By Pat Marida
On May 13, headlines were made around the world when the Scioto Valley School Board closed the Zahn’s Corners Middle School in Piketon, Ohio for an indefinite period. Closure was due to neptunium, a radioactive element, being found by an air monitor outside the school.
The school is about 4 miles as the crow flies from the Portsmouth Nuclear Site, where uranium was enriched for nuclear bombs starting in 1956. Later, the operation was switched to make low-enriched uranium for nuclear power. The facility shut down in 2001 and “cleanup” is underway.
In a stunning display of ignorance and arrogance, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) brought in reprocessed high-level radioactive waste and ran it through the 97 acres of enrichment buildings for years, contaminating the site with some of the most dangerous radioactive elements in existence.
The school issue came to light when citizens reviewed the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Annual Site Environmental Report from 2017—released to the public in January 2019. The report showed that neptunium had been detected in a monitor outside the school. The Department did not alert the public to this finding.
Michael Ketterer, retired professor at Northern Arizona University and an expert on nuclear isotope analysis, came to the site and took samples. Ketterer found neptunium, plutonium and enriched uranium in local attics and in Little Beaver Creek. Ketterer’s Report, done pro bono, proved that these radioactive elements came from the nuclear site.
In response, DOE said that this radioactive contamination was within “allowable” limits and tried to say that the source of the contamination was from fallout from nuclear bomb testing.
Department of Energy wraps itself in a cocoon. Offsite radioactivity has been documented by citizens over the years. Yet DOE, by simply remaining silent, has managed to avoid accountability. The silence continues.
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At a public meeting on April 27, DOE stated that all the data was in for the 2018 Annual Site Environmental Report and there were no detections of neptunium. When later asked if ANY radioactivity was detected, they admitted that americium was found by the school air monitor in 2018.
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Anne White, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, met with Pike County leaders in May. In response, DOE Secretary Rick Perry asked for White’s resignation and reassigned her deputy. Activities at the site are not being suspended or tightened.
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DOE sent only one person, and no top leadership, to the Site Specific Advisory Board meeting in June. The Board is charged with advising DOE on the cleanup of the site. The DOE representative could not answer the questions from a room full of angry citizens. Hence, no DOE accountability.
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DOE cancelled the Site Specific Advisory Board Subcommittee meetings scheduled for June, citing a class action lawsuit filed May 26 by nearby residents claiming radioactive contamination of their properties. A second class action lawsuit has since been filed.
More samples were taken for official testing over the Memorial Day weekend. Samples were split between DOE, the Ohio Department of Health and the Pike County Health District.
Hats off to Pike County Health District Commissioner Matt Brewster and the citizens of Pike County who continue to keep the issue in the limelight.
See also the Free Press Facebook post 6-8-19: A stunning case of kids, radioactivity and government neglect emerges in Ohio