g 7 ?" : 4.' k NM co ' URANILE EXIJLUORIDE RELEASES, *R g
. ._ . , ,k r; A , ,,
_ ,m l URANIUM SPILLS,;tRKER OVEREXPOSUPES, l- [- =
' ,% /g r.y e"w g
a. EXCESSIVE AIRBORE URANILM LEVELS I j" gp% '
.- g g.3
~a f
, : Af0 ASSORTED CONTAMINATION IEIDENTS i' 4
{, >l_ _ g; v
'(Excluding leaking waste pnds) i g,w ,, p
........... .. m .....e....-..... g ,w .,
afwa 1m
' Plant begins processirg milled uranium.
I ~ l I_ 33gjARY 1973-APRIL 19E ~ E ' 1_ ~
- 250 lbs. of uraniun concentrate yellow cake spill
- On 41 occasions, sirborne urerdue levels at: 3 or en three floors of Semoyah vesto11ng **
sore times the AEC limit.
- Yellow cake wills in storegs ares.
311Y 1974-XLY 1975
~
FWD 4-N1tIL 1M
- A.1 average 75 utenlun spills happen each egnth.q
, Airborne uranius enheusts to outside meestricted g g gg74 ): ,
, ;s'ress everage 41 times the Atunic Energr ,
I - Karr-McGee worker inhalas urentun hexafluoride '
- Comodosion's (AEC) mari== allr==h1= limit. during rel d
- Ituk344AY 1M - JLt.Y 1975 i
71 j::;1Eni$,, ' g hemsfliaride y 3 g ny..'relma==4 in plant accident.
" - Kart-McGee woNor hospDaHr=rt after receiving ' i yp burne from leaking uronyl nitrate homahy:lratec _i
' (g workers _ n ,-'.' to airtusme uranim. g.PTDW'R 1m W' gg"
. 4.I h
' ' . ,131[cetcanetort erees in plant. ,,, g,, gg .
4* TO AJtLY!EPTDER 1970 ,7 J 71.abes uranius che6 numereus urenium apt 11s and 100 lbs, of uranium hexsfluoride frali~a'cylinden-q y.; 9
. M $ excessive levels of. oirene wenim aboed' b PLN l
- j* .*-
T. 970,. - - u meksis"c5ereuposed to airbrne uraniun* (INSPECTIONREPGtTSFOR 7/77 - 5/79 MIT
- . 24 W N 2 Mf[k ^ h.
DEEPEER 1978 ' s'. MPY 'n - An estimated 7,000 gallone of itgid 4 d' wra--o . ~
$'"f0' ##fty~ Wh
=irbarae ==ai=- 1,.s0 a of u,.nrirnitr.ie .r. ei.es.9r lK a $e:
gjf. "?sese wieibis 1 dyers of trenim a two hour ported to the Illinets.Ridt plant "boildoun'ted" og$ririps a laski D d Tf U
,@y~y,in y tfw plant. ggggg, 999g g ,..l gg;j#M N '
y pm.
.n . . .
"I'**'"' * *"1" North kna'fiuoti urinion tag {ca,de~k free s #
e.
- ?
Kvalves en lasking cylfis E tie'nefarip h " k J 'N O
,, .s '
*m ' J - o . . pang cylirden. JANUARY-CECDEER '1980'f@Di I' b m.~ 'y "
Nh { #.. . ti f971 (*' p M, and reisesse cause 79
- On 87 occasions, aikSeideandaii gg gg,gg,,
, . y 9 4y 2 Wg i -
' - Maltbos'rei~iranius hweis are 3 or yg3 gyQ pg@
~
- +
" h )EC;11mi),' S - On "seny' instances" 'woENei NNMe$1N
- 19714RROi,j94. ' . ~ '
M occasions,;alsterne uranim lasals am 3 or ofurenlueintheirdrinefjeesuesb1 ~
"with intakes of highly male-h1= 110-2%2.
[k rmIdii[timesithe fEC lbdt' - Delly air sogles al. the site"teimdeMA
)
N, V. fl f, ; ' Fure(nium 1972)spills ~ .. ~and . '.leaks occur in p1=A. ly exceed the MC limit'for trannstricted'aiselu
~
l ' SEPTDER M80 J
- I 3 Mails, shouering urentum pnwn in 20-foot _g g g] ,1%'f '#j . ' S..; J 4e i i," B ' ares nogal a conveyor belt. Airborne ., .c- .., J (f
^ , .
O.itilnes the)EC limit. (continued on nentt'hqp[. - f3 a -
- ~
)[w m. .g f', '~s *:
g g g unDut IEDLi.ATGtY QNt1SSIEM AfD ITS PAEDECESSGt, M ATD4 TIC DE' ICY (IBMSSIC"I, 21.!N g , e l 9 . um TO OPutATE THIS NLnEAR PUWIT FDt THE PAST 16 YEARS #cjW CAN TE 10C Al.Litt fESTNff? ! f.\ ~ qt
'+;4%.g(,,h .
_ _ _ . , _ _ _ _ _ . _ , _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ . - - - - - - - - - - ^ - - - - - -
~
Y - ' ' y y s , , k4 +- .
,4
, OCTOK!! 1980 . : JANY-DECUEFR 1985 'U t*-
- Kerr-McGee -sorker r'sceives a sizable exposure to - th 20 occasions, workere heat uranius hexafluoride l
- sieborne utardus in the .fluoritution area. cylirders to remove excess meterials. l
_ ;c" NOWUEER 1980 - MARCH 1985 ' ,I E Kerr-Yk:Cee worker is potentially overexposed to - let inspectors obserw corrodnd drm leeking l o
. .sirborne uranium in the fluorination eree. . yellos rake, eith contamination g to 80 times:the ~i
, nmWR 1m , l action level regsiring cleanupi.' i
. About 190 De.' of uranium spill, exposing five ' ' JamdftY -1985 ,
- (5) workers sho aren't wearing respirators; , - Metr-McGee worker Jesus Herrison is killed and '!
a" ' 3AlmtY-DETmJt 1981 over 100 people are exposed to a cloud e,f M.
'. - Eh ;27 are=aws, sirboren uranim levels exceed corrosive contamination.then 29,500 poundo of '
3 urenham hexei'luorlds lasts free a ruptured
! JAQ ,
WlECdimise#/ W ,
- JaltigilV-CEIDEDf 1982 3 i
w cseitainer.' Accidentleeuls in shutdesiof;pinntd, . + l ,]3 .
} airborne utenius levels,exosed l ma #;{'g5 c t 90 C h d'se eM i.W ore.s --% % a % g[ ,;j et M,e.r.iet) y-! 7 '
w t c ,, % . m o,d 3ANNutV[19st A@ . npuoi19es. 32 M i a ,.8/ Ag4 gg.1
- Three-(3)'usikers.esposed to airborne uraniun is. overfilled by" $ i, 4 (dsring a rsinLun hexafluoride leek. - urenhen hexafluorlds 8,0 5 pounde,-but noir y W cylinder,Mip[p>N7 l
% FUBl0 % .19E2d & # _ .
Jt3E 1988 - g % Wdwij g Mypfa,JA # I 4 - people livW'noer the plent[reportAMKd 4
'~
1 A . pipe stadasmus, spilling g to 3,000 gallone of'
. ~
l teels"'& radioactive 1igdd into ditch emptying 1 researcus ill effecte to health and hessinadane W% finto'tkD1] semis [ftiver. . giunCH 598NUML 1983. I
; fase plent's sitixN==e=Mria.Jhgg JULY 1988 - D ' ~ O9hk i
f I
#% [@ Areascleaned tian"'aren't with "ciormiotently g "for periode se longhijiaslevels e - A donnement revisu bedttleMkthwJfl$b of contamine" i
testner reweels ,l;'M[g % g g I (( 4 g ansk."c I J5%IL.1983-REU5T 1984
" 4D' private citizene =5===tto Jorg:psteaseJ"udI*
urenlun in urine et levels amosodinfthe, h W}X N
~
N We in - mt, =nv =Poeu= to hicir anle boek9 ro m d la t fWe plan n o imr. ? onk JQ'^ l =ahMe" uranium hexafluoride compoundo "were
, lauels 800 tions the ' acceptable _leve13 Md.[ k.
M i
, recorded."' " Kerr-Pt:Cee date shows " pervasive, contamination 3AlmtY NAY 1984 of soil and vegetation in s'widespireed eree l Gn 33 rw==lans, siOxne urtolun levels are 3 or aromd the SFC facility;" _
eore tisms the leqC limit. e sAerini surveys show hi$ level's of radiological
<* ALEUST ,190m3MRY 1985 conteeinstion et the FC facility, eatending l - tDecessive airborne uranius levcis on 151 occasions. Into of fsik uns ..." l
.' Two (2) Kerr-McGee arkers are exposed to altborne FMEER 1986
, uranius daring a uranius hexafluoride rolesee. 100 pnb petadssion for putisi restert. -
SOURCES F(71 RDWMIcGEE E0lmAH TIELINE letter dated 12/19/715, from W.J. Shelley (KM) to ' NFCs letter dated 11/19/79,' frcan W.3. ShelleyJ(M) J EC/lGC Docket 40-8027, License SLEb-1010: AEC toK.J.Seyfrit(ift)gIflC"InspectionRepotte i
" Compliance Inspection Heport." 5/20/70: letter 40-8027/ 82-01." 3/12/82: IWC " Inspection lleports l deted 11/1/10, from R.M. Valentine (Kerr-McGee, MM) 40-8027/83-01." 3/24/83 ISE PIO-IV-82-02, dated .I to L.'b. Low (EC); letter dated 12/1/70, from C.D. 2/3/823 NFC " Inspection Reports 4G-8027/84-01." j Brown (EC) to G.W. Roy (EC); letter dated 1/11/71, Contbeted July 17-19, 1984 NRC " Inspection Reports i
from L.D. Law (EC) to P.S. Otmin (m); MM " Internal 10-8027/85-01." Conducted March 11-15,198S1 "Osily l L1 Correspondence" dated 7/28/70,1970, stbject Oklahoman"t 1/b/86 - P.1.1/6/86 - P.1.1/7/86 - )
" Radioactive Conteeinstion Cornrol"; KR " Internal P.1) "New York Times." 3/5/86. P.13 " Delly l Correvondence" dated 8/11/70, stbject: " Progress Okishossen." 3/15/06. P.17 "Pbskogee Dolly a Rorort"; letter dated 1/26/71, from A. Vollentine Phoenix." 3/14/86. P.13 letter dotad 8/11/P6, f ran ,
(KM) to L.D. Law (EC): EC "Caupilence Inspection Carlile Aree Residente Association to the NRC3 A ' Report." 12/3/71; letter de;ed 2/29/72, from S.H. Review, Comnents and Recommendations Based on Smiley (AEL) to W.J. Shelhy (KM): EC " Comp 11erce fGEC-1189. Prepared by Pat Costner, Staff Scientist Inspection Heport." 5/15/733 AEC "Conp11ence for the Nationel Water Center. Revised 7/15/863.and Inspection Report." 7/12/74; NRC " Inspection " NEE leews." 10/86. P. ~2. (Unless otherwise noted, Report." 7/28/753 750 Drsft Inspection Report of all direct quotes are from EC or NRC repotts.) ] inspection cn July 28 @ , 1976; letter dated u n us e n e nn e n e s u nnu m en en n e nnu m en nue l 9/30/76, frts W.J. Shelley (KM) to C.D. Brown (NRC)I Timeline conpiled by' Charles C. Bernes. 10/24/06. l v uee n n uen n nunnunn e nnennunweenn i J w . . :
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U.S. NUCLE A':C.E00LAfo#Y Catmel888oN 80AC Minst SW INVESTIGATION STATUS RECORD west:.ucTione: The torne i. to b. corno6*.d when.= iw#ie.nt utivity h. e r.i.ti to e w n i a rv 30 d.y . it no cewns. h i occ=.d e, ins ow 30 day r portine period, indieste No Chengsin the status temaet Kamp the oriemal mem the men file and send ore copy to Headquarters omas of taustiestione. CASEDmttattR CATE00 sty OFPWA o OrtAAtlNo asActrA I nessersouAL tecensse 4
- - Office of Investigations !
4-86-005 ___ c asAcron unoon . comernucrion J. **'" Alarm * ' Field Office, RIV-V VENDOR " . "ftest x O Assionee to susact KERR-MCGEE CORP./SEQUOYAH FUELS CORP.: D. D. DRISKILL SUSPECTED MATERIAL FALSE STATEMENT TO NRC STATUS ($ssWy ene, amar an>nidr e enip/ chscrechn) Subsequent to the January 4,1986, rupture of an overfilled UF6 cylinder, the Kerr-McGee Corp. Nuclear Licensing and Regulation Director forwarded a letter to th'e NRC Region IV office' wherein he stated Kerr-McGee managessent had no knowledge that overfilled UF6 cylinders were being heated at the Sequoyah Fuels Facility. The NRC AIT inspection disclosed testimony of employees indicating that heating overfilled cylinders was a frequent occurrence at the Sequoyah Fuels Facility. The EDO on March 6, 1986, requested
'01 investigation to ascertain the veracity of Kerr McGee management's denial of knowledge g concerning this practice. g DATE: Mar. 31, 1986 - Investigation approxianately 70% done. 38 interviews have been F conducted and estimate approxi+,ately 10 more interviews. ECD: 5/86 Resources Available: YES DATE: Apr. 30, 1986 - Field work anticipated to be complete by first week of May 1986.
. Two interviews and review of selected records remain. ECD: 6/86 Resources Ava,iJ,able: Yes DATE: May 30, 1986 - ROI is currently being written. At this date, ROI is about 60% f complete. ECD: 6/86 Resources Avail: YES DATE: June 30, 1986 - ROI is currently being written. At this date ROI is approximately 85% complete. ECD: 7/86 Resources Available: YES
}
DATE: July 31, 1986 - Anticipate final ROI to be forwarded to 01:HQ the latter part of August 1986. ECD: 8/86 Rsources Available: YES , 3 DATE: Aug. 31, 1986 - Additional field work performed. ROI in preparation. ECD: 9/86 Resources Available: YES ., DATE: Sept. 30, 1986 - ROI in preparation. ECD: 10/86 Resources Avail: YES i DATE: Oct. 31, 1986 - ROI in preparation. ECD: 11/86 Resources Avail: YES DATE: Nov. 30, 1986 - ROI in final review at OI:RIV. ECD: 12/86 Resources Avail: l'ES DATE: Dec. 4,1986 - ROI communicated to 01:HQ with exhibits and Title Page DHL'd to
. OI:HQ. ECD: 12/86 Resources Avail: YES DATE: Dec. 31, 1986 - Awaiting closure by 01:HQ. ECD: Unknown Resources Avail: YES DATE: .!an.16,1987 - ' Received closed case in 01:RIV on this date. Case closed on 12/9/86.
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5 As late as yesterday. Kerr McGee dh-
' Kerr-McGee Tank Runture f n7as L3aused san ~ f~ m ~r -tura>
ms n.ay have ca; sed the rupture. In
. . - anw.Mr.e m a,nsr m i Bv J Heati ? Fm. dinus o NRCInds.cate ww.o c-es h~ seen am -d sue. It "dhki't appear to be the case" that o saetal fatigue played a role in the rupture. ' ,
t . Pit tm a ld the s d Es ade t '[hree bl5$e $$$Gilb WOTheT5 y'ahto y I urday was caused try heiJag e owe- UTged!O!fnpTOt>604bO[8ty much ngu2 stas plan:s the process or
- loaded tank and not W any structural av e wusrun Jomin Suff momer weaknesses 1:. the costalmer. 4 Nuclear MIDDLETOWN. Pa. - ne Nuclear Henting an Overloaded Tank Regulatory Commissim othetal said. Regulatory Commission saW that em- Instead. Mr. (Saaiwh_m said. the r;p.
The official. Richard r%==mngham, em- playees at the Three Mlle Island nuclear tune was a kydraulic fracture." cau-ed phasized that the NRC ham *t completed its power plant need to be more careful by the expan*n of bquid when an over-investigation. But he said there apparently about safety but that recently completed leaded tank is heated. The liquid " expands weren't any structural defbetencies in the restart proce@tes for the undamaged and has no place to go." he exp;&lr<d. tank. which ruptured st %ertticGee's urs' reactor were'liandled well by General Kerr McGee has said that heatthg an [ nium-processing plant is Cate. OklL The Pubnc Utihtles Corp. Unit 1. the reactor that wast; da. ovetioaded tana violates company polley, f - The Department of Energy. whictr issues This article u os prrpored by Jona I maged in a 1979 Pccident, went to full gesehnes on the ham 11ng of certain has-lAan Ddt and Eduts A. Ana Jr. in pn ,r Monday after a threemooth ardous chemicals. also adytses against I Dalhu and Laurie P. Cohn as Gore, shakecown program. such a pmeedure. Kerr McGee an Okla-Okta. f
, NRC reg >onal administrator Thomas houma Ctty based energy concern, std it I Murney said at a news conference here sue didn't know why the tank was over- /
company has said metal fatigue may have that the plant is running cell and that 1 filhnt The company has speculated that caused the accident. The rupture spewed a { its operators are wall trained. But Mr. the tank may have been placed on a j huge cloud of higNy texte.abghtly radioac- Murley also said the NRC is concerned . weght scale improperty. ! tive gas that kil5d one worterami sent 118 about plant safety, citing two receni un-pe0Plf 10 kfPl!Al8- The connpany saW 11 doesn't know why , I planned closedowns of the reactor be- the esnpaoyees would have violated its writ- l Meanwhile, the accident has generated cause of safety problems in the unit's ten rules se handling the tanks. At a news I concern in Congress. De House subcom- non-aucint systems. conterence yesterday. Kerr McGee distrib-mittee that oversees the NRC plans to send Mr. Murley said the number of co- utest its sine-page policy that fort *is heat- l a letter to the agency today questioning site inspectors will be reduced to four the hcensing rn the plant despte aumerous from as many as 30. which is still double f ing overfilled tanks. A Y b l i aame sew ! safety violations. The NRC renewed the b- the mimber of inspectors usually sta- i the l cense in September et en thosch a commis tioned at a nuclear power plant. l sion report called the coseber o( Aolaticos
- l st the plant " excessive-' P Tk NRC has saW lt stands by hs deci- . .
I "What M 80a# 8I,Il#4 sion to beense the plant. , '; . j sAay A m c h The plant employees had overfilled the 1 l Neuse,stafferecto4 lank of uranhan hexafluoride by almost 2. " *' l
., and chief counsel of the House Subcommit- 000 pounds and were beaung it to nW T F Mat ik l
(% mas Power."1 come of the excess Ikid when the com- plass's appucation to renew its operating l IIsugly, but that l l . feiner tup;ured. Uranium hexaflu6 Tid temas had been delayed for three years, l j g Jos . used to make nuclear fuel. The tank we from September 19d2 util September 1905, j ggg' meant to hold no more than 27 WO As NRC spokeswoman in Washington said the thretyear wa't was longer than nor-( annt me sam NRC polky allows a plant 1
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M csettiane operannt under its old license { m wAsHo4GTce4 n. as long as a renewal applicative is pend-Front Edit Otnef / ' tag.
- Page Page Page'7-* ""** Sert McGee conntmed that the license
< renewal had been delayed. The commis-M S EI rA*.L STREET Jo RNAL slam spokeswoman sam the delay was
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! . . fresa the plant for the beense renewal. "It nA ..: RN EMTI N- ' was Nst a wwkload M of tMng." ak E- 7 5 " , '. 3 5 85 saa.
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y - MO 347 g8 s . 45 h $ D NRC says gap possible in scrutiny of plant , E"""" , aassa ofrneme.e The assacy1 fife com=lamian. f<
' WASHING'It* -The chairman ers, at a brie 6agon the accidentby -, ,
of the Nuclear Reguleeary Coaemis, tlw NRC staff, pressed hvastigators l glos said priderthat the Jan.4 toxic to deteradne what oversight other
- p. leak from a stemissa processing federal or stees agencies emert over .
t meer Gore, Okla., exposed a
', ble gap in regulatory over. theplant.Theyalsowantedtoknow why no forinalevecsetion plan was l adght" Wu! that such facili. in effect at the time of the accident, ties had not received ' sufficient and ',m, *
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pcratiny by the com=lasian prederteg; g rwsmia*-.ir he' % t Bernthal questioned the agency's4 u l i
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$sdwres col hasard" where at aradiation plant risks thatbig"is a chemi hassed f".id er wee i.Oug's:4 f as**t.widental" , .
chemical," Ca==i=8aaar LAndo '
' "This is a case of a plant that 2ech said. "pm.his asks,it's our re-ersyped through the regulatory sponsibility to art tids out so that
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/ as much ettention as it should,"Pel. did not regelee these plants to have
; 1adino said. "We've been preocen. the same klads of sen.rgency plans pied with (nuclear power) reac, Please seQPage 21A.
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... l The announcement came as ~
y } cleeg,3agulatory Corrxam . PI,an.
, cials, sad the uranium. processing i plant had been cited for 15 viola. ,
* ' tions in the past eight years, most of them not serious.
Workers at the Kerr McGee l 1e ' plant in Gore, Okla., apparently e u.ed w io try to amove .ome ' !
, e of the 2,000 pounds of excess ura.
, - slum hexafluoride in a 14. ton cyl.
inder Smmisy. i t- Kerr.McGee spokesmaro Rick
- l Pereles said Tuesday that the com.
pany's proce i Workers heated , any auu duresa.ain., manual.specifi. appiring 4 har to an erfined tank.- 4
"" " "
- da *** * - i Overfilled tank of the potential danger of rup. i i
ture," Penies sed. l Pereles said company investiga. By LISA HOFFMAN tors are tryths to determine i
' ** t Staff Writer - whether the men invdved were GORE, Ok!s. - A Kerr.McGee aware of the policy before the cyl. l4 Corp. official ackrwiedged Tues, inder ruptured at the Sequoyah :
Fuels Plant near Muskogee. day that workers violated compery i when they bested an over. .Canpany investigators, as weu t chemical tank, whkh rup, as thcee with the federal Nuclear Regulatory O=mw-i, also are l wred and released a doud of dead. '
"
- See NRC en Page 12 f f
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YRC: 15 v.iolati.ons ! cited in eight. years . 1 NAC- Fress Pese One asete of was avecseekh syQl %' asst j inilarthe Wv s examining whether the bylinder it. self was faulty. F an NitC Ins.Jmte pector,in aWdocu. One man diet in the Saturday aientsubedsted with his teview of . - acodret and at others were treet .*' the ytsas's application for' license ! ed for burns and fume inhale
- ion. ' .' sumarmel in September, wrote that AD but one of the victims had he eensidered L%r numhar of cita. !
been released ficm. the hospital tiens "esmassive und raising the - i heeday, although 15 W the work- questies . of . management 3 ets will be monitored for pueble e . kidruy darange because of overex.
- csceive:ess."
( f Oss %eeday, Martin called that .
' pesure to the mDdly redMve charsetartsetions gas., ,, d Et,,q 3-r p.
.g
- k h Y.E terey 'also continued A baaday over the safety of an ele- q
. noussary school less than a mile j i mortheast of the plant. '
4 adminis- Despite state hesith department l
'trator of the Nuclear *T' -- i assuremoes that the bualing was
, 5 r not contaminated by the leak.
anothers kept 40 of Carlile Elemen. . tary h haars 100 studenta horne p . heeday. On Monday,30 were not
,+
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. J.,
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~"n "My son is never going back." '
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(Continued frem page IA) ' because their moyab fmels') filled cylinder had been heated endoreenheti is tower, at the piantc . smiact violatjoue," artin said.
. ,. Another method of removing He said the type of violations
. . UF6 from a cylinder is to vent refefred to in the report ure. <
. off the rnaterial by opening a not .? elated to' heahh hats;rds, '
valve, Martiri said.'He .neted but more along tha lines of -
-p- there may be ot.her methods. ' paper work such as failure to
' Pereles said he expects there fue certain repons. l 5, will be changes in the way the Pereles said in September chemical is handled at the. that Sequoyah Fueis has paid plant, but both he and Martin for the repainting anc' replacing ,
said they would not know what of glass in employees' velkles changes would be made until because of chemicaldischarges i?- the investigation is ccmplete, fsum the phnt stack. He said "The resolution of safety the employees' parking lot was 3 concernt is a very key part of ultimately moved. . j t,
- the investigation," said Robert Donna McFarland, W Xerr. J Martin, regional administrator McGee spokeswoman in Okla. +j for the NRC in Arlington, Tex- homa City, said in a (cle one ' j as. < interview Tuesday tin c mi.
"We suggest the company cal released ' from.' th* plar,t loch into a special provision of stack in the past was. hydrogen f handling those (ho' UF6) cyhn- fluoride, strocg enough to etch ders." Martin continued. glass. Hydrofluoric acid re.
- He said the NRC approved leased frorn the cylinder Satur- .
Sequoyah Fdels' license m Sep day, is a combination of hydro-ternher 1985 witt. the provision gen fluoride .and uranyl that the company would pro- fluoride. < 2 vide a plan for dealing with this A series of DOE helicopters type of accident within six Wednesday will be flying low menths. . over a one-mile radius of the However, the application plant - to resurvey the ~ entire ' states. "In the event of such an area for possible contamipa-accident, plant employees tion, Pereles said, would take emergency action ... Survey measures will extend including ispraying the cylinder farther for the property down-with water to cool it more wind of the piant, he said. quickly and . minimize the UF6
, . release."
The. comnany's previous li-cense expired October 1982. Bangart said t)w license was considered valid because the company made a " timely" re-
. newal application. He would not say why it had taken the NRC so long to approve the applica, q tion. ,*
i Bangart and Martin sides.'. I tepped a question that the i j unique h3tdre of Sequoyah i L Fuels caused it to fall through regulatory cracks. ,
, l. uke has said Sequoyah 1 1 Fuels' safety record until Satur- e j day was outstanding. <
s According to a Safety Evalu-ation Report dated August 1985, e { an NRC staff member said past ; violations at the Gore , . l qe N. p _ 1 g
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', was hei.g b.ated i. a ween't chest se 2,000 pen. ads of when pWm. af 2,e.e. no o
, excess chemicals could be re. rWe ses would be carr6ed awa mechana Y moved. Heat was needed to tara. freso the plaat by a light wind. y ' ap6kesman,s, said eenethe A,r.meGee efft.
i theentid material, usedla thepro- clans fasollkar with the , re. ar
. emettee of emelser reacter fuel res,e kTDROGEN wedet enesesfleer 6de is a cor ' quests were at the plan rods, lhto a gas that could be rosary . andle unavailable and meet ,
the " for eessamma. furtes plant, effMale said ~ ped back toit weeld into the . tomanufac- y efficials' ame=pa thethe report. report URc sta t y The cofed that pleet has Residents nearest the plant . since 1978.-been cited for il roles indraettem as NR was described by
'3 invesugsty as met *a geged he killed if espeeed to the -
please ist less than a salente, the . Ve89 c--~~ # . go.ag N
. ,y e N "
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<-t-Ny".C roguests weae plante and among, 4seet . he a ese mile e,trete aheet 34 realdeste'
- of the ))
C" 11 condittees for reaewal of the witWe a two anile circle, effletels " # t plant licamma, wWeh was renewed = anid. Baterstate et to ims thaa a to 1990, PherMitCregesetA dealt . sage songh of the Themasserte ~?.'
"Itenestbe , StathW54 g '
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and tiene " - - THEamPLAYF N RCiTreatigatise hasandba.:s choed -largeUF50hejreessmedsreniaW empteyese'ee saf t. . . th e y t.eed. factb . gear property,n i
. ls ex *see ep. ne prete . .ty areestmetatenes6 at no Segeeyak tea. L i
pestingetradientseaseen ' 'i
~ week,pected offletals enid. se.take at least af stine of ."=aar==== to the soor-other,lasge.cheinical mannen,teg, .
~pleegBJ NRC offletals emed the " " annanalm repseted regeests desbeg with the cy
',ders were based sa a shoue em essautre roleseos ces ~estes, ed, the_ *r.. history has the '1 which agddesensusthepotential asese- - Atthe of theweehand aevere That a ey leek would '
et seek a retense estoWe tere. N people were v "facility are' clearly . hasside and outeWe the plast, T l i le aparettee elece spre . F g seted that safety - the Gore phat woulit (Ff' The safety M the adetional 188 t work force sembere
- I leek, from na re1 quested by the On weekdefs. '
ropters of a cyl "further redn y. NRC efDeiets at
" estande th et sad a release,ee a the ; the at site said "very few.
danger a _e, building would areas. en* In . th It meted two__ aerWests la Dec testineser prepared for a .along,aheet let yenti of Okishn-radia
-19 y7 at en prence to ly IOC hearing em eg.
essesresequelaed.a the b . ma 14, whet rees b freut etthe + andle k owe, ht pannee.seqeoyah Feefe'e"fn'cials plant 'and winch the teste etead ; 1978.- poseed eve,r. Part of the i
" NRC efficials labeled a cytia* meted that mestallaties af addl.
tiemale clave ~gelpment seek as an asto. gy,Sundayand was estag eerehteed . deracen,adomalikely
; tag ruptere outsWe . the but fellow- tan plant as mentation eand nressere reli fstate of-the-krt mntre.
Agashing trt+rk a leek did occur: e' s tems - could further leansn hetes reinewed. , hit and ofleaks
- Tepeelt areced the plast, wWek Proptere one of the 1 cytte-
; ders where processed eranium rescheduled heartag was can,celed and . Arksesas ned for Wednesdav then IHiness rivet
~ rheza,fleerWe is etered awaiting cancak e agets Sunday affa,rhas thebeen removed.
Also se Monday. Oe're
' l nient of her1ty plaats. shipment ' reachnamana to one
. of three Depart- Saturday mishap. It has 7, not been B;11 Most of the material would Compeer officials filed the tes, efficials have agrood to install drop quiridy to the grened, but a timony wasa the NRC in Washing. *same qui ferm ef early warnies
, too la Noveenter, et City Hall as case el
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- FACILITY, TYPE: >
'
- TYPE 0Fi CASE::
((PWR). POWER REACTOR / DOCKET #' p(ALASSIST) a
/NAME_L,- (I(Q:INVESTIG4 INQUIRE t
__ ((NPWR) VEND) L NON-POWER REACTOR TION ' d(N.IC)? VENDOR / DOCKET f- MATERI AL4 LICENSE /NAME ' manovah; rufinH co
~
(OTH)20THER' /NAME;
*DATE 0F RECEIPT: m k i 19A6 if ;* TITLE: -(Limit 100, Characters)W KERR-MCGEE CORP./SEQUOYAH FUELS CORP: ' SUSPECTEDj .a j
p
. MATERIAL' FALSE STATEMENT TO THE NRC e , , v ,
j > j INVESTIGATOR'S INITIALS:i
- LEAD ,mn d
- CASE STATUS: - SOURCE OF ALLEGATION:- '
0 PEN l LICENSEE TRANSFERRED ( Y VEllDOR. o CLOSED / ACTIVE (C CLOSED / INACTIVE- y. (( hCONTRACTOR l ( .I NRC ' ' -) 1 TPUBLIC t
~$ FIELD WORK- STATUS:
- INTERVENOR -
jI( 1 PENDING' . ANONYMOUS
^1 (, FIELD WORK IN PROGRESS:
> FIELD' WORK'IN ABEYANCE , OTHER 1 Y 5 FIELD WORK COMPLETE
[LDRAFT3 REPORT. TYPE 0F WRONGDOING: (See Tl Table for Codes)1 ' < d
') ]
j h HEADQUARTER REVIEW h FINAL REPORT ISSUED. (IF'OTHER:
- DESCRIMI(N: . (Limit 500 Characters).
Subsequent" to ,the fJan.: 4,1986, rupture .of' an overfilled UF6 7 cylinder, the Kerr-McGee ,jl,
' Corp.l Nuclear Licensing and Regulation Director forwarded'a letter-to the NRC' Region IV '
<cffice wherein he stated Kerr-McGee management has no: knowledge:that overf111ed'UF6-
' < cylinders were being. heated at' the- Sequoyah Fuels Facility. ' In ; view of: the NRC -AIT inspection l y
?citths Jan.t4, 1986,Jaccident.which disclosed this practice to be relatively-frequest. '
< investigation was requested to determine the veracity'of the Kerr-McGee Corp.11 cent,ing j
' director's written statement. . - F a
I ComENTS/ REMARKS: .(Limit 500 Characters)-
. Thio-investigation-was initiat'ed based' on the March 6,1986, verbal'. requests of the NBC EDO, tha Director of 'NMSS and : Commiss'ioner Asselstine made to the Director, OI. f: s a ,
i W START DATE: March 7. 1986 FIELD OFFICE NUMBER: RIV
~ _
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: Anrn 30. 1986.
~
OCTUAL COWLETION 'DATE: ' ZIP CODE: 76011 q ALL RELATED CASES: REFERRAL: e EDO (RS) REGION 5
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- 0. ^ESPONSE/ STATUS TO REQUEST FOR 1ESTIGATIONL I y .. . .
,.(
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- Ud. $,6
;TO: ' victor stello, Jr.
-Exective Director for,0perations lj 33 e .
- FROM: + Rich'ard ' K. . Herr, Director, 01FO: ' RIV '
g, ,@lj *
- w b' - .i I
T ; REGION REQUEST NO.: NMSS-86-01: DATE OF REQUEST: 03/17/86 .;
' Sequoyah Fuels Corporation ,
f Licensee / Vendor / Applicant: Sequoyah, Gore Oklahoma. Facility or Site Location Docket.No. 40-8027- License No. . .SUB-1010 l CASE INITIATED i CASE N0c 4-86-005 i Date Opened 3-06-86 TYPE OF CA'SE: ! Assist (A) ! Inquiri'(Q) ,
' ECD 7-06-86 x Investigation (!). !
Case Priority High , ,,_ Normal Low - 4
-CASE NOT INITIATED: . REASON:-
C0ftlENTS: Opened on 3-06-86 upon verbal request, written " request received on 3-20-86. P $ cc: J. Hunt, 01:HQ / J. G. Davis, NMSS J. M. Taylor, IE G. H. Cunningham,>0 ELD R. D. Martin, RIV , g j Q,. __ _ .}}