The Free Press -- Independent News Media

Fri Jan 09 2009

Dispatches from the Front

Offsite radiation at Piketon site confirmed
by Patricia A. Marida, Chair, Central Ohio Sierra Club
September 8, 2005

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.

Email this article to a friend

Dispatches

  "Civil rights icon coming to Columbus"
     Stephanie Calondis
     December 3, 2005

  "Wal-marting and wealth"
     Bob Fitrakis
     November 15, 2005

  "A Call to Protect and Democratize U.S. Elections: A Panel"
     Kathy Dopp
     September 11, 2005

  "Bring our soldiers home now!"
     Paddy Shaffer
     September 11, 2005

  "Freep 35th anniversary book"
     Free Press staff
     September 8, 2005

  "Linking anti-war and global justice protests"
     Free Press staff
     September 8, 2005

  "Offsite radiation at Piketon site confirmed"
     Patricia A. Marida, Chair, Central Ohio Sierra Club
     September 8, 2005

  "Radon emissions suggest possible illegal weapons research"
     Free Press staff
     September 8, 2005

  "PORTS history and existing clean-up effort"
     Free Press staff
     September 8, 2005

  "Proposal for a new plant at Piketon"
     Free Press staff
     September 8, 2005

  "Commission rules against ancient Ohio forest: Coal mining allowed under and adjacent to Dysart Woods"
     Richard Sahli
     July 20, 2005

  "Bush greeted by angry protesters, Democrats told to "Get a Spine""
     Rady Anada
     July 20, 2005

  "OSU police costs don't stop another beautiful Hempfest"
     Sarah Clark
     July 20, 2005

  "New Book: Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?: Essential Documents"
     Free Press staff
     June 8, 2005

  "Bob Fitrakis on tour with book exposing Ohio election fraud"
     Free Press staff
     May 28, 2005

  "Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund focus on "A More Perfect Union" with liberty, justice for all"
     RainbowPUSH
     May 18, 2005

  "Report from National Conference for Media Reform"
     Richard James
     May 16, 2005

  "With Voinovich still undecided, key global security groups organize a campus debate on John Bolton"
     Ryan Spaeth, 20/20 Vision
     May 10, 2005

  "Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections teach-in"
     CASE Ohio
     April 21, 2005

  "Vanity Fair reveals unfair election"
     Free Press staff
     March 21, 2005

  "Trash plant finally trashed"
     Free Press staff
     March 21, 2005

  "Gay marriage at the Franklin County Courthouse on Valentine’s Day "
     Free Press staff
     March 21, 2005

  "Bill Barndt is 90!"
     Suzanne Patzer
     March 21, 2005

  "Teach-ins on the 2004 Election Fraud and Electoral Reform"
     Citizens Act
     February 21, 2005

  "Live from the Protest at Petro's Office"
     Paddy Shaffer
     January 24, 2005

  "Unite for Peace and Justice "
     Mark Stansbury
     January 23, 2005

  "March for Equality during Holiday Hop"
     Elizabeth Nolan Brown
     January 23, 2005

  "Election notes: Life is the only right. Nothing else counts "
     Marley Greiner
     January 23, 2005

  "A new movement, a new day…"
     Brad Friedman
     January 23, 2005

Read Articles by Year:
2001 2002 2003
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009