Plutonium Plant Research Articles

On the formation of the first Soviet industrial service of dosimetric control at the Ural nuclear plants (1945–1960)

The subject of this research is the process of organizing dosimetric service on the example of the Ural nuclear complex, primarily, the most powerful plutonium plant, the pioneer of the domestic nuclear industry – “Mayak” chemical plant in the 1945 – 1960. In the course of development of complex and hazardous for people and nature nuclear technologies, the problems of radiation protection of personnel at the first nuclear facilities became urgent, as most employees have been exposed to radiation. This required a set of emergency measures to create of safe working conditions and organize dosimetric control of nuclear energy workers. Based on the declassified archival documents, a substantial part of which is being introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time, as well as the reminiscences of the Soviet nuclear project participants, the article describes the peculiarities of formation of the first domestic service of industrial dosimetry, and provides periodization of this process. This defines the scientific novelty of the research. The use of historical and genetic method allowed outlining the prerequisites for the creation of the service of dosimetric control of the nuclear energy workers, its conditionality by the specificity of implementation of the Soviet uranium project, and a range of attendant problems. The method of historical periodization determined the key stages in organizing the dosimetric service in the context of establishment of the nuclear industrial complex. The historical-retrospective method allowed assessing the results of the activity of the scholars, leadership of the chemical plant “Mayak”, experts of dosimetric service aimed at solution of the issues related to radiation protection from the standpoint of time distance. The conclusion is made that the first domestic dosimetric service formed during the difficult period of the development of plutonium production in the Ural Region and committed work of its employees considerably contributed to ensuring safety of working conditions and preserving health and lives of thousands of the participants of the crucial for the country nuclear project

Plutonium plant removal halted after radiation releases

The U.S. Department of Energy has called for 42 actions to correct safety deficits that led to a series of radioactive releases during demolition of the now-closed plutonium processing facility at the former Hanford nuclear weapons production site in Washington state. The actions include better application of coatings and use of other technologies to control spread of radioactive contamination, broader radiation boundaries, improved air-dispersion measurement and modeling, and greater involvement of site workers as demolition moves ahead. Several hundred workers were tested for radiation exposure after the releases, and results showed that several dozen workers had inhaled or ingested detectable radiation but at levels acceptable to the department. Site remediation is currently halted and will resume after the Washington State Department of Ecology and EPA are satisfied the operation is safe, officials say. During World War II and the Cold War, the Hanford site was one of more than 100

Where Is the China-Pakistan Relationship Heading—Strategic Partnership or Conditional Engagement?

Andrew Small's book The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics provides a fascinating account of Sino-Pakistani all-weather friendship, covering various facets of this relationship. This is a substantial contribution to existing debate on subject. Small very eloquently explains both countries' perceptions and understandings of each other and reveals complexities and conditionality of bilateral relationship. An additional strength of book lies in author's use of primary sources to substantiate his various arguments. Yet while book covers various aspects of China-Pakistan relations, in my view this can at best be characterized as strategic and instrumental in nature.The China-Pakistan partnership is one of long-standing relationships in region, one that continues to grow stronger in an era that is witnessing significant changes at regional and international levels. However, Beijing's approach and strategy to engagement with Islamabad has changed over years as China's economic and military influence continues to grow. Recently, ties have been further deepened by China's huge financial commitment to infrastructure development projects in Pakistan as part of new China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is connected to Beijing's ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative. views Pakistan as an important neighbor with a geostrategic location, having landroute access to Persian Gulf and occupying an important position in Islamic world. Pakistan's key role in facilitating normalization of relations has also been acknowledged by Chinese leadership. Former Chinese president Hu Jintao's statement that China can give up gold but not its friendship with Pakistan1 and President Xi Jinping's statement that China and Pakistan are good neighbors, good friends, partners and brothers and that the friendship between two countries is deeply rooted and unbreakable2 are indicative of China's long-term commitment to Pakistan. This aspect of is well captured in The China-Pakistan Axis.The first chapter of book looks at India as a key factor in formation of China-Pakistan friendship during early years. Here, Small provides a comprehensive account of how developed between two countries over three crucial wars (the 1962 Sino-Indian War, 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, and 1971 Indo-Pakistani War). The book rightly argues thatChina and Pakistan have never been treaty allies and their armies come from such radically different traditions that two sides have often talked past each other on matters of strategy. But after Pakistan's devastating defeat (in 1971), helped country to develop a set of military capabilities to ensure that it would never face same fate again. (p. 3)To enhance Pakistan's military capabilities, fully backed and supported Pakistan's nuclear ambitions through close cooperation, making Pakistan only nuclear weapons country in Islamic world. The central motive was to neutralize India's nuclear weapons.The second chapter presents a fascinating narrative account of this nuclear cooperation. Small depicts China's role in helping Pakistan obtain nuclear weapons and nuclear-capable missiles by supplying not only technology but also necessary expertise and materials, including highly enriched uranium. Small correctly notes that if military lies at heart of China-Pakistan ties, nuclear weapons lie at heart of military relationship (p. 29). But most interesting dimension explained in book is what this actually has meant both for Pakistani military and for its Chinese counterpart. When Pakistani foreign minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto traveled to in 1965 to tell leaders there that India had built a plutonium plant and ask them to help Pakistan build a similar one, suggested that Pakistan get assistance from Canada. …

Securing the nuclear nation

In 1946, in the Southern Urals, construction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics first plutonium plant fell to the GULAG-Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD). The chief officers in charge of the program – Lavrentii Beria, Sergei Kruglov, and Ivan Tkachenko – had been pivotal figures in the deportation and political and ethnic cleansing of territories retaken from Axis forces during WWII. These men were charged with building a nuclear weapons complex to defend the Soviet Union from the American nuclear monopoly. In part thanks to the criminalization and deportation of ethnic minorities, Gulag territories grew crowded with foreign nationals and ethnic minorities in the postwar years. The NKVD generals were appalled to find that masses of forced laborers employed at the plutonium construction site were members of enemy nations. Beria issued orders to cleanse the ranks of foreign enemies, but construction managers could not spare a single healthy body as they raced to complete their deadlines. To solve this problem, they created two zones: an interior, affluent zone for plutonium workers made up almost exclusively of Russians; and anterior zones of prisoners, soldiers, ex-cons, and local farmers, many of whom were non-Russian. The selective quality of Soviet “nuclearity” meant that many people who were exposed to the plant's secret plutonium disasters were ethnic minorities, people whose exposures went unrecorded or under-recorded because of their invisibility and low social value.

Nuclear denial: From Hiroshima to Fukushima

Governments and the nuclear power industry have a strong interest in playing down the harmful effects of radiation from atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Over the years, some scientists have supported the view that low levels of radiation are not harmful, while other scientists have held that all radiation is harmful. The author examines the radiation effects of nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in 1945; nuclear weapons testing; plutonium plant accidents at Windscale in England and Chelyabinsk in the Soviet Union; nuclear power plant emissions during normal operations; and the power plant accidents at Three Mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. In each case, he finds a pattern of minimizing the damage to humans and attributing evidence of shortened life spans mostly to stress and social dislocation rather than to radiation. While low-level radiation is now generally accepted as harmful, its effects are deemed to be so small that they cannot be distinguished from the much greater effects of stress and social dislocation. Thus, some scientists declare that there is no point in even studying the populations exposed to the radioactive elements released into the atmosphere during the 2011 accident at Fukushima.

Exploring English for the Nuclear Industry in Biographical Films: Oppenheimer and Silkwood

There is an increased interest in using filmic texts, both fictional and documentary, in the ESP classroom. Medical and legal fields have seen considerable fictional representation, but the nuclear industry has not been wholly forgotten by the creators of popular drama. Film and television programs offer visually contextualized discourse in nuclear-related scientific settings. This study analyses the oral discourse features of the 1980 BBC series Oppenheimer: The Father of the Atomic Bomb and Mike Nichols’ 1983 film Silkwood, based on the life and death of a plutonium plant worker and union member Karen Silkwood. The contrasting linguistic and thematic elements help to form distinctive representations of nuclear industry professionals, thereby offering rich sources of oral discourse, especially for learners requiring proficiency in English for Scientific Purposes (ESP).

The Forsaken: The Unfinished Business of Making Plutonium in Russia

For Nadezhda Kutepova, the path to becoming a human rights lawyer started in her hometown in the Southern Russian Urals. I met Kutepova in the summer of 2009 while doing research on Ozersk, a closed city specially built in the 1940s for workers of the vast Soviet plutonium plant called Maiak. One thinks of a nuclear site as being staffed with highly educated scientists and technicians, gingerly and knowledgeably running complicated machinery to irradiate uranium and process it into plutonium. But unlike a weapons lab, a plutonium plant is a vast factory employing thousands of blue-collar workers who push carts, run bulldozers, measure solutions, plumb, build, scrub, repair, and guard doors. And like most factories, the plutonium plant polluted liberally. In fact, plutonium production is the messiest stop on the vast assembly line of nuclear weapons production.

North Korea's nuclear factory hits snags

American scientist reports setbacks at plutonium plant.

Plutonium targets the p16 gene for inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in human lung adenocarcinoma.

Lung cancer from radon or (239)plutonium exposure has been linked to alpha-particles that damage DNA through large deletions and point mutations. We investigated the involvement of an epigenetic mechanism, gene inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in adenocarcinomas from plutonium-exposed workers at MAYAK, the first Russian nuclear enterprise established to manufacture weapons plutonium. Adenocarcinomas were collected retrospectively from 71 workers and 69 non-worker controls. Lung adenocarcinomas were examined from workers and non-worker controls for methylation of the CDKN2A (p16), O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), death associated protein kinase (DAP-K), and Ras effector homolog 1 genes (RASSF1A). The prevalence for methylation of the MGMT or DAP-K genes did not differ between workers and controls, while a higher prevalence for methylation of the RASSF1A gene was seen in tumors from controls. In marked contrast, the prevalence for methylation of p16, a key regulator of the cell cycle, was increased significantly (P = 0.03) in tumors from workers compared with non-worker controls. Stratification of plutonium exposure into tertiles also revealed a striking dose response for methylation of the p16 gene (P = 0.008). Workers in the plutonium plant where exposure to internal radiation was highest had a 3.5 times (C.I. 1.5, 8.5; P = 0.001) greater risk for p16 methylation in their tumors than controls. This increased probability for methylation approximated the 4-fold increase in relative risk for adenocarcinoma in this group of workers exposed to plutonium. In addition, a trend (P = 0.08) was seen for an increase in the number of genes methylated (> or =2 genes) with plutonium dose. Here we demonstrate that exposure to plutonium may elevate the risk for adenocarcinoma through specifically targeting the p16 gene for inactivation by promoter methylation.

Comparisons of the Skeletal Locations of Putative Plutonium-Induced Osteosarcomas in Humans with those in Beagle Dogs and with Naturally Occurring Tumors in both Species

Osteosarcomas occur from exposures to bone-seeking, alpha-particle-emitting isotopes, particularly plutonium. The skeletal distribution of putative 239Pu-induced osteosarcomas reported in Mayak Metallurgical and Radiochemical Plutonium Plant workers is compared with those observed in canine studies, and these are compared with distributions of naturally occurring osteosarcomas in both species. In the Mayak workers, 29% and 71% of the osteosarcomas were in the peripheral and central skeleton, respectively, with the spine having the most tumors (36%). An almost identical distribution of plutonium-induced osteosarcomas was reported for dogs injected with 239Pu as young adults. This distribution of osteosarcomas is quite different from the distributions of naturally occurring osteosarcomas for both species. In the Cooperative Osteosarcoma Study Group in humans (1,736 osteosarcomas from all ages), over 91% of the tumors occurred in the peripheral skeleton. In the Mayo Clinic group of older individuals (>40 years old), over 60% of the osteosarcomas appeared in the peripheral skeleton. The distribution of naturally occurring osteosarcomas in the canine is similar to that in the adult human. The similarities of the distributions of plutonium-associated osteosarcomas in the Mayak workers with those found in experimental studies suggest that many of the reported osteosarcomas may have been associated with plutonium exposures. These results also support the experimental paradigm that plutonium osteosarcomas have a preference for well vascularized cancellous bone sites. These sites have a greater initial deposition of plutonium, but also greater turnover due to elevated bone remodeling rates.

Pathomorphological peculiarities of microcirculatory bed in bronchial wall in workers employed in mining and chemical industry.

Morphological alterations of microvessels in bronchial mucosa and blood capillaries of alveolar septa during endobronchitis were examined in workers employed at a plutonium plant and not employed residents (Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Region). Alterative, destructive, and dysadaptive changes in pulmonary vessels of workers were paralleled by developing reparative and adaptive processes in neighboring capillaries.

A river lost: the life and death of the Columbia

After a two-decade absence, Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden returned to his small-town birthplace in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of the West's most thoroughly conquered river. Harden's hometown, Moses Lake, Washington, could not have existed without massive irrigation schemes. His father, a Depression migrant trained as a welder, helped build dams and later worked at the secret Hanford plutonium plant. Now he and his neighbors, once considered patriots, stand accused of killing the river. As Blaine Harden traveled the Columbia-by barge, car, and sometimes on foot-his past seemed both foreign and familiar. A personal narrative of rediscovery joined a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river now tamed to puddled remains. Part history, part memoir, part lament, this is a brave and precise book, according to the New York Times Book Review. It must not have been easy for Blaine Harden to find himself turning his journalistic weapons against his own heritage, but he has done the conscience of his homeland a great service.

Hanford Health Information Archives Offers Unique History of Exposure to Radiation in US Northwest

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY in Spokane, Wash, the health agencies of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and 9 Indian nations have collaborated to establish a unique repository of health and other personal information from the Hanford downwinders, individuals who were or may have been exposed to radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation plutonium plant (known as the Hanford Site). The Hanford Health Information Archives, which opened July 24, will collect, preserve, and make available to the public unedited health records, questionnaires, and other personal information provided by the downwinders. According to the Hanford Health Information Network, the Hanford Site was established by the United States government in 1943 to produce plutonium, such as that used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9,1945—3 days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The events precipitated Japan's surrender on August 14, 1945. This plant was the first reactor in the world

NUCLEAR TESTING: Nevada, U.S.S.R.

Nevada movement targets Soviet nuclear testing; How U.S. intelligence pinpointed Kyshtym's plutonium plant; Open Skies treaty could mean cheaper verification.

High-tech protest against plutonium plant

The Energy Department thought it was doing Idaho a favor by giving it a newfangled plutonium separator. But some Idahoans thought otherwise, and found scientists and Hollywood stars to back them up.

Morbidity and mortality in Los Alamos County, New Mexico: I. Methodological issues and preliminary results

Cancer among Los Alamos County, New Mexico, male residents, all of whom have worked in or have lived within a few kilometers of a major plutonium plant and other nuclear facilities, has been reviewed with respect to mortality between 1950 and 1969 and incidence between 1969 and 1974. A possible excess of neoplasms of the reticuloendothelial system was detected, but the incidence data suggest that this excess, if real, is no longer occurring. Several potentially causal occupational exposures have existed. Higher than expected incidence, currently, of cancers of the colon and rectum appears to be explained better by socioeconomic than occupational factors. Neither mortality nor incidence data suggest an excess of lung cancer in Los Alamos males. Healthy worker and healthy military effects, white ethnicity, and migration are discussed as intervening variables relevant to interpreting mortality data in counties dominated by a single major facility. The utility of county data bases in the study of single local area mortality rates is reviewed.

A Review of the Italian Activities for the Thermal Recycling of Plutonium

Extensive and mutually complementary development programs were implemented by the Italian Government Agencies for power generation (ENEL) and for nuclear research (CNEN) to investigate and assess the possibility of recycling plutonium in the thermal reactors on an industrial scale.Within ENEL’s program a total of 16 plutonium-bearing fuel assemblies were fabricated by industrial techniques and, subsequent to some open-vessel physics tests, they were loaded into the Garigliano BWR, providing about 10% of the reactor power. Within CNEN’s program, (a) a 24 000 m2 plutonium plant was built at CNEN’s Casaccia Center near Rome, (b) a series of physics experiments was performed both in the United States and in Italy, (c) a series of out-of-pile experiments is under way, in different loops for the thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical testing of the fuel assemblies, and (d) a series of mixed-oxide fuel irradiation tests, of progressively increasing difficulty, is now under way on capsules, pins, bundles, and prototypical fuel assemblies.

Plutonium-239 and americium-241 contamination in the Denver area.

Procedures and results of an experimental investigation of 239Pu and 241Am contamination in the environs of the Rocky Flats plutonium plant and elsewhere in the greater Denver area are presented and discussed. Measurements of 239Pu and 90Sr in the top 1 cm surface layer of soils show that in this layer the 239Pu contamination in offsite areas just east of the Rocky Flats plant ranges up to hundreds of times that from nuclear tests. In the more densely populated areas of Denver the Pu contamination level in surface soils is several times fallout. The depth distribution of 239Pu in undisturbed soils in the more heavily contaminated areas show that the contaminant is concentrated largely in a thin surface layer. Results for soils of known last date of disturbance make it evident that most of the offsite Pu accumulated between 1966 and 1969. This corresponds to the period in which Pu in an oil spill area on the plant site was exposed and subjected to wind reentrainment. 241Am, which grows in from 241Pu present in the contaminant, now contributes between 3 and 15% as much alpha activity as 239Pu and ultimately will approach comparable levels. The important unknowns and uncertainties involved in the estimation of inhalation exposures and the carcinogenic risks from the 239Pu contamination in the environs of Rocky Flats are briefly reviewed.

Nuclear Engineering and Wildlife: Radioactivity in Jackrabbits after the Sedan Test

After the Sedan thermonuclear test of July, 1962, at the Nevada Test Site, black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) were collected from two areas within the local fallout pattern. The maximal tissue burdens measured were 9,700 nc of iodine-131 per gram of thyroid, 3.6 nc of cesium-137 per gram of muscle ash, 25.3 nc of strontium-89 per gram of bone ash, and 0.3 nc of strontium-90 per gram of bone ash. Estimated infinite doses to thyroids from iodine-131 were as high as 4,000 rems. The muscle of jackrabbits did not contain enough cesium-137 to render the meat unsafe; a person consuming one of the most highly contaminated rabbits might have incorporated 5 to 10 nc of cesium-137. Possible biological effects of the Sedan test in areas beyond the zone of close-in destruction are considered, and some problems in evaluating the ecological impact of nuclear engineering on wildlife resources are discussed. Research pertaining to wildlife resources and the development of atomic weapons and nuclear energy have been interrelated for more than 20 years. Following the construction of a plutonium plant on the Columbia River by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1943, the University of Washington was asked to examine the possible influences of the plant operations on the life of the river. The Applied Fisheries Laboratory was created and this work was carried out under the direction of Lauren R. Donaldson, a fisheries biologist. It is not surprising, then, that the attention of wildlife biologists was first focused on radioactivity in aquatic environments (Higgins 1950, 1951). But before the Bikini tests of 1946 there was little concern over the possible contamination of fisheries resources as a result of the uptake of radioactive materials by aquatic organisms. Hines (1962:35) points out: Although the concept of such circulation was not altogether new, its relevance in the Bikini situation seems not to have been realized, and (p. 24) that: there seems to have been no concern for the possibility of radioactive contamination of fisheries resources. .. . Of course the subsequent xperience of the British in Australia (Loutit and Russell 1961) and of our own biologists at the Nevada Test Site (Lindberg et al. 1954, 1959) showed that similar problems existed in land environments. Subsequently, radiation biology and studies of wildlife resources have been related in two ways. First, radionuclides have been us d in the study of management problems otherwise unrelated to radiobiology (Carrick 1956, McCabe and LePage 1958, Constantine et al. 1959, Fineman et al. 1963, Hanson and Case 1963). The use of radionuclides to mark individual animals has practically become a science in itself, and a good review of such procedures is available (Tester 1963). Second, radioactive substances occur in the environment, and may be detrimental to native plants and animals. Are there situations in which ani1This study was supported by contract AT(041) GEN-12 between the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and the University of California. 2 Present address: Tempo, General Electric Co., Santa Barbara, California.

Plutonium Production

A five‐year extension of the General Electric Company's contract with the Atomic Energy Commission for operation of the plutonium‐producing Hanford Works, near Richland, Washington, and the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Schenectady, New York, was announced in September by Atomic Energy Commission and General Electric officials. The extended contract will run until June 30, 1956. General Electric has operated the Hanford plutonium plant for the government since September, 1946.