Plutonium Leaking Into Bering Sea 25 Years Later

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
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Name=10/30 PLUTONIUM LEAKING INTO BERING SEA 25 YEARS AFTER
LARGEST UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR TEST IN U.S. HISTORY  
 
Press Release
 
WASHINGTON, October 30 (GP)--Plutonium and other radioactive
materials are leaking into the Bering Sea, the result of a
major flaw in the design of the largest underground nuclear
test in U.S. history, according to a report released today by
Greenpeace.  
 
The report "Nuclear Flashback: The Return to Amchitka,"
reveals the presence of americium-241, a decay product of
plutonium, and plutonium-239/240 in plant samples taken by
Greenpeace this summer at the site of the 1971 Cannikin test
at Amchitka, Alaska.  The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
claimed at the time of the test that nuclear waste from the
detonations would be contained for hundreds, if not thousands,
of years.  Since then, information about leakage at the
Cannikin site has been withheld.  Sampling reports by the
Department of Energy (DOE) made public since 1971 revealed no
leakage of radioactivity from Cannikin into the environment.
 
"These nuclear blasts should never have been detonated at
Amchitka Island, where leakage was inevitable," said report
author Pam Miller, biologist with Greenpeace Alaska.  "Long-
lived, extremely toxic radionuclides have entered the food
chain at the margin of the Bering Sea, a warning sign that
must prompt the remedial action that should have begun over
twenty-five years ago."
  
At five megatons, Cannikin was 385 times the explosive power
of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.  Greenpeace found
that the Cannikin bomb was lowered into a shaft some 1000
feet short of the AEC's own safe-depth standard of 6,840 feet. 
The explosion unleashed a seismic jolt measuring 7.0 on the
Richter scale, and breached mechanical containment
within two days of detonation.  Leakage from the Cannikin site
is probably extensive, involving groundwater pathways through
fissures and through the bottom of Cannikin Lake. 
 
Epidemiological assessments have never been done to determine
potential exposure on the hundreds of workers on Amchitka, or
the Aleut communities that use the surrounding waters for
subsistence hunting and fishing.
 
"The Energy Department must declassify military secrets that
affect environmental and human health," said Carl Hild, marine
biologist with the Rural Alaska Community Action Program. 
"This must be accompanied by an independent and comprehensive
monitoring program, supported by the federal government, but
with active public participation."   
 
"Greenpeace's first voyage in 1971 was an effort to halt
testing at Amchitka. Today, Amchitka is only part of a larger
legacy of environmental, social and economic devastation
caused by 2,046 tests at some 20 test sites around the globe,"

said Greenpeace Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner Bruce Hall. 
"We now need to ensure that the world's remaining nuclear test
sites are permanently closed down and opened to outside
scrutiny."  
                                  ###
 
CONTACT: Pam Miller or Deborah Rephan at Greenpeace: (202)
319-2492, Carl Hild can be reached at the above number until
November 4 and then at: (907) 279-2511  
"Nuclear Flashback" is available on the Web:
http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/nuclear/amchitka
 
* VIDEO FOOTAGE WILL BE AVAILABLE VIA SATELLITE UPLINK TODAY:
2:30 - 2:45 pm, GALAXY 9 (C-BAND) / TRANSPONDER 1 / LINE: 3720
VERTICAL

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