The daily collegian. (University Park, Pa.) 1940-current, September 07, 1984, Image 14

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    26—The Daily Collegian Friday, Sept. 7,1984
Tani , ra
iation
By NAN CRYSTAL ARENS
Collegian Staff Writer
After studying radiation reports released
after the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear
power plant accident, a nuclear physicist
concluded there may be more deaths due to
cancer than those reports predicted.
Jah Beyea, consultant for the Three Mile
Island Public Health Fund and senior staff
scientist for the National Audubon Society,
said up to 13 delayed cancer deaths may
occur among area residents.
These figures are higher than those pub
lished immediately following the accident.
The study concluded that less than one addi
tional cancer death could result, he said.
Despite the higher estimate, the new find
ings do not indicate any significantly greater
danger to public health, said Daniel Berger,
counsel for the Health Fund.
Berger said the Health Fund's recently
released report represents the first major
independent review of the accident's radia
tion release.
Public health risk following the accident is
' assigned by first estimating the amount of
radiation a population is exposed to, Beyea
said.
"If everyone in the area had a dosimeter on
at the time of the accident and you added up
all the dosimeter readings, you could deter-
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mine the population dose," he said.
However, because residents were not out
fitted with dosimeters, more indirect meth
ods must be used, Beyea said.
The population radiation dose is then multi
plied by a standard cancer coefficient to
determine the number of delayed cancer
deaths which might occur in a population, he
explained
Berger said the Health Fund report also
concluded that a greater range of uncertainty
should have been assigned to the amount of
radiation released during the accident.
The official reports, including the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission report, assigned a
value of 3,000 pelion-rems a unit of radia
tion dose as the amount of radiation
released, Berger said.
According to established standards, for one
additional delayed cancer death to result, a
population must be exposed to about 10,000
person-rems, Beyea said.
Berger said the radiation dosage could
have ranged from 276 to 63,000 person-rems.
Beyea said data taken at the time of the
accident was not precise enough to assign a
single value to the amount of radiation re
leased.
In preparing his report, Beyea said he
evaluated 100 scientific reports published by
various agencies following the accident. On
the basis of these reports, he tried to deter
$139 95
More delayed cancer deaths may occur than originally projecte.
mine if the estimates on public health risk
were sound.
Beyea found that most of the health risk
estimates in the reports could not be consid
ered accurate because they contained . some
faulty assumptions.
"Every one of the studies are flawed," he
said.
"It's not that the people doing the studies
were incompetent. Actually they were very
clever about how• they, used what , data they
had. The problem is the data is very poor,"
Beyea said.
For example, because radiation dose data
was not available from some areas around
the plant, scientists averaged doses on either
side of the missing section and used this
assumed value in their reports, Beyea said.
"This doesn't account for large doses that
might have passed through an unmonitored
area," he,added
In addition to the lack of data on radiation
release, part of the fault with the original
reports was that not enough time was allowed
for careful evaluation of the data available,
Beyea said. As a result, the investigators
were not critical with some of the assump
tions they made.
"There was a great rush for conclusions at
the time," he added.
Also, the original research was not followed
up with further research, Beyea said.
"(The investigators) were satisfied with
their results because they concluded there
was no (public) health risk, so they never re
examined the data," he said.
Beyea said the Health Fund report sug
gests that further action should be taken.
Berger said, "The significance of the re
port is that it sets a research agenda for the
fund."
Beyea recommended investigators look at
hospital records to determine if radiation
detection film badges worn by some staff
members could help determine the amount of
radiation people in unmonitored areas were
exposed to
The TMI Public Health Fund report also
suggested using archeological techniques to
determine the amount of radiation that
bricks and ceramic tiles in the area were
exposed to. .
Beyea explained that radiation causes mi
croscopic defects in the brick or tile struc
ture. Examination of the defects could shed
light on the amount of radiation which passed
through the material
But Beyea added that this method would
have to be studied further to see how accu
rate it would be.
Another proposed study would sample the
amount of radioactive cesium in the soil.
Beyea said radioactive cesium has a half-life
of about 30 years. However, it would be
impossible to determine what portion of the
cesium found in the soil was released from
the reactor and how much is the result of
natural cosmic fallout.
The Three Mile Island Public Health Fund
was established in November 1981 as the
result of a $3O million settlement in a class
action suit against General Public Utilities
and other owners and suppliers of the plant,
Berger said.
The settlement was in two parts, Berger
said. The first part provided $25 million to
compensate local businesses for a three-week
disruption of business following the accident.
The second part, the Health Fund, provided
$5 million to investigation the health effects
of radiation released during the accident, he
added.
Including interest, the Health Fund now
amounts to $6.5 million, Berger said.
He said the Health Fund has three goals; to
investigate the health risk to local citizens as
a result of the accident, to improve radiation
monitoring in the area around the plant and
to improve emergency planning.
The fund is under the supervision of Justice
Sylvia Rambo of the federal district court,
Berger said. It is independent of federal,
private and business interest groups.
Berger said a group of scientific consul
tants hired by' through the health fund, re
ports to the health fund's administrator.
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11 Conjure
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22 Ramification
24 Dickens character
25 King Arthur's lance
27 Brazilian palm
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33 Friend
34 Sixth sense
36 Quilts
40 Penchant
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49 By sight
50 Madness
51 German seaport
52 Aggravate
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The Daily Collegian
Friday, Sept. 7, 1984
Crossword
(answers in Monday's classifieds)