Radioactive Ooze Found Outside Plant
03:15 PM ET 08/29/99
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal officials confirmed that a radioactive black ooze
found seeping outside the fence of a Kentucky uranium enrichment plant led workers to a
burial ground for radioactive debris. Contract workers chanced upon the material
near an unused sanitary landfill at the Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., The
Washington Post reported Sunday.
Preparing to install wells to monitor another possible contamination site near
the landfill, which closed in 1996, the workers found the ooze July 15.
The workers dug beneath a tar-like liquid found in a track left by their
drilling truck and turned up what appeared to be bits of tar paper and asphalt shingles.
An Energy Department report said ``observations indicated possible roofing
debris.''
Not until three weeks later, after further excavation, did plant officials learn
the material was contaminated, the newspaper said. Radioactivity readings were hundreds of
times above levels found naturally in soil and almost nine times higher than the plant's
``action level,'' which would trigger immediate action to seal contaminated areas inside
the plant.
Lab tests confirmed the presence of uranium and technetium. Technetium, a
radioactive metal that travels quickly through soil, was brought into the plant
inadvertently in the 1950s, '60s and '70s in shipments of recycled uranium from government
nuclear reactors used to produce plutonium.
Energy Department officials fenced off the site and reported the discovery to
Kentucky's environmental regulators.
Both the Department of Energy and the plant's current manager, U.S. Enrichment
Corp., have contended that they are unaware of radioactive waste going into the sanitary
landfill. Documents prepared by former contractors list the contents of the dump as
``uncontaminated trash and garbage.'' The landfill is ``permitted and operated according
to Kentucky regulations,'' according to plant records.
An Energy Department investigation is in the second week at the plant, which for
47 years has produced enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, Navy submarines and commercial
power plants. Reports of contamination and sloppy waste management at the plant, including
worker exposure to plutonium and other highly radioactive materials, prompted the
investigation.
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