‘Millions lace uranium threat’

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 8

‘Millions lace uranium threat’

I NZPA Nashville] . i Hundreds of millions of ’ people could die in future j years as the result of the ' mining and milling of uraj nium to fuel nuclear-pow- ’ ered generators of electricity, an American Congressman. Mr Clifford Allen J (Democrat, Tennessee), has * said. , Mr Allen said that a re- ' port on file with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in ' Washington stated that ’ emissions of cancer-produc- ' ing radiation from the min- ! ing and milling of uranium ' was 100,000 times greater (than previously estimated. ’ Mr Allen, a frequent critic ' of power and gas companies, ; applied his own mathematics . to come up with his death-I ’ toll figure from a report ' prepared by Dr Walter Jor-j ; dan, former assistant! ’ director of the Oak Ridge) National Laboratory. Dr Jordan, who now) , serves as a part-time mem-I . ber of the Atomic Safety! j and Licensing Board, filed: lithe report with the N.R.C. ion September 21. ; Dr Jordan told United ;I Press International in a tele- ; phone interview that his reI port was based in part on a I study conducted two years ; ago by a Cornell University I physicist, Mr Robert Pohl. i Dr Jordan said Mr Allen’s I figures on the death toll !

from the release of additional radiation were correct if Mr Pohl was correct on the biological effects of the release of additional radiation into the atmosphere. “I know there are a lot of biologists who will disagree with Mr Pohl,” Dr Jordan said.

Mr Frank Ingram, public affairs officer for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in Washington that the N.R.C. was reviewing Dr Jordan’s report and planned to conduct a hearing on it in Washington on January 9. Mr Ingram said he would not comment on the validity of the figures presented by Mr Allen until he had seen the Congressman’s statement.

Mr Ingram explained that to obtain fuel for reactors, natural uranium is mined and put into a mill where it is concentrated into a pure uranium form. The residue left over, called “tailings,” emits radon, a radioactive gas, even though it is buried.

“In assessing the exposure to people from these uranium mill tailings, the staff went up to the year 200 G” Mr Ingram said. “Dr Jordan is saying that since these tailings piles will exist some time in the future after the year 2000 there will continue to be exposures from radon to people after the year 2000.”