Feds to examine dumps for radioactivity

By CHARLES C. RYAN

WOBURN - While all of the federal and private officials contacted believe the uranium ore which was dumped in North Woburn is low-grade and safe, no one knows, exactly, what its uranium content is.

After a month of talking with various officials, the Daily Times hasn't found one who can say exactly what grade of ore was experimented with during the 10 years such work was done at the Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center on Holton Street at the Woburn-Winchester line.

In fact, at first, officials did not believe any ore was dumped in North Woburn at the old dump, and then felt that if any was disposed of there, it would only have been a pound or two of material.

Steven H. Brown, a former director of the facility when it was operated by National Lead Laboratories recalls that the lab worked, with very small laboratory quantities of material.

"It was low-level material, " Brown said, "There was only about 4 to 6 pounds of uranium per ton."

All the other former directors and employees agree with Brown, but, they, and Brown also note they don't know for certain what the exact uranium content of the ore was.

Edward Bernat, who worked as a maintenance man through the tenure of American Cynamid, National Lead, U.S. Public Health and FDA (Food and Drug Administration) remembers that even though only a pound or two at a time was worked with inside the lab, the ore was shipped to Winchester in 55 gallon drums.

Over the 10 years from 1950 to 1960, when the actual research work was going on, the barrels stockpiled until there were about 50 barrels of ore sitting behind the lab when it came time to close down the research operations.

No license

Yet, even though the lab was operated under a direct contract with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), no one contacted has been able to find the records of that operation.

This is partly the case because a number of years ago, the AEC was terminated and its former functions were divided between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

After a number of phone calls to NRC offices in Prussia, Pa., New York and Washington, D.C., no records were found going back to when the research work was done.

Finally, after checking the NRC records, William Nickson of the NRC Fuel Cycle Safety and Licensing Division, reported, there was never a license issued to either American Cynamid or National Lead for the Winchester facility.

"We don't have any records on it," he said.

A similar problem was encountered with the Department of Energy. After going through various offices, Jim Alexander and Lee Keller at the DOE office in Oakridge, Tenn. were unable to find any of the old records.

They, and the NRC, however, did find evidence of a visit to the site by a DOE team in January of 1977. During that year, some 130 sites used in various phases of nuclear research were examined for background radiation. The Winchester facility, itself, was found to be free of any undue contamination.

The actual records of the operation during the 10 years from 1950 to 1960 however, still haven't been located.

Dick Unwin, a spokesman for NL Industries in New York, (National Lead's corporate headquarters) said, "We don't have any records on it. The AEC kept all the records. We were working for them."

Unwin also said he did not see how 50 barrels of ore could have been put in the dump. "A chemist who worked there said they only worked with a pound or two at a time," said the NL spokesman.

"It wouldn't be done today"

Until recently, it has been believed that exposure to low levels of radiation over a long period of time was safe.

Employees at nuclear power plants, research facilities, shipyards, which built nuclear submarines, and miners who are monitored on a regular basis, can receive an average of 5,000 millirems per year. But, according to Clayton French at the University of Lowell, an unmonitored person, an average citizen should not be exposed to more than 1,250 millirems per year of whole body radiation. Radon gas, he said, would be picked up by the lungs, which, under present NRC regulations can take a higher exposure than that.

In recent years, however, studies of shipyard workers, and U.S. Army personnel exposed to radiation have indicated that those levels of radiation previously considered safe may not be.

Though no definite results are in and further testing is being conducted, it may be that a "safe" level of radiation exposure is much lower than previously thought.

In the 1940s and 1950s, certainly, none of the experts would consider low-grade uranium ore to be a problem or a possible health hazard.

Even so, Paul Bolin, present Director of the FDA facility is surprised that the ore was disposed of in the dump on New Boston Street, Woburn.

"I felt people would have been pretty careful about it, but the concerns were different at that time" said Bolin.

"What they thought was legitimate to do, we might feel differently about now," he said.

Arthur Whitman, with the DOE feels that the disposal of uranium ore in the North Woburn dump probably does not constitute any immediate health hazard, but he did indicate that the area should be tested to determine just what kind of radiation is being emitted.

Whitman noted that in Cannonsburg, Pa., an area used to dispose of uranium tailings -- the remains left after the uranium is extricated from the ore -- has since become a problem.

The site in question had been used as a disposal area since the turn of the century and several tons of the ore had accumulated. In fact, Whitman said that it was being used back when the Curies were conducting their work on radium.

In the time since the dumping area was closed and now it has become the site of an industrial park and a number of buildings have been constructed on top of the uranium tailings.

Very high concentrations of radon gas have since been discovered inside many of those buildings.

A major concern in Woburn will be to determine exactly where the uranium ore presently is, whether it is still at the site of the old dump on New Boston Street, or, whether it was moved to the new dump on Merrimac Street when the material from the old dump was excavated in 1973.

Lee Keller with the DOE in Oakridge, Tenn. has stated that DOE personnel will be examining the site sometime within the month.

State becomes involved

The state, too, is getting into the act.

Bruce Maillet, Chief of the Division of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE) has notified the Massachusetts Department of Public Health of the possibility that the uranium ore is at either of the two dumpsites in North Woburn.

Mailett has also been in touch with Woburn Board of Health Chairman Francis O. Ryan who has drafted a report he has sent to Mayor Thomas M. Higgins.

Unlike the arsenic and chromium pits found on industriplex land in North Woburn, DEQE does not conduct its own site studies of radioactive material, which is why the information was referred to by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

At this point in time, however, both state and federal agencies really can't say much until the areas where the ore may have been dumped are tested for radioactivity and radon gas emission.

Only then, will the agencies involved know whether or not the material can be left where it is.

If the radiation level does prove to be low or undetectable against normal background radiation, if no buildings have been built on top of the ore, and if there is little or no radon gas detected, then the ore will be left where it is.

If radiation readings higher than normal background radiation are detected, and if those readings do indicate some long-term potential health hazard, then decisions will be made on a different level.

Again, the biggest determining factor will be where the ore is found.

If it is in an open field, then it is unlikely it will constitute any danger, even if the radiation levels are slightly higher than normal.

But if it is under an existing building, the problem may be more serious, but even then, the level of radon gas and its daughter gases may still be well below the levels found in buildings constructed largely from native granite and below the levels considered safe for human exposure.

According to Don Hendricks, with the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Radiation in Las Vegas, Nev., the normal background radiation for the Woburn area is about 86.7 millirems per year. Boston has a background radiation of 86.6 and Lowell has a background radiation of 86.8 millirems per year.

The national average is closer to 50 millirems per year, according to Dr. Kenneth Skrable at Lowell University, so the higher background radiation levels in this area reflect the fact that the granite and underlying earth's crust in this part of the state has a higher concentration of uranium, radium and radon gas than other parts of the country - all natural radiation.

Everything now will depend on what is found when the two dumping sites are tested by the Department of Energy.