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On July 15, 2005, the citizen
organization PRESS (Ports
mouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security) held a press conference in the Southern Ohio town of Portsmouth to announce confirmation of excessive background radioactivity first measured in November 2003 by Russian nuclear physicist and environmentalist Sergey Pashenko. The testing done by Pashenko in 2003 in the area around the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) yielded background radiation levels at least 100 times greater than normal background levels. PORTS is located north of Portsmouth and just south of Piketon, Ohio.
According to Vina Colley, PRESS president and former PORTS employee, the excessive radiation levels were confirmed in a letter from Bill Murphie, manager of the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The letter from Murphie stated the DOE's own test results from two of Pashenko's test sites at nearby Big Run Creek. DOE claimed its measurements, 1.01 pCi/ml (picocuries per milliliter) and 0.3 pCi/ml, respectively, to be within normal background levels. Not so, according to Norm Buske, Director of the RadioActivist Campaign, an organization based in the state of Washington whose mission is to monitor and publicize radioactive contamination in the environment. According to Buske, the measurements cited by DOE are much higher than normal background levels which are 1-2 pCi per LITER. A liter is 1000 times as large as a milliliter. The DOE samples would thus have tested at 1010 and 300 pCi/l?just the same as found by Pashenko in 2003.
In 1992, Big Run Creek was one of several area streams tested by Ohio EPA and found to contain fish with elevated radiation levels. Stream sediments showed radiation levels five times above the natural level, as well as increased levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium and mercury.
PRESS was organized in the 1980s, spurred by concerns about illnesses in workers and residents living near the enormous plant that produced highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. There was also concern about procedures and accidents at the plant. The gaseous diffusion plant was put on "cold standby" in 1992 and is scheduled to be permanently closed.
Through an international exchange program, PRESS was able to bring Pashenko, a member of Siberian Scientists for Global Responsibility, to Piketon in 2003 to test the surrounding area for elevated levels of radioactivity. Pashenko's test results were compiled by experts from The RadioActivist Campaign. The test method and results were detailed in the newly released document A Citizen's Guide to Monitor Radioactivity, which can be found on The RadioActivist Campaign's website www.radioactivist.org.
According to Vina Colley, PRESS president and former PORTS employee, the excessive radiation levels were confirmed in a letter from Bill Murphie, manager of the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. The letter from Murphie stated the DOE's own test results from two of Pashenko's test sites at nearby Big Run Creek. DOE claimed its measurements, 1.01 pCi/ml (picocuries per milliliter) and 0.3 pCi/ml, respectively, to be within normal background levels. Not so, according to Norm Buske, Director of the RadioActivist Campaign, an organization based in the state of Washington whose mission is to monitor and publicize radioactive contamination in the environment. According to Buske, the measurements cited by DOE are much higher than normal background levels which are 1-2 pCi per LITER. A liter is 1000 times as large as a milliliter. The DOE samples would thus have tested at 1010 and 300 pCi/l?just the same as found by Pashenko in 2003.
In 1992, Big Run Creek was one of several area streams tested by Ohio EPA and found to contain fish with elevated radiation levels. Stream sediments showed radiation levels five times above the natural level, as well as increased levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium and mercury.
PRESS was organized in the 1980s, spurred by concerns about illnesses in workers and residents living near the enormous plant that produced highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. There was also concern about procedures and accidents at the plant. The gaseous diffusion plant was put on "cold standby" in 1992 and is scheduled to be permanently closed.
Through an international exchange program, PRESS was able to bring Pashenko, a member of Siberian Scientists for Global Responsibility, to Piketon in 2003 to test the surrounding area for elevated levels of radioactivity. Pashenko's test results were compiled by experts from The RadioActivist Campaign. The test method and results were detailed in the newly released document A Citizen's Guide to Monitor Radioactivity, which can be found on The RadioActivist Campaign's website www.radioactivist.org.