A Northern Arizona University researcher, Michael Ketterer, recently reasserted findings from 2019 that radioactive contamination from the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio poses a concern for people outside the fence, and local leaders are using his analysis to press for federal money to replace a shuttered school.
In an April 28 letter to Matthew Brewster, the commissioner for Pike County Ohio’s general health district, Ketterer said his recent review of publicly-available DOE data indicates “beyond any reasonable level of question” that neptunium-237 is present in groundwater.
In addition, “DOE’s past actions of irresponsible disposal of transuranic (TRU) wastes” including neptunium-237 and plutonium isotopes “have resulted in the groundwater contamination that exists decades later.” Ketterer is professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry and his analysis of air and soil samples prompted education officials in Pike County, to stop using the Zahn’s Corner Middle School, just outside the gaseous diffusion plant complex, in May 2019.
Public outcry over contamination around the school factored into the forced resignation of Anne Marie White, then head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, in May 2019. White’s focus on the issue was said to contribute to a rift between her and her boss, DOE’s then-undersecretary for science, Paul Dabbar.
The DOE, which has done its own sampling and helped underwrite additional sampling, continues to say any contamination around the school is too minimal to pose a threat to human health.
“DOE is aware of Neptunium-237 detected in previous groundwater sampling, as traces of different isotopes are detected in samples from time to time,” an agency spokesperson said in a Thursday email. “In this case, the Neptunium-237 levels found in the DOE data were slightly above detection limits and significantly below regulatory guidelines for public health concern.”
The Scioto Valley-Piketon Area Council of Governments met May 10 with Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk and DOE’s acting assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White, and had a follow-up meeting May 13 with White. The Council of Governments was represented in part by two former members of Congress from Ohio, Zack Space and Mark Schauer, as well as former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, all Democrats, according to a memo issued by the council Wednesday.
The local Council of Governments again urged DOE to fund replacement of the Zahn’s Corner Middle School, which could cost several million dollars.
The Council of Governments also expressed “grave concerns” about plans for open-air demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Portsmouth Site. If DOE goes ahead with it, the organization wants the federal agency to provide a community liaison to improve communication between the locals and the federal government — and the agency said Thursday it will indeed appoint an interim liaison for the community.
However, sampling results from DOE’s environmental monitoring at the site and baseline monitoring for the project “do not provide a scientific basis for delaying demolition of X-326,” the DOE spokesperson said.
The federal agency is employing safety lessons learned from dismantling uranium enrichment buildings at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, including steps to limit airborne dust and running water used in the demolition through a newly-built treatment facility, the DOE spokesperson said. The DOE has also set up joint air monitoring stations with Ohio agencies.
The community has “in many respects, lost faith and trust” in DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Ky., which oversees the two former uranium enrichment sites, the Council of Governments said.
Current Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) used a May 6 Congressional hearing to ask Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to set up a meeting between DOE brass and local officials.
Ike White plans to visit the Portsmouth area as COVID-19 conditions allow, according to DOE.
