Need Ed Hartouni's opinion

From the standpoint of systems engineering, there seemed to be some rather major oversights in designing that reactor complex, sited near the ocean and exposed in a seismically active region with a history of tsunamis.

The tension between government regulations and industry interests did not achieve a safe outcome in this case.

Richland, Washington was the first city established to support plutonium production at the nearby Hanford nuclear site, to power the American nuclear weapons arsenals. Ozersk, Russia supported plutonium production to power the Soviet nuclear arsenals at the Mayak nuclear plant. These were the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium for use in cold war atomic bombs.

In the 2013 book on a history of these two blighted cities, Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (Oxford), Kate Brown explores the health of affected citizens in both the United States and Russia, and the “slow-motion disasters” that still threaten the environments where the plants are located. According to Brown, the plants at Hanford and Mayak, over a period of four decades, “both released more than 200 million curies of radioactive isotopes into the surrounding environment -- twice the amount expelled in the Chernobyl disaster in each instance”.

Most of this radioactive contamination over the years at Hanford and Mayak were part of normal operations, but unforeseen accidents did occur and plant management kept this secret, as the pollution continued unabated. Even today, as pollution threats to health and the environment persist, the government keeps knowledge about the associated risks from the public

Plutonium ingested by or injected into humans is transported in the transferrin based iron(III) transport system and then is stored in the liver in the iron store (ferritin), after an exposure to plutonium it is important to rapidly inject the subject with a chelating agent such as calcium complex of DTPA. This antidote is useful for a single one off exposure such as that which would occur if a glove box worker was to cut their hand with a Pu contaminated object. The calcium complex has faster metal binding kinetics than the zinc complex but if the calcium complex is used for a long time it tends to remove important minerals from the person. The zinc complex is less able to cause these effects.

Plutonium that is inhaled by humans lodges in the lungs and is slowly translocated to the lymph nodes. Inhaled plutonium has been shown to lead to lung cancer in experimental animals

About 3.5 tons of plutonium have been released into the environment by atomic bomb tests. While this might sound like a large amount it has only resulted in a very small dose to the majority of the humans on the earth. Overall the health effects of fission products are far greater than the effects of the actinides released by a nuclear bomb detonation. The plutonium from the fuel of the bomb is converted into a high-fired oxide that is carried high into the air. It slowly falls to earth as global fallout and is not soluble, and as a result it is difficult for this plutonium to be incorporated into an organism if ingested. Much of this plutonium is absorbed into sediments of lakes, rivers and oceans. However, about 66% of the plutonium from a bomb explosion is formed by the neutron capture of uranium-238; this plutonium is not converted by the bomb into a high fired oxide as it is formed more slowly. This formed plutonium is more soluble and more harmful as fallout.

Plutonium can also be introduced into the environment via the reentry of artificial satellites containing atomic batteries. There have been several such incidents, the most prominent being the Apollo 13 mission. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package carried on the Lunar Module re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific. Many atomic batteries have been of the Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) type. The Plutonium-238 used in RTGs has a half-life of 88 years, as opposed to the plutonium-239 used in nuclear weapons and reactors, which has a half-life of 24,100 years.[

A medical look at plutonium.

Plutonium is toxic as a result of its radioactivity.

Plutonium is a heavy metal like cadmium and lead. Both are toxic. However, the toxicity of plutonium is worse than could be expected from its 'heavy metal character'. In fact, its toxicity comes from its radioactivity, which is even more malicious than that of most other radioactive materials. Uranium is mildly radioactive and can be held safely in the hand, though it is not wise to make a bed of it. Plutonium is much more radioactive, but surprisingly it can also be held safely, as long as one avoids direct contact with the skin and prevents it from entering the body. This is explained by the special quality of its radioactivity. The "radiation packets" that are produced by plutonium, the so-called 'alpha particles', emerge with great velocity from the plutonium nuclei, but they do not penetrate deeply: the impact craters are less than one tenth of a millimeter deep in the tissues. Here many cells will be killed or damaged. Some of these damaged cells become malignant and will start a cancer.

Plutonium dust originates from inadvertent criticality.

Plutonium dust can be formed in, for example, a so-called criticality accident. We have seen before that plutonium can be held safely in gloved hands. However, if a smuggler should be too successful he risks a disaster. If he should add a new container of plutonium on top of his pile, the total mass of plutonium may become supercritical. Right in front of him the smuggler may witness what is also happening deep in the core of a nuclear reactor: the very chain reaction of nuclear fissions itself. In the exploding nuclear bomb, a similar process takes place, but very fast, in a flash. In a supercritical pile this happens in ominous silence.

Most likely the unfortunate smuggler only sees a sudden blue light and he feels a hot glow passing. Near the center of his stack some smoke may emerge. The chain reaction stops spontaneously, because the supercritical mass has expanded by the heat and fallen apart. Perhaps some packages are still burning a little.

The smuggler however is beyond medical help. Within a few seconds he has received a dose of radiation that equals thousands of X-ray pictures right through his body. That same night he will fall ill. Within days he will die of radiation sickness.

Meanwhile the immediate environment is also in danger. The smoke contains a fine powder of plutonium oxide. The powder becomes lodged by inhalation in the lungs and many years later lung cancer may develop.
Criticality is a treacherous property of plutonium and may come to light when an amount of about 10 kilograms is available: this is the size of a large grapefruit if it is pure and closely packed. However, a pile of bags with plutonium would probably need to exceed 100 kilograms before it becomes supercritical. The average distance between the plutonium atoms is much larger in this case, making the chain reaction less probable. Adding water sharply increases the probability of a chain reaction. The fire brigade had better know that.
Plutonium dust may cause lung and bone cancer.

If somebody inhales plutonium dust, he won't notice anything special. Only 10 to 50 years later is it possible that lung and bone cancer may develop. Once in the lungs, the plutonium dust stays there for many years: sparks that fail to extinguish. Ten per cent of the original dose in the lungs can still be found there after fifteen years (as experiments with beagle dogs have shown). Very slowly the particles move to the lymph nodes of the lungs. When it appears in the blood plutonium "seeks" the bones and the liver. Even when the concentration of the plutonium dust in the air is very low, accumulation of this plutonium in the lung may become a serious burden. The animal experiments have allowed scientists to calculate what may happen in human lungs after inhalation of plutonium dust. They found that as little as a 27 millionth of one gram of plutonium dust (27 micrograms of 239Pu oxide) is enough to cause a lung cancer. That is why in the handbooks the maximum permissible concentration of plutonium is among the lowest of all radioactive substances.

Summary of medical aspects

* Plutonium is toxic as a result of its radioactivity: not outside the body, but very much so inside the body. The smoke of burning plutonium contains microscopic plutonium particles, that may settle in the lungs where the "fire" seems to continue. Therefore, they are called: "hot particles", causing microscopic burns in the living tissues. At the edge of them lung cancer may develop. It was calculated that an amount of 27 micrograms of plutonium-dust is sufficient to cause lung cancer (note: one microgram is one thousandth of a milligram). In experimental animals bone cancer has also been found.

* Congenital defects due to plutonium contamination have not been described as yet.

* Plutonium can go off when it is piled up, a 'criticality' disaster. The pile suddenly produces a flash of penetrating radiation causing acute radiation sickness in those who are in the vicinity of it. The smoke coming out of the burning pile may lodge tiny particles containing plutonium deep in the lungs. Fall-out from an explosion of an atomic bomb also contains plutonium dust, and so does the smoke of a nuclear disaster like 'Chernobyl' and 'Windscale'.

* Traces of plutonium have been found in the environment where children play, like the sea shores of Cumbria, in the Irish sea and near Cap la Hague on the Channel coast; this fact has caused an outcry by the local population. An increase in the occurrence of leukemia amongst children has indeed been found, but causality could not be proved.

* Private properties have gone down in value after being contaminated with plutonium dust. Doctors are unable to convince any buyer about the safety of low level radiation. Because of both the facts and the health fear, leaking plutonium may turn out to be an expensive matter.

* Plutonium has a very long half-life. Thus, its toxicity is a potential health hazard for thousands of years. That poses a moral problem; future people may find it but may have forgotten the danger.

* There are no medical applications for plutonium, like those of radium. Plutonium as a power-generator in pacemakers is now obsolete.

We are being heavily impacted by these