Charles W. Powers

Radionuclides in marine fishes and birds from amchitka and Kiska Islands in the aleutians : Establishing a baseline

Amchitka Island (51o N lat, 179o E long) was the site of three underground nuclear tests from 1965–1971. There have been no substantive studies of radionuclides in marine fishes and birds in the area since the mid-1970’s. In this study, levels of 60Co, 52Eu, 90Sr, 99Tc, 129I, 137Cs, and the actinides (241Am, 238Pu, 239,240Pu, 234U, 235U, 236U, and 238U) were studied in ten marine fish species (including Pacific Cod Gadus macrocephalus and Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis) and five marine bird species (including Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens, Tufted Puffins Fratercula cirrhata, and Common Eider Ducks Somateria mollissima) from Amchitka. The same species were collected at a reference site, Kiska Island (52o N lat; 177o E long), about 130 km west of Amchitka. Each sample was a composite of edible muscle from five or more individual fish or birds of similar size (±15%) from the same sampling station. The null hypotheses of no differences among species or between Amchitka and Kiska were tested. Most analytic results were below the minimum detectable activity (MDA), even when 1,000 g sizes and 72 h counting times were used. The only radionuclides detected above the MDA were 137Cs, 241Am, 239,240Pu, 234U, 235U, and 238U. There were significant differences in 137Cs as a function of species, but not location, for top predatory fishes. Of the fishes, eight of ten species had 137Cs values above the MDA for some samples; only one bird, Glaucous-winged Gull, had 137Cs values above the MDA. The highest concentrations of 137Cs were in Dolly Varden [Salvelinus malma, 0.780 (Bq kg−1 wet weight)] and Pacific Cod (0.602 Bq kg−1). In aggregate for any actinides, 73 of 234 (31%) composites for fish were above the MDA, compared to only 3 of 98 (3%) for birds. 234U and 238U, radionuclides that are primarily natural in origin, were routinely detected in these biological samples, but there were no significant differences in mean concentrations between Amchitka and Kiska. The concentrations of all radionuclides examined at Amchitka are similar to those of other uncontaminated Northern Hemisphere sites, and are lower than those reported for fishes and birds from the Irish Sea in the vicinity of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility, an area with known contamination.

The Ultimate LULU? Public Reaction to New Nuclear Activities at Major Weapons Sites

Abstract Finding locations for locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) has become a major challenge in the United States, and no land uses are more controversial than nuclear weapons research, nuclear waste management, and nuclear power generation. In this research, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), we explore whether U.S. government-owned land already devoted to nuclear uses would provide logical locations for new nuclear activities. We surveyed people living within 50 miles of six existing DOE nuclear weapons sites, asking about their attitudes toward banning additional nuclear activities at these sites and about factors that might influence these attitudes. Although the majority said prohibiting additional nuclear uses at these sites was a high priority, many were willing to entertain the idea. This work suggests ways to make nuclear siting more successful by considering pre-existing sites, and encouraging the DOE to try harder to open communication channels with the public and its representatives.

Preferences for alternative risk management policies at the United States major nuclear weapons legacy sites

Abstract A survey of 1351 people who lived within 50 miles of one of six US Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites showed that the vast majority of residents prefer strong public health surveillance and land use controls. The sample was stratified so that the same number of responses was obtained at each site. The strongest correlates of wanting the DOE to restrict on-site activities and maintain and expand its surveillance programs were worries about DOE activities on the site, as well as how those activities could damage the off-site environment. Notably, the exceptions, that is, those who demanded less from the DOE and were not particularly worried about the DOEs activities, tended to live near the site, many worked there or knew people who did, and had high socio-economic status, and trusted the DOE. The findings are mostly, but not entirely, consistent with expectations drawn from the risk perception and organizational trust literatures. The challenge is how to establish a stewardship program that represents a consensus among state and local government, community advisory boards and the public that remediation can go on at the same time that some waste is managed on-site until suitable technologies can be safely deployed, which at some sites means 100 years or in perpetuity.

Conceptual Site Models as a Tool in Evaluating Ecological Health: The Case of the Department of Energy'S Amchitka Island Nuclear Test Site

Managers of contaminated sites are faced with options ranging from monitoring natural attenuation to complete removal of contaminants to meet residential health standards. Conceptual site models (CSMs) are one tool used by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other environmental managers to understand, track, help with decisions, and communicate with the public about the risk from contamination. CSMs are simplified graphical representations of the sources, releases, transport and exposure pathways, and receptors, along with possible barriers to interdict pathways and reduce exposure. In this article, three CSMs are created using Amchitka Island, where the remaining contamination is from underground nuclear test shot cavities containing large quantities of numerous radionuclides in various physical and chemical forms: (1) a typical underground nuclear test shot CSM (modeled after other sites), (2) an expanded CSM with more complex receptors, and (3) a regional CSM that takes into account contaminant pathways from sources other than Amchitka. The objective was to expand the CSM used by DOE to be more responsive to different types of receptors. Amchitka Island differs from other DOE test shot sites because it is surrounded by a marine environment that is highly productive and has a high biodiversity, and the source of contamination is underground, not on the surface. The surrounding waters of the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean are heavily exploited by commercial fisheries and provide the United States and other countries with a significant proportion of its seafood. It is proposed that the CSMs on Amchitka Island should focus more on the pathways of exposure and critical receptors, rather than sources and blocks. Further, CSMs should be incorporated within a larger regional model because of the potentially rapid transport within ocean ecosystems. The large number of migratory or highly mobile species that pass by Amchitka provide the potential for a direct pathway to the local human population, known as Aleut, and commercial fisheries, which are remote from the island itself. The exposure matrix for receptors requires expansion for the Amchitka Island ecosystem because of the valuable marine and seafood resources in the region. CSMs with an expanded exposure/receptor matrix can be used effectively to clarify the conceptualization of the problem for scientists, regulators, and the general public.

Developing a Health and Safety Plan for Hazardous Field Work in Remote Areas

Developing health and safety plans (HASPs) is a common feature of occupational safety and health for many workplaces. Formal HASPs are a requirement for hazardous waste work, requiring the anticipation and identification of hazards and embodying the training, equipping, and evaluation of workers. Aside from OSHA, there are relatively few manuals or examples and virtually no papers that provide practical guidance in what a HASP should cover or how to create and implement one. Moreover, existing guidance refers to spatially circumscribed worksites. This article details development of a HASP to cover field researchers and ship personnel conducting scientific research in a remote area of the world (Amchitka Island in the western Aleutians), hundreds of kilometers from the nearest emergency room. It required characterizing the kinds of work to be performed and anticipating the hazards that could be encountered. It illustrates the meshing of a general HASP with a ship safety plan, a dive safety plan, and specialized topics, including stop-work authority, rock climbing, firearms, vehicle safety, and communication strategy. Remote area operations are a growing challenge facing the profession. An expedition of this sort requires extensive planning and experienced safety personnel and cannot rely on luck to ensure the safe return of participants.

Defining an ecological baseline for restoration and natural resource damage assessment of contaminated sites: The case of the Department of Energy

Abstract Retrospective ecological risk assessment, restoration, natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and managing ecosystems all require having a baseline. This policy and practice paper explores the factors that influence baseline selection, and it is suggested that ecological resources would best be served by: (1) integrating NRDA considerations into both future land-use planning and remediation/restoration; (2) selecting a baseline for NRDA that approximates the land-use conditions at the time of occupation (or a preferred ecosystem); and (3) integrating both the positive and negative aspects of industrial occupation into restoration decisions, baseline selection and NRDA. Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), natural resource damages are assessed for injuries incurred since 1980 due to releases, but the release itself may have occurred before 1980. The paper uses the Department of Energy as a case study to examine NRDA and the management of ecosystems. Releases occurred at many DOE sites from the 1950s to the 1980s during nuclear bomb production. It is suggested that the DOE has been responsible not only for injuries to natural resources that occurred as a result of releases, but for significant ecosystem recovery since DOE occupation, because some lands were previously farmed or industrialized. Natural resource injuries due to releases occurred simultaneously with ecosystem recovery that resulted from DOE occupation. While the 1980 date is codified in CERCLA law as the time after which damages can be assessed, baseline can be defined as the conditions the natural resources would have been in today, but for the release of the hazardous substance. It is also suggested that NRDA considerations should be incorporated into the remediation and restoration process at DOE sites, thereby negating the need for formal NRDA following restoration, and reducing the final NRDA costs.

Are Implicit Associations With Nuclear Energy Related to Policy Support? Evidence From the Brief Implicit Association Test

Nuclear energy has long been assumed to elicit automatic, negative reactions. However, little research has investigated implicit associations with nuclear energy. To assess implicit and explicit attitudes toward nuclear energy, 704 U.S. consumer panelists completed a multicategory Implicit Association Test (IAT) and an Internet survey. Results showed that participants held negative implicit attitudes toward nuclear energy (vs. wind and natural gas) and positive implicit attitudes toward nuclear energy (vs. coal). Strong opponents of nuclear policy implicitly preferred natural gas over nuclear and implicitly disliked nuclear as much as coal. Strong supporters of nuclear policy implicitly preferred nuclear over coal, and showed no implicit preference for gas over nuclear. Implicit attitudes toward nuclear energy (vs. gas and wind) were related to policy support when controlling for explicit attitudes and demographics. Understanding both implicit and explicit nuclear attitudes is important for decision makers as the United States charts its energy future.

Mercury at Oak Ridge: outcomes from risk evaluations can differ depending upon objectives and methodologies

Risk evaluations play an important role in environmental management, remediation and restoration. Yet when different agencies and groups evaluate risk, the objectives and methods may differ, leading to different conclusions, which can confuse managers, policy-makers and the public. In this paper, we examine two evaluations of the potential risk from mercury contamination deriving from the Y-12 facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation (Tennessee, USA). The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) examined the past and present risks from mercury to humans, using data provided in government reports and publications. The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) used a risk-informed prioritization model, developed for managers to evaluate different remediation projects. The CRESP prioritization model considered both human and ecological receptors, as well as future potential risks. Risk was an important component of both evaluations, and both evaluations found that there was a completed pathway of mercury from the source on the Oak Ridge Reservation to offsite human receptors, although the evaluations differed in their final conclusions. CRESP evaluated the risk as ‘high’, while the ATSDR noted that the risk was ‘moderate’ for people consuming fish from East Fork Poplar Creek. In both cases, the pathway to off-site human exposure was through fish consumption. The two evaluations are compared with respect to purpose, specific goals, target audience, receptors, assumptions, time frames, evaluation criteria and conclusions. When these aspects are considered, the risk evaluations are congruent, although the risk communication messages differ. We conclude that there are many different possible risk evaluations, and the aforementioned variables must be carefully considered when making management decisions, determining remediation goals, and communicating with regulators, managers, public policy-makers and the public.

Complexity of bioindicator selection for ecological, human, and cultural health: Chinook salmon and red knot as case studies.

There is considerable interest in developing bioindicators of ecological health that are also useful indicators for human health. Yet, human health assessment usually encompasses physical/chemical exposures and not cultural well-being. In this paper, we propose that bioindicators can be selected for all three purposes. We use Chinook or king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and red knot (Calidris canutus rufa, a sandpiper) as examples of indicators that can be used to assess human, ecological, and cultural health. Even so, selecting endpoints or metrics for each indicator species is complex and is explored in this paper. We suggest that there are several endpoint types to examine for a given species, including physical environment, environmental stressors, habitat, life history, demography, population counts, and cultural/societal aspects. Usually cultural endpoints are economic indicators (e.g., number of days fished, number of hunting licenses), rather than the importance of a fishing culture. Development of cultural/societal endpoints must include the perceptions of local communities, cultural groups, and tribal nations, as well as governmental and regulatory communities (although not usually so defined, the latter have cultures as well). Endpoint selection in this category is difficult because the underlying issues need to be identified and used to develop endpoints that tribes and stakeholders themselves see as reasonable surrogates of the qualities they value. We describe several endpoints for salmon and knots that can be used for ecological, human, and cultural/societal health.

Amchitka Island: Melding Science and Stakeholders to Achieve Solutions for a Former Department of Energy Site

Traditional scientific research proceeds from development of a hypothesis, through data gathering to final conclusions, and without much input from stakeholders. This chapter proposes that the melding of scientists and stakeholders throughout the process can reduce conflicts and lead to acceptable solutions for problems that are inherently complex and have eluded resolution. We use the closure of the Department of Energy’s Amchitka Island, where three underground nuclear tests were conducted from 1965 to 1971, as a case study to illustrate how stakeholders can be included as participants throughout the process, leading to acceptance and incorporation of the science, and a path forward. Success was dependent upon interactions to stimulate relevant science investigations, in a participatory process. Without such inclusion, well-intended policies and practices may be ineffective and may not lead to a solution, particularly to such difficult problems as closure of chemical and radioactive waste sites, and the handling of civilian and military nuclear wastes in the future, both of which influence the future of nuclear energy in the United States.