A big job for a little town
Egerton, John
A big job for a little town The people of Erwin may be giving more than their share for national security' JohnEgerton When the Davison Chemical Division of the W.R. Grace Company decided to...
...Forest Service controlled almost half of the county's 185 square miles, and most of what remained was unsuitable for farming...
...What happened to it...
...It's like a baby: it needs its diaper changed—and if they can't do it, we better get us a new babysitter...
...I'm pro-nuke, and I feel it's safe...
...We've never had a fatality at the plant, and very few accidents...
...The 325 hourly-wage employes, all members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, earn an average of $8.33 an hour...
...Why is there so much security out at that plant, and so much controversy...
...These developments did little to settle the community's jangled nerves...
...1 Records of the company and the Atomic Energy Commission for the years before 1968 are so inadequate that no one seems to have any idea how much radioactive material was accidentally released or carelessly lost at the Erwin plant during those years...
...But an Atlanta newspaper reporter claimed in 1978 that soil and water samples he took from Erwin were tested by NRC officials and found to contain 700 times more radiation than the official NRC samples...
...There are hazards, the same as you'd find in a coal mine, or working with asbestos, but it's not like the anti-nuke people say it is...
...The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has alternately penalized the company for safety infractions and served as its interpreter and defender...
...They're trying to help, but this is complicated stuff, and there's a lot that even they don't know...
...NRC has answered them and others in a thirty-four-page document...
...I don't think they're being evasive...
...Davison changed its name to Nuclear Fuel Services...
...Total losses have never been disclosed by the NRC, but published figures have ranged to 400 pounds and more...
...The answers provided by NRC and plant officials to these hard questions have been detailed and exceedingly complex, filled with scientific data and the mystifying terminology of nuclear science...
...Safety and security regulations were tightened, but accounting standards were actually relaxed, permitting NFS to have uranium shortages of more than twenty pounds in each two-month inventory period...
...Stripped to their essence, the answers seem to say this: "There is nothing to fear...
...The union has accused the company of violating health and safety standards—and with equal vehemence has assailed some of the company's critics as "outside agitators" and "communists...
...The process was not well understood locally, but assurances were given by the U.S...
...The people of Erwin, happy to have a new payroll in town, accepted the assurances...
...f Does NFS, like a nuclear power plant, have a probable life span of three decades or so, and does that suggest that the Erwin facility is apt to be closed permanently in a few years...
...Atomic Energy Commission, which had supervisory responsibility for the operation, that the work was not dangerous...
...It is estimated that Americans receive about one-tenth of a Rem of radiation a year from natural sources and the environment...
...They all come in here from someplace else, causing trouble...
...What is the explanation for this discrepancy...
...that these "hot" workers, once disabled, would be dismissed without compensation...
...Four months later, with the investigation still incomplete, the Navy's Admiral Hyman Rickover told the NRC that fuel processing at the Erwin plant was vital and indispensable to the national defense, and the commission promptly voted 4-to-1, with member Victor Gilinsky dissenting, to reopen the facility...
...I haven't seen anybody dropping dead from cancer...
...the U.S...
...The Center for Disease Control study of cancer deaths needs to be resumed, with continuous monitoring...
...Its business, for "reasons of national security," has been shrouded in secrecy, and its officials have maintained a posture of public silence...
...When he led them through a four-month strike in 1979, the key issues were said to be health and safety—and, in particular, a provision that workers exposed to "more than the maximum allowable radiation" would receive long-term disability protection...
...NFS has consistently denied that any of its wastes were ever dumped there, but former employes of the company say they have witnessed such dumping...
...What most people feel, I think, is that it might be dangerous to work there— but the greatest danger is that NFS might run off and leave...
...After the inventory discrepancy was reported in September, the five-member regulatory commission ordered a shutdown of the plant while Federal investigators, including FBI agents, conducted an intensive search for the missing uranium...
...Lonnie Tolley is president of the union local...
...I'm living here by choice, and I want to stay...
...NRC and NFS have a credibility gap here, but my patients trust me...
...I'd like to see the place corrected, not closed...
...It was buried, poured out, reprocessed, maybe even stolen...
...Since we've been back to work, the company has been doing a better job to make it safe, and NRC is holding them to it...
...I'm not asking that the plant be closed...
...Who would make them safe...
...The plant could probably be made to operate safely with proper regulation...
...At the very least, the exchanges have lowered the town's temperature and brought back a measure of tranquillity...
...Nobody knows enough about the dangers...
...And finally, how could the Unicoi County economy sustain the loss of a $12 million payroll...
...rrom these facts, belatedly reported and inadequately explained, has arisen a rash of stories that blend truth and fancy and spread fear in the community: that a lack of care in the operation of the plant has caused some workers to be contaminated by radiation...
...Thanks in large measure to NFS, per capita annual income in the county now exceeds $5,000, and the unemployment rate is less than 5 per cent...
...We have elaborate safeguards to minimize their danger, and NFS has never exceeded the critical boundaries of safety...
...1 Just two miles beyond the river and over the mountain from NFS, a notorious chemical waste dump known as Bumpas Cove was finally shut down after official and private complaints that it posed a serious health hazard...
...Additional workers were hired, and John Egerton, a frequent contributor to The Progressive, is a free-lance writer in Nashville...
...It's a good start," he says, "but we need more...
...At first glance, the transformation of this isolated mountain town from poverty to moderate prosperity seems to be a classic example of community achievement through industry...
...But much more information is needed," Strimas adds, "on such matters as the long-term effects of low-dose radiation and the safe disposal of radioactive wastes...
...In 1968, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission replaced the Atomic Energy Commission as the Government overseer of the plant, and a year later, W.R...
...The more information we have, the more facts, the better...
...I'm not at all interested in seeing the plant shut down or moved...
...that the cancer rate in Unicoi County doubled in the first twenty years of the plant's existence...
...That is what I want to know...
...I just want to see it cleaned up and run right...
...Now, Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) is the central pillar of the Unicoi County economy...
...Grace Company decided to build a plant in the Tennessee mountain town of Erwin twenty-four years ago, leaders of the little community were so pleased that they helped to raise some money for the purchase of a plant site on the nearby Nolichucky River...
...We've gone too far to turn back...
...They don't care that this plant is important to the community and vital to the country—they just want to shut it down...
...But I'll tell you this much: I don't agree with the NRC...
...At the public hearing last December, Jim Fingar asked some penetrating questions...
...After the recent efforts of the company and the NRC to address our questions, I feel much better...
...What is the truth of the matter, and what responsibility, if any, should NFS have for cleaning up Bumpas Cove...
...People fear what they don't know...
...Is NRC in favor if it...
...It's not that people are against nuclear power—they just want care and caution, and no coverup...
...I wouldn't want to be quoted on this," a retired NFS employe said...
...If that happens, this town will die...
...Development in the town and surrounding Unicoi County had been stymied by poor roads and a lack of usable land...
...The uranium materials handled by NFS are not fissionable, not by themselves explosive, not even highly radioactive...
...Or as one questioner put it, "If the stuff builds up and doesn't decay for a quarter of a million years," does that mean that the radiation problem gradually grows worse and worse...
...1 Finally, this question, posed at the public hearing to a top official of the NRC: "Is this plant being monitored twenty-four hours a day by somebody from your office that knows what is going on there that can tell me that that plant is safe today and will be safe tomorrow and next week and next month and ten years from now...
...Navy's nuclear submarine fleet...
...I think everybody understands that it's not a power plant out there—there won't be a meltdown, or a radiation blanket— but what are the risks we're taking...
...Throughout 1980, NFS continued to process nuclear fuel for the Navy while the people of Erwin waited anxiously for the NRC to account for the missing uranium and to assess the consequences of the accidentally released radioactive particles...
...Erwin needed industry...
...They'll stand up and fight for their jobs...
...Off and on for the past decade, and almost continuously since 1979, Erwin has been gripped by strife and controversy, and NFS has stood in the center of the storm...
...Besides the Fingars, one more of the eight physicians in Erwin has publicly expressed deep concern about the unknown consequences of uranium mishandling at NFS...
...But if I have to tell them that we could not get all the facts, or that the facts don't support our hopes, then we will face some serious difficulties...
...These expressions of alarm began to bubble to the surface in 1979, shortly after the settlement of a long and bitter union strike, when two disturbing disclosures were made by NRC officials...
...Jim Fingar and his wife Ann, both physicians, came to Erwin to practice in 1979, when the community was in turmoil, and they soon found themselves in the midst of it...
...Nuclear power, in my opinion, is safe—it's people that make the risk...
...Finally, in October, more than a year after the two incidents, the commission announced that virtually all of the inventory shortage had been traced to the plant's ducts and smokestacks, its waste disposal systems, and its walls and floors...
...There are, however, at least three generally accepted facts: U On three or more occasions in the past, the NFS plant has accidentally released into the atmosphere a cumulative total of more than forty pounds of radioactive uranium hexafluoride...
...If any hell needs raising, we'll do it ourselves...
...What would become of the plant buildings...
...But we don't need outsiders raising hell...
...A "Rem" is a complex measure of radiation exposure equivalent to about seven micrograms...
...Is NFS looking toward such a move...
...I hope when all the facts are in, we will feel confident that if the plant is operated strictly according to regulations and no accidents occur, it will pose no threat to people or the environment...
...that radioactive wastes have been routinely dumped into the river and buried both on and off the plant site...
...Conversations in stores and offices and on street corners— particularly conversations with strangers—are still guarded by suspicion and uncertainty, but there is at least some willingness to talk...
...While the slow process of fact-gathering proceeds, NFS continues to operate under the watchful eyes of workers, Erwin residents, and the NRC...
...Stomas says his slowly growing awareness of people's anxiety about problems at the plant "led me into a long process of self-education that is still going on...
...People around here," said Sheriff Roby Osborne, "would lots rather work than take welfare...
...He is proud of the fact that 100 per cent of the eligible workers at NFS belong the union...
...We have a bonafide need to know all the facts, and when the facts are in, we can convey them to our patients, who make up the community...
...If To how much radiation have area residents been exposed over the years, and what has been the cumulative effect...
...This plant could be made as clean as a brewery, and kept in use for years and years...
...There is little doubt, though, that the totals were higher then than they have been since...
...There is a danger here, no question about it...
...In the mid-1960s, the company landed a lucrative Federal contract to process fuel for the U.S...
...The NRC officials went on to say that since the weather conditions at the time of the accident were not unfavorable, and since no one was known to have inhaled the released material, the risk to persons in the plant vicinity was thought to be minimal...
...Local officials, including the mayor—who is also the NFS company doctor—have steadfastly supported the company, and newspapers in the area have tended, in the main, to ignore the controversy altogether...
...Grace sold the enterprise to the Getty Oil Company...
...It makes some of us proud, and as far as the money goes, it's been a blessing...
...I'm just concerned—many people are—and I'm trying to get answers...
...It is the only plant in the United States processing uranium hexa-fluoride into tiny spheres of carbon-coated nuclear fuel to power the reactors in the Navy's submarines and aircraft carriers...
...Would they be left contaminated...
...Those of us who are physicians are in a position to lead the way to a solution of this community problem...
...1 Continuous environmental monitoring by NRC has indicated no measurable radiation effects to water, soil, and plant life in the area...
...But a closer look reveals a starkly different picture...
...Workers in the plant have not been seriously contaminated by radiation, nor have residents of the community...
...1f On numerous occasions since 1968, NFS has been shut down by the NRC after routine inventories showed that excessive quantities of highly enriched uranium could not be accounted for...
...At a public meeting in Erwin last December, and again in a closed session with local physicians the following month, NRC officials stoutly maintained that in spite of all the alarms about accidents and missing uranium, NFS had never come close to exceeding the Government's health and safety standards, and the company's twenty-four-year presence in Erwin had done no measurable damage to workers, residents, or the environment...
...How much radiation are we getting...
...They live here, and it shows their concern...
...I'm one to think that if you appeal to good judgment and common sense, you can work anything out...
...If it wasn't, I wouldn't be there—and I've been there fifteen years...
...What we don't know, and what we're waiting to find out, is whether the blessing is turning out to be a curse...
...that the missing uranium was stolen for terrorists to use in making nuclear bombs...
...But the NRC, which officially encouraged the initial study, has shown no interest in the Center for Disease Control's recommendation that follow-up studies be made in the county periodically...
...It's strange how this little town ended up with this important job," an Erwin resident mused...
...The first was that an undetermined amount of uranium hexafluoride had accidentally been released into the atmosphere at NFS on August 7. The second was that a routine bimonthly audit of radioactive materials at the plant had revealed a shortage of more than twenty pounds of uranium...
...The Davison plant put a few dozen local people to work in a complex chemical process involving atomic materials...
...Radiation is like God—you can't hide from it, and if you don't respect it, you'll be called to pay for your sins...
...The plant and the Government need to be honest with the people who work there and the ones that live in the community...
...Why is the NRC reluctant to endorse close professional monitoring of cancer deaths in the vicinity of the plant...
...that the plant is so contaminated that NFS will soon abandon it, leaving the community with a permanent cancer threat and an empty purse to pay for the damages...
...There's all kinds of feelings about that plant— there's fear—but we need the payroll...
...Maximum allowable exposure of workers at the Erwin plant is 210 micrograms, or thirty Rems a year in the lungs...
...Some thoughtful listeners to this dialogue say they are reassured by what they have learned...
...According to the local newspaper, the company employs more than 600 workers and has an annual payroll of $12 million...
...I don't mind the doctors asking questions...
...But just as insistently, one speaker after another rose to question the performance, the motives, and even the veracity of both the company and the NRC...
...But if they keep losing uranium, it'll be the end of all of us...
...If it is hard to tell the players in this fracas without a program, it is even more difficult to determine where the truth lies in the tangle of fact and fiction, rumor and innuendo, hard questions and highly technical responses surrounding it...
...He is John Stri-mas, a pediatrician who has practiced in Erwin for the past four years...
...As for the consequences of the atmospheric release, which was calculated to be 300 to 3,000 grams (up to 6.6 pounds), NRC officials concluded that under the worst possible weather conditions, "the [radiation] dose to the bone of a child at the nearest residence would have been twenty-one Rems...
...Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control showed a marked increase in cancer deaths in Unicoi County, but concluded that the small size of the population sample and its higher-than-average age made the findings "statistically insignificant...
...For more than a decade, Davison prospered in Erwin...
...If I can say to them, 'All our questions have been answered and the truth is very reassuring,' then there will be strong support for the company, because the jobs it provides are absolutely vital to the local economy...
...others remain skeptical...
...I'm not sure that anyone knows all the facts—and some people are scared to see them come out...
...exactly how much more, NRC officials would not say...
...Among the questions were these: f A 1978 study by the U.S...
...The exact amount of uranium lost in the two-month period was not made public, but individuals in a position to know placed the total at forty-eight pounds...
...Among doctors and nuclear scientists there is much disagreement on the effects of exposure to radiation, but our medical and scientific specialists assure us that the massive body of evidence supports the position that no adverse health effects have resulted from the presence of this plant in Erwin...
...We got basically what we were after," Tolley says...
...Some factory jobs were available in Johnson City, twelve miles to the north, but for many Unicoi Countians, finding work meant leaving home—and each year, scores did...
...What we need is some clear answers...
...The roster of critics has included local and national anti-nuclear groups, commissioners and staff members of the NRC, several physicians in Erwin and Johnson City—and both local and national representatives of the union itself...
...By their own admission, the plant has lost hundreds of pounds of high enriched uranium down through the years...
...This is not a dangerous place to work or to live...
Vol. 45 • April 1981 • No. 4
