ML070660059
| ML070660059 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim, Three Mile Island  |
| Issue date: | 02/27/2007 |
| From: | Osborn M - No Known Affiliation |
| To: | NRC/ADM/DAS/RDB |
| References | |
| 71FR75280 00017 | |
| Download: ML070660059 (41) | |
Text
, R 10,UNITED STATESW -NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-000.1 loolwýZA'ý F -rnI-Fýý --, -/--( -"'/ 3 4J~ ~-~(-
I; L_FT 14~II 'ell I __ I I_ __F I I" ---I--A--I- -___ I~ iT OI- I iL[I7~~J-~~2exi I~ -~-7 -_ -~o~I I jjl 1-o AI-VA#k 1_4 L IL4" ! : f I I i P1 '141 I TI Toronto, Canada July 18, 1986 In May, 1983, my father-in-law, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, told me that at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident, a full report was commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. He (my father-in-law) said that the report, if published in its entirety, would have destroed the civilian nuclear power industry, because the accident at Three Mile Island was infinitely more dangerous than was ever made public.He told me that he had used his enormous personal influence with President Carter to persuade him to publish the report, only in a highly "diluted" form. The Presd.dent himself had originally wished the full report to be made public.In November, 1985, my father-in-law told me that he had come to deeply regret his action in persuading President Carter to suppress the most alarming aspects of that report.ane..R-ickover JANE RICKOVER appeared before me and swore as to the truth of the above statement.
Dated at Toronto this 18th day of JulyA 198 William F. Lamson Q.C.Notary Public for the Province of Ontario ATMOACNMAIT I. xI T,~e ~ ~ ,%~, ~/~t Q2k~12JX~
6~Z~ ~ /tý71 41'ý elýCould you farm through fallout?`-!A A 3*k2*uppose the Hanford Nuclear Reactor in Washington State suffers a meltdown, spewing 7%of its radioactive core into the atmo-sphere. Winds headed east across the U.S. would bury some of this country's prime farmland in fallout-the kind that sticks around for decades.Not likely, you say? Maybe not. But the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" at one time considered it possible enough to come up with this scenario: "Truck farmers in central Idaho are told to plow under leafy vegetable crops such as spinach and lettuce [because ra-diation sticks to vegetation];
Minnesota dairy farmers are told to keep all their livestock in barns [to limit exposure and prevent grazing on contaminated forage]; in Madison, Wis., dairy sales fall 90% in response to rumors of radio-active iodine in milk ..." Depending on the time of year, pre-cipitation patterns and soil types in-volved, South Dakota's sheep could turn up radioactive years later, having grazed on forage that has confused cesium-137 and strontium-90 with po-tassium and calcium. Wyoming's beef cattle, having accumulated cesium over hundreds of acres, could measure"well-done" on a Geigercounter.
And in the Northeast, with its nutrient-poor, rock-bottomed lakes, certain fish might become the hottest food around.Over the long-run, crops like corn and wheat would be in relatively good shape becausc their leaves-not the grain itself-would hold most of the ra-dioactive particles.
22 Scientists picked the Hanford plant for good reason. It is the U.S.'s version of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy plant that melted down in Russia two years ago this month. The Hanford plant had been leaking for years. Last year, in light 6of_7i'eirobrems spotlighted by the Chernobyl accident, the Hanford plant was shut down.But nuclear plants around the world are aging, a fact that's not lost on people.who deal in food-whether they raise it or trade it.In mid-February, rumors of another nuclear accident in Russia sent domes-tic markets into a fury. Although the"nuclear" accident actually turned out to be a chemical spill, it's an example of how nuclear problems have become an everyday concern.Throughout Europe, farmers are right now living-and farming-with a situation exactly like the one outlined above.Although the Chernobyl reactor itself has since been incarcerated in concrete, the damage from it persists.
Some of the fallout's effects in agricultiuraLareas are* Cesium-saturated grazing areas in Lapland continue to contaminate thou-sands of reindeer, at an estimated cost of $182 million.* In Sweden, radioactive milk, fish and wild mushrooms are still a problem.* Northern England, Wales and Ire-land report radioactive sheep. Radioac-tive meat from Denmark has appeared in Venezuelan ports. Turkey has "'hot-hazelnuts, and West German deer have set off Geiger counters.The Chernobyl experience provides a better understanding of how farmland interacts with fallout. The accident has, in effect, offered scientists a real-world laboratory for combating radioactivity in our soils.In late-April 1986, winds carried ra-dioactive particles and gases thousands of miles from the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Plant. Rain and snow cleared the air but loaded vegetation and soils with iodine-131, cesium-134, cesium-137 and, to a lesser degree, strontium-
- 90. The fallout forced the Soviets to re-move and bury 650,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil-about 400 acres scraped one Y' deep.Today, the 18-mile zone surrounding the plant in the agriculturally important Ukraine remains highly contaminated in parts, say the Soviets, although safe enough to allow the return of some of the 115,000 evacuees.
Farming there is impossible.
But that's just a small part of the Chernobyl problem. Damage to crops, livestock and farmland ranges far from the site. Radioactivity from the acci-dent is still playing havoc with farmers'livelihoods.
Take Lapland, for instance.
A forest-ed wilderness extending across north-ern Norway, Finland, Sweden, Lapland lies about 1,100 miles from Chernobyl.
The lichen that carpet its forest floors are saturated with cesium- 137, a radio-isotope with a half-life of over 30 years F!AMA JOURNAI./A'P'ZL I988 ATT1AaIIA#EAJ7r
'I3 (that is, its radioactivity will be half as active in 30 years as today).Reindeer herded and eaten by the Lapps graze on the lichen. Swedish au-thorities have detected up to 100 times more radioactive cesium in those rein-deer than permissible.
Tens of thou-sands of reindeer have had to be fed to mink instead of sold for human con-sumption.
To lessen the economic blow, the Swedish government buys the contaminated meat at an estimated$182 million.The contamination elsewhere in Swe-den is abating. Yet some farms are today producing radioactive milk; fish in Sweden's nutrient-poor, granite-bottomed-lakes_
are showing higher and higher concentratons Ofradioactiy~e_ce-sium; and wild mushrooms-very pop-ular in Sweden-remain off limits, says Ake Bruce, nutrition expert at Sweden's National Food Administration.
It takes several years for cesium to migrate from the environment to food and then to humans. In most cases, con-centrations diminish.
In others, radio-activity can increase.
How long before it goes away? Sometimes very long.I nnortern England, sheep from 635 farms suffer from radiation levels -ex--ce6ding government safety limits, ac-cording to the Country Landowner's Association.
The problem is that the soil where these sheep graze has failed to trap the cesium. Two years ago, says Frances Livens, radiochemist at the Institute of Terrestial Ecology in Britain, "We thought the cesium would lock up in the soil in three months. We're finding that the relatively acidic soils high in organic matter can't do that." Livens speculates that it may take years before the cesium locks up in"peats and thin, nasty soils." Mean-while, hun sof thousands of sheep areban- ,d pjm ublic sale. The affected farmers may have to wait three decades before they can sell their ani-mals on the open market.Scientists have discovered that, generally speaking, the stingiest soils under the nuclear cloud's path are those most likely to offer long-term harvests of cesium-137.
That's because crops grown on poor soils will take whatever nutrients they can get. Plants on richer soils will usually choose standard ele-ments before chemically similar radio-active ones.Carl Rosen, soil scientist at the Uni-versity of Minnesota, explains that cesi-um behaves like potassium in soil. In basic soils, cesium is trapped by clay particles.
Likewise, say Swedish scien-tists, cultivated, fertilized soils rich in minerals bind cesium ions. But in poor Europe in Chernobyl's after glow' Av. Values > 10,000 Bq/sq. m.i Av. Values 5,000-10,000 Bq/sq. m.hAv. Values 1,000-5,000 Bq/sq. m.Av. Values < 1,000 Bq/sq. m.< * > 25,000 Bq/sq. m.U 10,000-20,000 Bq/sq. m..7 4,000-6,000 Bq/sq. m.+ Cows t= Fish .Denm= Sheep r=Deer Unt Netheriands
/qi= Mushrooms, ob = Hazelnuts SOURCE NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY/OECD THIS MAP SHOWS THE AVERAGE amount of cesium-137 and -134 in 1,000 becquerels per square meter, as measured on European soils from May 1986 to April 1987. Cesium concentrations are highlighted.
Since the data were gathered, some of the cesium will have washed away or have been trapped in the soil. But plants and animals are still picking up the long-lived radioactive particles, even in some low fallout areas.soils with little clay and minerals (tun-dra, sandy soils) or mostly organic mat-ter (such as peats and tropical soils), ce-sium remains available to plants.To limit the migration of cesium into the food supply, the USSR has had to deep plow, irrigate and lime hundreds of thousands of acres. Additional mea-sures, says Harold Denton, a Nuclear Regulatory Cm s:sn (NRC) direc-tor, include treating highly contaminat-ed areas with calcium to fix radionu-clides in the soil. "Then the areas might be sown with crops such as lupines that absorb radionuclides.
These crops would then be harvested and buried." Generally, cesium-137 will reside near the soils' surface unless plowed under. Thus, shallow-rooted crops like potatoes or sugar beets are more likely to be long-term problems than deep-rooted ones like grains, says Gary' Paul-sen, Kansas State agronomist.
He says contamination depends on the stage of growth and even variety: however, soy-beans, requiring more potassium than raess- s like rye, are likely to take more cesium up through their roots.In the short-run, according to George Ham, Kansas State agronomist, rice would best resist the tissue-damaging beta particles emitted by radionuclides.
Corn, sorghum, potatoes and sugar beets are moderately resistant.
Wheat, oats and barley are very sensitive.
Processing removes much of the con-tamination.
Potatoes lose radionu-clides when made into starch; in milk they are filtered out during cheese-making. Other good crops are flax or cotton, because they aren't edible. "As it happens, rye, potatoes and flax are cus-tomary crops in the soils of the Cher-nobyl area," says Denton.Fighting fallout has proved disrup-tive, costly, rarely practical and full of unknowns, say experts. Our best lab is Russia, but its experience, like its fall-out, make take years to surface. 4 23!
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)RK DISPATCH, MONDA Y, NOVEMBER 28, 1983.I ,ost 1pu-f wo, kids rapp-.Cates" 'the Irradiated pine forest a surprise KNOXVILLE,'
Tenn.(AP) -Researchers who exposed a pine forest to gamma rays 20 years ago in an experiment on the long-term effects of: a nuclear- explosion now: are trying to find out why.it took so long. for the trees to grow again.So far, only: a few seedlings have sprung up in the South Carolina.fessor, said.W hen researchers returned to the forest lasl- spring for the first time in 15ý years, they were "shocked because re'vegetation seems to haive stopped after. five yfaars," he said. 1 .I McCormick:
headed thne, research, team. that.e:xposed the forest and others to radiation in an attempt. to: discover one of the. environmental effects of a nuclear blast.-The.. researchers designed"-:
a_ radiation.
machine andfused it inW.said.Researchers monitor-ed the forest for tae first five years. after it was exposed, and. recovery seemed to be progres-sing normally, McCtar-mick said.The. Hope Diamomad,.the largest of all .blue.diamonds, 441/2 carats;, isýslightly, lopsided.
It is probably due to the bot-tom part of the tear~drop shape being Out aw~ay so the original stolen jewel)could: not' be, identified.-
lli I.j';~- \'./N' " a-1 forest, Dr. Frank McCor- 1964 to expose 40 acres on The setting is a circlet of W s. mick, a University:
of the-grounds of Savannah smaller'whitediaronds Tennessee ecology..
pro-.' River Plant, McCormick on a chain of diamoiads.
I 1'-0 10-I Sunday. Dec. 11, 1983 Philadelphia Inquirer i74 12.1 A forest in S.C. fails to recover Pine trees exposed to radiation 20 years ago By Patricia A. Paquette As'ýoialed Pr',s KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -A South Car-olina forest. exposed to radiation in an experiment 20 years ago has failed to replenish itself, and some surviving trees are not growing nor-mally, according to a University of Tennessee ecologist.
Only a few seedlings have sprung up in the affected 40 acres on the grounds of the Savannah River Plant, said Frank McCormick, who headed the research team that irra-diated the forest with gamma rays in 1964. lie now teaches ecology at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
The few seedlings were not more than four years old. and. researchers are not sure why the recovery was delayed, McCormick said.When researchers returned to the forest last spring for the first time in 15 years, they were "shocked because revegetation seems to have stopped" after the first five years following exposure.Pine trees within about 25 yards of a radiation machine, invented for the experiment, were killed. Some browned and died before the eight-day exposure was completed, he said.Farther away from the radiation source, some trees died after several years, some became sterile and some developed three or four trunks after buds on top of them were killed, McCormick said.The amount of radiation emitted during the eight days was more than six times the amount that scientists estimate would kill a human, he said.Researchers monitored the forest for the first five years after it was exposed, and recovery seemed to be progressing normally, McCormick said."Initial recovery was rapid and predictable," he said. "Honeysuckle and trumpet vines began moving in.It was expected that pine seedlings would move in next to replenish the site. That didn't happen." The weeds may have grown thicker because of the radiation and may have cut off light, so the seed-lings couldn't grow, he said. Or the trees might not have been able to reproduce."Maybe there is more uncertainty about the ecological effects of radia-tion" than scientists thought 20 years ago, he said. "We need to reduce that uncertainty." Other sites on federal land were tested in the mid-1960s, McCormick said, They include a mountain rain forest in Puerto Rico, a forest in Rhinelander, Wis., and a forest at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, about 25 miles west of Knoxville.
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C .P'~n -- -id,, ,6 o ,11.'292,1.18 UtP5R-847 11565 33,0+0.0 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF PI.,VUS STROBUS L. AND PJIVUS SILVESTRIS L. SEEDLINGS SUBJECTED TO LOW-LEVEL CONTINUOUS GAMMA IRRADIATION AT A RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL AREA K. R. CHANDORKAR and G. M. CLARK Departments of Botany and Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S IAI (Received 5 August 1985; accepted in revised form 19 November 1985)CHANDORKAR K. R. and CLARK C. NM. Physiological and morphological responses ofPinus strobus L. and Pinus sylvestris L. seedlings subjected to low-level continuous gamma irradiation at a radioactive waste disposal area. ENI,qRONMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 26, 259-270, 1986.-About 100 onie-vear old Pinus strobus and Pinus sylvestris seedlings were placed at the Welcome Residue Site (WRS,, 'a radioactive waste disposal area located near Port Hope, Ontario, and thereafter continuously exposed to an average gamma dose rate of 10.15 mR/hr. An additional 100 seedlings were placed at a nearby control site where the background dose rate was about 0.03 mR/hr. Seedlings from both locations were sampled on three occasions for the analysis of various parameters.
Data collectcd at the end of the growing season show that, although the low-level continuous irradiation treatment had not affected the chlorophyll content of the new needles of both species, it had suppressed their normal rates of apparent photosynthesis by about 16-190/o and respiration rates by about 14-23%, and had reduced 80% ethanol soluble sugar content by about 14-25%. This_treatment also suppressed stem elongation which led to considerable crowding of new ncedlcs and stimulated the outgrowth of lateral branches.
These results suggest that both the morphological responses exhibited by the irradiated seedlings and the changes observed in the physico-chemical parameters of their needles were intermediated by the effect ofcontinuous irradiation on the level of free auxin, IAA.INTRODUCTION WELCOME Residue Site (WRS) is one of several radioactive waste disposal areas maintained by Eldorado Nuclear Ltd in the immediate vicinity of Port Hope, Ontario. This area was used between 1948 and 1953 as a depository for radioactive wastes resulting from the extraction of radium from uranium ores. The refining of radium was terminated towards the end of 1953 and, for the next two years, this area was mainly used to bury the dismantled parts and machinery of the radium laboratories.
Presently it occupies a fenced-in area of about 30 hectares, of which the somewhat central, and also fenced, 5.1 hectares constitute the main radioactive waste disposal area.We first visited the WRS in the summer of 1976 to survey the types of vegetation growing within and around its perimeter and to ascertain the impact, if any, on the surrounding environment.
During this visit we found that the site was mostly colonized by a variety of grasses, mosses and weedy dicot species (Fig. 5). Radiation exposure rates in different parts of the site varied con-siderably, ranging from as low as 0.3 mRihlr in areas with thick.vegetative cover to as high as 100 mRihr around a lew barren spots. \'re also noticed a row of 10-year-old Scotch pine ýPrnus svlestris L.) trees growing along a drainage ditch 259 4 7TAcM EAfT 6 0 260 K. R. CHANDORKAR nid G. M, CLARK which flanks the southern border of the inner fence (Fig. 1). A closer examination of these trees indicated that, not only thcir normal growth and development.was siuppr:sscd, but also that they 21 : exhibited a variety of anom)alouts.
growth-l__re-
.sponses such as witches' brooming, needle fusion and marked thickening ofstems and needles (Figs 2 and 3). Other than these modifications, the trees did not exhibit nutritional deficiency or chemical toxicity symptoms as judged by the coloration of needles; in spite of the fact that the soil was known-. to be heavily contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic, uranium and thorium. G.amrna__exposure rates in the vicinity of these trees.ranged from about 0.3 to 1.2 mR/hr, which suggested that the total dose which they had accumulated in nine years at this site was apprwxiimatel-y-.-25---
100 R.Symptomatic of radiation damage as these responses were, it was not clear at this time whether they were induced by (1) continuous low-level external gamma radiation, or (2) low-level internal alpha and beta irradiation from the absorption of alpha-emitting nuclides and their decay products, or (3) the combination of both.Evidence that these responses may not have been caused by internal alpha and beta irradia-tion or by arsenic toxicity was provided by sub-sequent investigations.
Using the technique of activation analysis, it was found that in aqueous extracts ofseveral soil samples taken from the base of these trees the concentration of the alpha-emitting nuclides and arsenic was well below the level that is considered toxic to plants, and that the content of each of these elements in the stems, needles, cones and seeds of these trees was essen-tially comparable to similar tissues of trees grow-ing at a nearby uncontaminated site. Although these analyses suggested that anomalous growth responses exhibited by these trees may have been induced by low-level continuous gsmma irradi-ation, such a possibility appeared unlikely be-cause reference to literature suggested that con-tinuous gamma irradiation at such dose rates (i.e.0.3-1.2 mRihr) should have had little effect on the growth and development of these trees, even after several years of exposurei.(19)
It was therefore concluded that further assessment of the pheno-menon was warranted and, hence, this study was initiated.
VVhile this study was well under way, in the summer of 1981 Eldorado Nuclear Ltd initiated work to retop the WRS with uncontaminated soil in order to reduce further deterioration through wind and water erosion. When ihis work was completed towards the "end of 1982, the background dose rate over most of the area was re-duced to about 2-2.5 mR/hr and that in the vicin-ity of the border trees to about 0.03-0.05 mR/hr.Since then, most of the Pinus svlvestris trees have been growing at a much faster rate than that which they exhibited before 1981 (Fig. 4), in-dicating that continuous external gamma irradi-ation with an average dose rate as low as 1 mR/hr could have suppressed the growth and develop-ment of these trees.METHODS Plant material One-year-old Pinus strobus L. (white pine) and P. sylvestris L. (Scotch pine) seedlings were ob-tained from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Nursery in Orono, Ontario. About 250-300 seedlings of each species were lifted from their seed-beds before budbreak and brought to the Department of Botany, University of Toronto, along with a sufficient amount of their seed-bed soil. From these lots about 100 seedlings of each species were selected for uniformity in height and these were transplanted st/ro-foam cups using the Orono nursery soil. They were then fertilized with 'heavy' phosphate nutri-ent solution (N: P: K-10: 50: 10, Plant Products Co. Ltd, Bramalea, Ontario) and transferred to two adjacent cold frames in an outdoor lot where they were maintained for 10-15 days under diffused light and watered as required.
Seedlings ofP. strobus and P. sylvestris were transplanted and transported to the WRS at Port Hope, Ontario on 16 May 1978 and 8 May 1979, respectively.
Expcrimnntal arrangement and dsimctlr Of the total number of seedlings of each species taken to Port Hope, half was transferred to a wooden platform (height 30.5 cm, width 40.7 cm and length 244 cm) which was placed near the eastern inner fence of the WRS lFigs 5 aiid 6)."lhe remaining were transferred mo a similar 261 ,., FiGSs 1-4. Photographs of P. svlvesiris trecs growing at the Welcome Residue Site.Fig, 1. A row of I l-year-old P. sylvestris trees growing along the southern edge ofthe inner fence of WRS. Taken 1978. Fig. 2. Branch showing a witches' broom type of growth resulting from suppression ofnmain-shoot extension and outgrowth oflateral buds. Fig. 3. Branch showing thickened stem. abnormal (fused and thickened) needles and reduced stem elongation.
Fig. 4. Trcc showing marked changes in growth pattern alter WRS was covered with uncontaminated soil in 1981, lowering the dlose rate to 0.03 to 0.05 inR/lhr. Arrow marks height at which 1981 growth1I.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
&OBSERVATIONS OF PLANT GROWTH ABNORMALITIES IN NORTH WEST QUADRANT OF THREE MILE ISLAND Mary Osborn 1/14/85 (revised & crrtd 2/85)(~Io~je5 fpo o I)Am7c#ME'ff 76 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
& OBSERVATIONS OF Since the spring of '79, I have observed, collected and photographed Z abnormal growth of flora in the areas around Three Mile Island. Regardless, or in spite of the arguments of how much radiation did or didn't get out, if 0 chemicals were released, or even a combination of both -these are my findings and experiences since the early days of the TMI accident.First I will restate some of my experiences (I will not get into the reports of farm animals & pets, birds, insects or bumble bees dying or dis-appearing following the accident).
I live in the northwest quadrant of TMI, in Swatara Township, approximately 61 miles away from the plant, Between Harrisburg and Three Mile Island (near the Host Inn, see: NUREG 0600, figure 11-3-6). b'-4 On Wednesday, 3/28/79 at six o'clock in the morning, my husband and I z were outdoors.
We had a clean metallic taste at that time. (Our taste was not coppery or rusty or like burning galvanized steel as others have reported)
M My son and I were outdoors from 7:45 am to 10:00 am; later that day we both had sunburn effects on our hands and faces. DI---Thursday, 3/29/79, we drove to the west shore, to Ashcombe Vegetable t Farm near Grantham, to just get-away for a while. During that drive I had tearing and burning of my eyes. It was so bright, it hurt to see. I did not connect the skin and eye burns to the accident, although we joked about the z metallic taste sometime later as being vaporized metal from the accident.
Q Friday, 3/30/79 (or black Friday as we call it now) after hearing sirens, -,U church bells and the radio news of uncontrolled radiation releases from Three Mile Island, we evacuated.
m The next week, on Tuesday evening, my husband and I returned home for -winter clothing, medicine and teddy bears. During our brief two hour trip home I encountered an "unusual event" -the problem I observed was the accelerated growth of my umbrella plant (genus cyperus).
New growth, fresh Z green in color, had appeared -more than a 3" x 5" card within 5 days! o (Friday to Tuesday)We evacuated for eight days. Sometime later (I don't remember how many days), while giving my two year old a bath, I noticed a "small wad" of hair in the tub. His hair had thinned, you could see his scalp. (I think all of us in my family had some amount of hair loss and have met women from Middletown saying the same happened to them.)That spring, one pinkish tulip had a petal growing 2" down on the stem. In the spring of 1980 that tulip "branched", it had two tulips on one stem. This has not occured since that time. -In May of 1979, my daughter picked a bunch of wild field daisies, with two grossly deformed flowers among them. I also found three dandelions in my back yard that appeared to be similarly deformed.
I have found many of these (n every year since 1979. (My neighbor who lived here over 25 years had never 0 (n 0 (n 0-0 0--I-observed this before. I have lived here since 1969 and had never observed this either, anywhere).
In the fall of '79, my children picked up leaves from the front yard, to do crayon "rubbings".
The leaves would not fit under a sheet of 81/2" x 11" paper. One leaf would not fit where two or three used to.I have also found abnormalities on the west 'shore, in the areas of the Aamodt Health Study. The plants were found easily by observing shapes or colors that weren't normal.In May of '84, Marjorie Aamodt and I took some of the specimens collected to a botanist, Dr. James Gunckel. He is the "world authority on modifications of plant growth and development induced by ionizing radiations". (See his affidavit attached, from the Aamodt Health Survey.) At that time Dr. Gunckel gave us two reprints of his research and mentioned clues as to what additional effects or symptoms to look for; thickening of leaves, leathery leaves, unusual dwarfing, multiple leaf axils (stimulations), reversion (vegetative-floral growth back and forth), etc.To date, I have found plant abnormalities in these areas around TMI: Londonderry Township, Derry Township, Lower Swatara Township, Fairview Township, Harrisburg, Newberry*Township, Swatara Township and Upper Allen Township.The plants I've found are: daisies, dandelions, chrysanthemums, pyrethrum, sunflower, forsythia, marigolds, crown vetch, maple leaves, redbud leaves, rose leaves, queen anne's lace, corn tassels, some common weeds and a few others.Also, very unusual growth patterns on two pine trees and dandelion leaves 31" long. (see list and sketches attached)I cannot say "all" abnormalities found were caused by radiation or chemicals from the Three Mile Island accident, but I believe the fallout from the accident has caused most of the effects I've seen...The fact that abnormalities are being found 5 years after the accident raises serious questions
........Is there something in the soil now that is causing these effects? Is the plant releasing enough from clean-up or Unit 1 testing to cause this now?Has the Chinese Bomb Fallout and weapons testing combined with years of continuous radiation releases from TMI done irreversable harm to our environ-ment? To our babies, children or families?
To our animals, plants, water, air and earth? What Environmental Impact Statement
?A key point to make is the finding that these abnormalities, modifications, or mutations occured in the same areas where people have reported having the metallic taste, skins burns, and other accident related symptoms.
We have found people, animal and plant effects in the same areas where symptoms were reported at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
They have been discount-ed by some "experts" but not all. The fact is there is still no other explanation to these terrible effects. Everything I've found seems to tie into the accident and the more one learns the more this seems to be true.
I GLOSSARY ADVENTITIOUS BUDS: Buds formed where it shouldn't be, from tissues that shouldn't form a bud.AXIL: Angle between leaf or leafstalk and the stem that carries it. Any new growth or flower bud that arises from an axil is called axillary.BLIND SHOOT: Where normal tip of shoot that would normally have leaves or flower, but it doesn't; it just forms a long shoot tip without leaves or flowers.BUD: A condensed shoot, often protected by overlapping scales. A growth bud contains embryo leaves. A flower bud contains embryo flowers or flower clusters.CHLOROSIS:
A condition in which leaves become unnaturally pallid, whitish or yellow. Usually due to lack of essential minerals.DIFURCATION:
Branching into two.FASCIATION:
Multiple stems from multiple buds.MARGIN: The edge or boundary of any plant organ -most often applied to the border area of a leaf. (margin deformity see Redbud leaves.)MORPHOGENETIC ABNORMALITIES:
Form abnormalities.
VACUOLATION:
Formation of a largely water filled cell.Abnormalities have been observed Island since the spring of 1979: LOCATION CODE* (see following page)DT DERRY TOWNSHIP E ETTERS FT FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP H HARRISBURG L LISBURN LT LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP in the following areas around Three Mile LST LOWER SWATARA TOWNSHIP M MECHANICSBURG NT NEWBERRY TOWNSHIP 0 OBERLIN ST SWATARA TOWNSHIP UAT UPPER ALLEN TOWNSHIP note-There have been other reports of strange or unusual plant growth in the TMI area since the accident.
Abnormalities are not limited to locations mention-ed here. My observations are up to the period of January 1985 and have been found as far as 15 miles from Three Mile Island. In many instances the findings seem to follow the "plume" pathways as evidenced by the reports of exposure at time of the accident by human dosimeters.
Abnormalities/mutations occur in nature, it is the frequency of these occurences that merits attention and concern.
OBSER VAT IONS TYPE OF PLANT LOfATION*ARNnRMAI TTh' flRSFRvFf CHRYSANTHEMUMS CORN CORNFLOWER CROWN VETCH DAISY DANDELION DANDELION LEAVES FORSYTHIA MAPLE LEAVES MAPLE TREE MAPLE TREES MARIGOLDS ONION/GARLIC WEED PINE TREES PYRETHRUM QUEEN ANNE'S LACE REDBUD LEAVES ROSE ROSE LEAVES SPIDERWORT UAT DT, E ST ST E, ST E,ST,O,H,M FT E, LST E,L,ST,LST ST, FT LST, ST, FT FT ST, LST E, ST ST ST, LT ST LST LST, ST NT,ST MULTIPLE BUDS.SEX REVERSAL.WHITE, SHOULD BE BLUE (CHLOROSIS?).
CHLOROSIS (FRENCH VANILLA COLOR).STEM FASCIATION, tUT CU AXILLARY FLOWER HEAD.DEFORMED FLOWER HEADS, MULTIPLE BLOOMS.HUGE, 31" LONG.MULTIPLE BUDS.MARGIN ABNORMALITY, THICK & LEATHERY, PUCKERED, CHLOROSIS, SOME DWARFED, SOME HUGE.BLIND SHOOTS, EXCESS SEEDS (WOULD NOT SPROUT).DEAD AREAS ABOUT 15' IN DIAMETER AS IF "PLUME" WENT THRU.STUNTED, STEM FASCIATION, NO FLOWER PETALS, ALL FLORETS, LEATHERY LEAVES.REVERSION.
UNUSUAL GROWTH PATTERN FOR PINE CONES, UN-USUAL MASSIVE GROWTH.STEM FASCIATION, THICK LEATHERY LEAVES.PINKISH FLOWERS, WOODY STEM.MARGIN ABNORMALITIES.
WHITE ROSE ON ALL YELLOW BUSH.LEAF FUSION, STUNTING, CHLOROSIS, AXILLARY BUDS FORMED.EXTRA PETALS & STAMENS.SUNFLOWER E, L, ST STEM FASCIATION, AXILLARY BUDS.WRONG COLOR (CHLOROSIS?).
YELLOW BUSH TYPE WEED ST*see previous page for location code (A)(B)(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)AXILLARY FLOWER HEAD STEM FASCIATION DEFORMED INFLORESCENCE, NORMAL SIDE VIEW NORMAL TOP VIEW TOP VIEW (D)(Shape and form characteristics are similar in dandelion, sunflower, chrysanthemum and daisy)5/84 Swatara Twp, Etters area-FIELD DAISIES A,B,C, CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE D, ENLARGED (A)(C)(o)A, B, 5/82 OBERLIN C, 7/82 HARRISBURG D, 8/84 SWATARA TWP.AREA (A)(B) DEFORMED FLOWER HEAD (C) DOUBLE BLOOM (D) NO DEFORMITY DANDELION CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE 9/84~SWPITPRA TWP.A~REA NO DEFORMITY CHRYSANTHEMUM CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE (B)9/21/84 about 14 miles n/w AREA (A) MULTIPLE BUDS (8) PETALS CHRYSANTHEMUM CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE (A)(A)4/83 ETTERS& QE (A) MULTIPLE _!-UDS T 7 CLOSE TO ACTUAL SIZE 1T /2/ 5 NORMAL TWIG ACTUAL SIZE (A)(A)'N K'N 7/l1e/P.--
M n, Zýý ' N PEEOC~f-ITTY ( C-C: TE LE P cc 4flT DEVELOPED ACTUAL ESZE N 10Q/84~SWATARP W ARE C NO DEFORMITY MAPLE LEAF ACTUAL E:ZE (6)7/8/4 SWATAR4 -WP.AREA4 (A) NO DEFORMITIES (B)(C) MARGIN DEFORMITIES REDBUD LEAVES ACTUAL SIZE (A)7/84j SWATARA TlP.A~REA (DECAPPED?
& THEN)AXILLARY BUDS DEVELOPED BLAZE ROSE BULIH ULUS'L IL LAL IUAL bIlZ (A)(B)(C)6/81, A-, B, LC 1 E:-:R SWATAPP C, St,.§TAPf\
TWP.FUSED LEAVES ROSE BUSH SEX REVERSAL (MALE TASSEL PRODUCING FEMALE CORN)TASSEL OF CORN 9/84, 8/E2 ETTERS, HERSHEY R.D.AREA REVERSION WILD GARLIC/ONION WEED 9/82 SWATARA, LOWER SWATARA AREA
,I The Scribbler,,,"'
Boyeorge orn, Another Agricultural Oddity of thie- eason Weehave reported on a few of the weird plants That ,issued from this most abundant of growing.seasons, and we 1 now have.the 1984 garden winner. The envelope, please. Mellors.And the winner is: sexual-. -' -ly confused corn. This has been aripesyear for what ordinarily is a rare~abnormality:-.tassels producing their own ears.Lou Gable, a deputy game -" -'i-, warden of Columbia R2, spot-ted -some of this strange corn Jac " on aMountville-area farm not .a ,' ,.long, ago. 'ie informed Penn Brubaker'State extension agent Arnold Lueck. Lueck'has since heard-about several other outbreaks.
.A brief explanation.
for city slickeri:
CorA is btsexual.Tbe 1tassel is t-ale organi. The ear is the female organ. The tassel.sheds pollen on the ear, and the ear makes baby kernels." That's what happens under normaI circumnstances.
Abnormal- :..._Jy, on rare.occasions, male tassels change sex sand produce their own .4 miniature ears with kernels -as if they didnti need the regular ears at Nobody knows precisely' wh*y.this happens. Lucck says All is*spe-culatiun.
especially3rthis Year when the abnormality is relatively
- widespread.
."-The affected plants likely ex-perienced some kind of environ-mental shock," he notes, "as ex-treme cold or-a virus infection.
" Such conditions have been known to produce sex. change, in corn plants." The corn Gable. spotted, and which is pictured here, is field corn. Lueck says he has also seen the ah~rration in sweet corn. (The Corn tassels that gave Scribbler once spied a mirage with birth to their own ears onr- white, sequined glove dancing -in his bowl of corn flakes, but we're not going to develop that themne.)
t2...I.'Ar C* I 5 p.-4.; ~*11 Record find?Erma and Donald Croce of Hershey hope their find will mushroom into a record breaker. The couple pulled the 55-pound specimen from a stump in a field along Route 322 just east of Hershey yesterday.
They plan to have the mushroom -which they claim is edible -weighed and measured at Lebanon Valley College before submitting statistics for possible inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records.-J6-Below are excerpts from the booklets Dr. Gunckel gave us. This explains why even knowledgeable people have difficulty in accepting the fact that radiation damage occurred in the plants around TMI.Most of the radiation effects described are quantitatively rather than qualitatively different from those known to occur in unirradiated plants. (273)You have nothing that is not known in nature -you seem to be speeding up the frequency of these events. (279)Most, if not all, radiation induce effects are teratological responses observed in nature, but the frequency of such events is markedly accelerated.
(373).A large variety of leaf anomalies has been noted in irradiated plants. In any given species, one or more of the following changes may appear; dwarfing, thickening, roughened or uneven texture, puckering of blade, curling of leaf margins, distorted venation, fusions, cup-shaped or tubular leaves, color changes, and premature abscission.
(272)Irradiated flowering plants may show: increased height, thick-ening & fasciation of floral stalks, delayed and/or reduced flowering, premature or increased flowering, color changes and somatic changes, or high degree of sterility and modification in form and number of floral parts. (597)Fasciation of stems, while not uncommon in unirradiated plants occurs so frequently in irradiated plants that it may be considered a typical radiation effect. (375)It should be emphasizedthat the results for one species should not be extrapolated to another, as the responses of different species or even different forms or varieties within a species may vary. (595) An example was given-if you have an apple orchard with many aifferent kinds of apple trees, and they were all exposed to equal doses of radiation, some trees could be injured while other trees are unaffected.
Dr. Gunckel and Dr. Sparrow wrote in 1961, "it is obvious that the naturally occuring ionizing radiations were producing their biological effects since time immemorial, and that the cumulative effects of these radiations might conceivably be of considerable evolutionary significance.
The recent concern over small increases in background radiation due to radioactive fallout reflects the opinion of many biologists that an increase in the background level of radiation, if continued over long periods of time, may produce significant biological effects, mainly genetic."
Publications of James E. Gunckel IV. The Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Plants: Morphological Effects, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol 32, No. 1, March 1957 Modifications of Plant Growth and Development Induced by Ionizing Radiations, Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, Vol XV/2, 1965 Aberrant Growth in Plants Induced by Ionizing Radiation, with Arnold H. Sparrow, Abnormal and Pathological Plant Growth, Brookhaven Symposia in Biology No. 6 (1954)Ionizing Radiations:
Biochemical, Physiological and Morphological Aspects of their Effects on Plants, with A. H. Sparrow, Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, Vol XVI, 1961_V7>ýI t j i 7~DJ (~1 ')&.)
The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club Editor-in-Chief:
James E. Gunckel 11i1dole Al.-I.. N 1lllU R:ay 32, 29,4 AFFIDAVIT 9 I hove carefully examined a few specimens of cammon plants, collected shortly after the accident at TRI and compared them with specimens collected more recently.
The current abnormalities are probably carEi ed forward by induced chromcsomal aberrations.
There were a number of anomalies enti rely ccmparable to those induced by ionizing radiation
-- stem fasciations, growth stimulaticn, induction of extra vegetative buds and stem tumors.Most of the stem abnormalities described in the literature, and In my own experience, are induced by relativply high doses of X or gEmma rays extending over a period of usually 2-3 months. Notable exceptions, however, are similar.responses to beta ray exposure from radioisotopes (p 3 2 , Zn65, CaS) and for only. 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />. In other words, it would have been possible for the types of plant abnoraalities observed to have beeh induced by radioactive fallout on March 29, 1979.In discussing the general biolocal effects of irradiation, some clari-fication may be helpful. In plants, the dose rate (e.g*, mr/hr) is much more Important than total dose (e.g., mr/yr) in inducing abnormalities.
Further, the "quality factor" for gamma and beta radiation is not the same as generally assumed. In fact, I have Incontrovertible experimental results to show that beta rays are at least a quality factor of two in plarts.I am the world authority on modifications of plant growth and development induced by ionizing radiations, having researched this area for 34 years at the Brockhaven National laboratory and at .Rutgers University.
The three review papers appended attest to my expertise.
tjanle F.Ounckel P. ?1.
State' s TMI study c'louded-ey method doubts by surv U By Frank Lynch§uniiail The state's recently released study of health effects of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident may, have been flawed by expanding the survey areas beyond the pre-scribed five- and 10-mile zones.According to 1980 census fig-ures, the state Department of Health included 28,610 people who live farther than five miles from the Londonderry Twp. plant in the population listed for those who live within five miles.Another 122,000 people who.A , * *live farther than 10 miles from the plant were included in the popula-tion of those living "withini" 10 miles.THE RESULT, according to ep-idemiologists and statisticians con-tacted by the Sunday Patriot-News, is that if there actually were adverse health effects such as increased cancer cases among those living close. to the plant, the fivures would be diluted by ex-.panding the base population."It seems like a strange thing toQ," said Dr. Robert A. Hult-quist, Pennsylvania State Univer-sity professor of statistics. "I think you would substantially dilute [as-sumed cancer rates] to get even a few miles away." Dr. George Hutchison, Harvard professor of epidemiology, con-curv'ed."Let's suppose there is an ex-I Areas included in 5-mile populal tion study Areas included in 10-mile popul cess cancer rate [in the five-mile zone], and not excess rate beyond the five-mile zone," he said. "The lareer nooulation would dilute the ago, concluded that no adverse health effects had been found so far in people who live around TMI, site of the nation's worst commer-cial nuclear accident on March 28, 1979.Comparing census figures with ation study the totals listed by the Health De-partment, 44 percent of the popu-lation figured in the five-mil'e statistics live outside that zone, wr, while 42 percent of those said to beb, .,, See STAlE'S-Page A10 6 overall cancer rate.'THE STUDY, released a month A I0-#uttbaUi Patriot-,eews, Harrisburg, Pa., October 6, 1985 I State s TMI study clouded erry St. Hbg 561-1209 ,1.% Discount to Sr. Citizens:'qA.F/LA2fo o 6 c7rj DR. MALCHODI & DR. KLEIN, DDS R.D. BOX 35A 204-206 MUMPER LANE LEWISBERRY 938-1415 DILLSBURG 233-8044, 432-9762 10% Discount Offered To All Sr. Citizens.3t 2 3 ?.'7P/From Page Al"within" the 1 0-mile zone actually live farther away.For example, all of Lower Pax-ton Twp.'s 34,830 residents were included in the 10-mile figures, al-though only 2.000 of them live in the sliver of the township inside the 10-mile radius. Some Lower Paxton Twp. residents live as far as 16 miles from the plant.Health Department officials defend the way they gathered their data. They say the data were not diluted by the excess popula-tion included, and that the study could not have been conducted had they attempted to stay close to the imaginary 5- and 10-mile zones.'"IT WOULD be a tremendous job. almost humanly impossible" to conduct such a study, said Ed-ward Digon, principal author of the report and chief of the depart-ment's special studies section, divi-sion of epidemiology research.Digon said the report should have noted that some of the people included in the study live outside the zones. Such a notation had been included in an early draft that he wrote, but was deleted during the editing process. Leaving the explanation out, he said, was an"error." But Digon stressed that there was not an increase in cancer. He said the four communities entirely.4 A JIK__A 'N within the five-mile zone had about the same number of cancer deaths as would have been expect-ed.Health Department spokesman Bill Lindeberg said, "We think we have a pretty solid report, and we stand on it." TMI'S UNIT 2 reactor overheated and released some ra-dioactivity into the environment in March 1979. Government experts and scientists have said not enough radiation escaped to trigger any significant health problems.But doubts have persisted over the last six years.Norman and Marjorie Aamodt, formerly of Chester County, and now of Lake Placid, N.Y., conduct-ed a study latt year that concluded the number of local people dying from cancer increased sevenfold since the accident.
Of 3 .5'7re-r6.
Meanwhile, the Columbia (N.Y.) University Department of Epidemiology is conducting a two-year, $420,000 study of pregnancy outcomes and cancer rates since the accident.And the Health Department will continue to monitor cancer cases in the area for future studies.THE MOST recent study was made to find out what, if any, health effects were suffered by residents living certain distances from the plant. Five- and 10-mile zones were selected for compari-son purposes.Digon noted that death certifi-cates and cancer incidence infor-mation from the state's Cancer Re-gistry, are available according to"minor civil division" -or by township and borough.Since the minor civil divisions,_
do not align with the five- and 10-'mile circles, officials included all of a division in the study even if only part of it is within the de- y scribed zone. Aei t/)hDr (Yd6 Digon said it was decided to use. the divisions
-even though their use inflates the population numbers -because it will be easi-er to conduct follow-up studies."YOU COULD do it [try to di-vide the divisions to stay close to the zone circles].
But you can't do that for too many years because the reference books [needed to keep track of residents]
would fill up a room," he said. .?Therefore, he said future comr-parison studies also will include those living outside the zones.Harvard's Hutchison said that to do a study expeditiously, "there is a good argument for using town-ships and boroughs rather than us-ing areas defining a circle around Three Mile Island." But he said that that study method should have been de-scribed in the report. "If there is not any footnote [explaining that some areas are actually not within the described zones], then you have a problem." m mu m Anti-nuclear-protests spread PARIS (AP) -About 3,000 people, chanting to the strains of accordion music, marched through Paris on Monday to protest France's resumption of nuclear test blasts in the South Pacific.Several hundred anti-nu-clear protesters also demon-strated Monday in Orleans in central France, Rennes in the west,, and Poitiers and Agen in the southwest.
'Il The protests were small by French standards, in-volving far fewer people than the typical union, stu-dent or other anti-govern-ment demonstration.
But they were still one of the largest shows of opposition yet in France to nuclear testing./f 1Pý /J~I 4 L 6 f // /9 4