Radioactive Cesium Spill Cooks Europe
by John M. LaForge

SPAIN - In late May, high measurements of radioactive cesium-137 activated alarm systems in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Greece. The plume of cesium-137 fallout marked the worst nuclear contamination on the continent since the 1986 Chernobyl powerplant disaster, which spewed between 4.5 and 9 billion curies of fallout across Europe and around the world.

Cesium-137 is water-soluble and extremely toxic in minute amounts. Once released into the environment, it remains radioactively lethal for 300 years. It can cause cancer 10, 20 or 30 years from the time of ingestion, inhalation or absorption.

The cesium cloud was traced to an accident at the Acerinox steel mill and smelter in Algeciras, Spain on May 25. The smelter was charged with melting down imported scrap metal. The mishap occurred even though "the scrap metal was screened for radiation." According to Spain's Nuclear Security Council (CSN), "the apparatus containing the cesium-137 was lined with radiation-resistant material, and so it did not show up."

On June 13, Reuters reported "a sharp rise in radiation levels detected across Europe" on June 1 and 2. France's Institute for Nuclear Protection and Safety (ISPN) observatory in Toulon-La Seyne showed radioactivity levels 2,400 times higher than normal, causing a health scare in Switzerland. Similar elevations were registered in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Greece.

Despite these findings, Spanish, Swiss and French government agencies claimed that the contamination did not threaten public health. The French daily Le Figaro dismissed the cesium cloud as "a tempest: the poorly managed proliferation of small nuclear doses." France's ISPN declared the accident "was thought to pose no health risk."

Although the accident occurred May 25, it wasn't until June 9 that Acerinox disclosed high radiation levels in its furnace and fly ash. Only then was a connection made between the steel mill and the surge in cesium contamination across Europe.

The Acerinox accident was not made public until the Spanish Nuclear Security Council (CSN) made an official announcement on June 11.

The Italian government has accused Spain of failing to make the leak public and the Spanish branch of Greenpeace has accused Spain's nuclear authorities of a cover-up. The Madrid-based environmental group Aedenat is considering a criminal suit against Acerinoz, the CSN and the foreign suppliers of the cesium. Acerinox uses scrap from the Netherlands, the US, Canada, the UK and Germany.

On June 17, Spanish Minister of Industry and Energy Josep Piqui declared that the likely source of the cesium-137 was medical X-ray equipment, but the CNS disputed this theory as "impossible."

Acerinox workers wore no protective gear to shield them from the cesium's gamma and beta radiation. Contaminated parts of the factory have been sealed off. It was not until June 15, 20 days after the accident, that exposed workers were given whole-body radiation checks.

For three weeks, the contaminated equipment, buildings and ash-hauling equipment at Acerinox poisoned employees, visitors, delivery personnel, and perhaps even their families.

On June 18, the CSN announced that cesium-137 also had contaminated two processing facilities that had accepted waste ash from the Acerinox mill. One of the trucks used to haul the ash was heavily contaminated. The Spanish magazine El Pais reported June 19 that the two contaminated factories in Huelva and Badajoz were shut down and access to irradiated areas had been forbidden.

Despite all these measures, Spanish officials continued to assure the press that factory workers had "received no radiation exposure."

In April 1998, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to set radiation exposure standards that would, for the first time, allow the smelting of radioactively contaminated scrap metal (RSM) along with regular scrap for the production of consumer goods. In 1998, in response to public and industry criticism, the EPA abandoned this proposal [Summer '98 EIJ]. It has now been taken up by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Allowable RSM exposure limits have not yet been approved. EPA Cleanup and Reuse Director John Karhnak used the term "safe exposure" in a phone interview September 1, but agreed that the phrase "allowable exposure" is better, since the EPA formally acknowledges that "there is no level below which we can say an exposure poses no risk."

The NRC has promised to conduct nationwide public hearings on its proposed RSM radiation exposure standards. Roughly 1.6 million tons of radioactively contaminated scrap is currently awaiting disposal in the US. Some 45,000 tons of it is produced every year as a result of decommissioning and decontamination work at nuclear power and weapons facilities. The holders of some 10,000 NRC radioactive materials-handling licenses also produce RSM. Licensees include pharmaceutical corporations, smoke detector companies, road builders, oil well drillers, and university, corporate and government scientists.

The threat of hidden or "orphaned" radioactive metals - like those that caused the cesium cloud that poisoned Europe - should put an end to any further consideration of RSM smelting in the US or anywhere else.

What You Can Do: Express your concerns to Bob Meck, c/o the NRC, 11545 Rockville Pike, MS P9C24, Rockville, MD 20852 and John Karhnak, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, Radiation Protection Division, EPA, 401 M Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20460.

John M. LaForge is the editor of The Pathfinder, the quarterly publication of Nukewatch [$25/year, P.O. Box 649, LUCK, WI 54853, (715) 472-4185, fax: (715) 472-4184, nukewtch@win.bright.net]