U.S. Figures on Radioactive Dust Disputed

The amount of radioactive dust released from a uranium-processing plant in Ohio may be two to six times greater than was estimated because of “inherently deceptive” record-keeping, a consultant said Wednesday.

The consultant’s report was prepared for a lawsuit against the former operator of the Energy Department plant at Fernald, Ohio, where the government says an extensive cleanup will be required over the next decade. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for next month.

The plant, on 1,050 acres 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati, has processed uranium for nuclear weapons. Since it began operating in 1952, government estimates are that as much as 552,000 pounds of radioactive uranium dust may have been released into the air.

But a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research said that evidence gathered for the lawsuit from depositions and internal plant documents shows the official estimates are far too low.

Arjun Makhijani, an engineer and co-author of the report, said that perhaps 3.1 million pounds of uranium particles may have been released from the plant since it opened in 1952. Even by conservative estimates the volume of pollution likely exceeds government estimates significantly, he suggested.

Chris Sankey, speaking for the Energy Department, said the department does not necessarily dispute the group’s figures, but will not agree with them, either. She said the department would not comment in detail on the findings because the lawsuit is to go to trial June 5.

Officials of Westinghouse Materials Co. of Ohio, which officially took over operation of the plant in January, 1986, said they could not comment on the consultant’s report because they had not yet seen a copy of it.

In the lawsuit, residents of the plant’s vicinity charge that National Lead of Ohio, the previous operator, endangered health and reduced property values near the plant with the release of radioactive particles.