Chasing a 'Radioactive Ghost'

By CHARLES C. RYAN

WOBURN - The first inkling that there might have been radioactive materials disposed of in the North Woburn dump came to light about a month ago at a regular meeting of the Woburn City Council.

During the course of the Council's discussion with representatives from the State Division of Environmental Quality Engineering about the arsenic and chromium waste pits found in North Woburn, Councilor Gene English asked if the DEQE knew anything about radioactive material being dumped in North Woburn.

English explained that he had been told by a former North Woburn resident that the man had observed U.S. Army personnel disposing of some radioactive material in the New Boston Street dump.

With the public already concerned and alarmed about the discovery of the chromium, lead and other toxins in North Woburn, the Daily Times reporter, myself, decided not to publish English's statement.

The decision was not made lightly because it is a newspaper's job to report what happens, particularly what happens in the public arena, but - without some kind of verification with hard evidence it would have been irresponsible to cause unnecessary alarm.

Instead a detailed search was conducted to see if there was any truth at all to English's statement.

Since the facility in nearby Winchester was named as the possible source of this radioactive material, the search began there.

The answer was "No. We don't believe so, but ..."

It seemed before the Food and Drug Administration moved to Winchester, the plant was operated by American Cynamid and National Lead Laboratories under contracts with the Atomic Energy Commission from 1950 to 1961.

In 1961, the U.S. Public Health service took over.

It was then learned that the contracts given out by the AEC involved research in finding methods of extracting uranium from low-grade American and Canadian uranium ore.

National Lead was called, but there were no records of the facility except a corporate annual report which indicated the facility was being operated in 1960 by National Lead under contract with the AEC.

The nuclear Regulatory Commission was called. The answer was again, no. But there was a press release in 1978, showing the lab to be clean of radioactive contamination.

The army was called at Fort Devens. No, they had no record of Army personnel being involved in any waste disposal, but they would check with Washington. Try the Army base at Watertown Arsenal.

The Arsenal had no information, except that their decommissioned small research nuclear reactor was safe and, no, it was not putting any radioactivity into the river. (They weren't even asked that question, since the reporter had been unaware that there was a decommissioned reactor there).

Calls were then made to the Department of Energy, back to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, back to DOE, back to NRC, etc.

Then back to Winchester where it was learned someone vaguely remembered something being taken to a dump -- they thought it may have been in North Woburn - sometime in the mid 1950s. No, they didn't know how much.

The phone calls were begun again. This time searching for persons who had formerly been employed at the facility when it was operated by National Lead and American Cynamid.

Eventually, a few names cropped up. Each was tracked down. Almost all of them had retired, didn't remember anything, or referred the inquiry to another name.

Another call to Winchester. Maybe it wasn't in the 1950s. Maybe it was in 1960, they said. Try so-and-so.

So-and-so had just retired, but the person with the NRC in New York called him at home, was then referred to someone in Oakridge, Tenn. at the DOE.

Several people were spoken to and the search narrowed.

Then Oakridge called back a week or so later.

So and so recalls that there were 25 to 50 glass pint jars of ore which were disposed of.

It seems they were first taken to a private landfill, but the person who owned it took a look at the glass jars and decided perhaps he didn't want that kind of fill, then the material was taken to North Woburn.

So there was some ore dumped in North Woburn, the DOE said, but nothing to worry about. Even so someone will run some tests up there the next time we have a team in that area sometime with the next year.

The man who had remembered the glass jars was at the U.S. FDA Health Lab in Winchester. All stories lead back to where they began, it seems.

A call was placed. "What can you tell me about the glass jars that were disposed of in the Woburn dump? What kind of ore? Was it refined? Tailings?"

"Well actually the person you should talk to about that is Mr. Bernat."

When Edward Bernat was asked about the glass pint jars he seemed surprised.

There were drums of ore stored in the backyard when the facility closed down, he said.

"How many? Two? Five?"

"No. More than that. There was about 50. I can't be sure, but there were approximately that many. We got a dump truck and they were emptied and transported up to the dump on (New) Boston Street. We took all our stuff up there."

Mr. Bernat did not recall any army personnel ever being involved in any of the operations in Winchester.

Fifty, 55-gallon barrels of uranium ore. It had taken a month to get to the answer, but the army personnel still remain a mystery.

Were there ever any at the dump disposing of anything?

There's no answer yet.

Meanwhile, the officials at DOE in Oakridge, when told there were 50 drums of ore, not 50 glass jars, decided it was still safe, but there should be more priority given to the planned testing.

They'll be up within a month they said.

(The likelihood is that much of the information I had been seeking about the dumping of the uranium ore was classified. The Soviet Union was still the "Evil Empire," and release of any research involving radiation and uranium was considered a possible threat to national security. It was more than a decade later that some early research on radioactivity was released, including a study done on the effects of radioactive isotropes mixed into the food given a number of retarded children at the Fernald School in Massachusetts -- without their knowledge. In the light of that vile study, how much of what the government tells you can you actually believe? Eventually, state officials did come out and test the area in North Woburn where the dumping of the ore had taken place. They also tested the cellars and homes of all of the families who had children with leukemia. All of the radiation levels were found to be normal, given the naturally higher background radiation level of the granite in the area -- which was a great relief. But it also failed to solve the mystery. What was causing the elevated levels of leukemia? And, if anyone actually did see army personnel dumping something, what was it?)