Researchers Find Amchitka Seafood Safe For Now

Seafood Safety

"The findings should provide assurance to both those who depend on theIsland's marine environment for subsistence food and for thesignificant commercial fishing interests of the region," said CharlesW. Powers, principal investigator for the consortium. He noted thatexpedition scientists sampled and analyzed for radionuclides many typesof biota in the seas at Amchitka and a reference site, nearby Kiska:"Rutgers' Joanna Burger developed a program that has assessed these twomarine regions as completely as has any previous single-year study of adefined marine area."

In fact, the university consortium found that all levels ofradionuclides were "far below" any human health food safety standardand were similar to levels found in other marine sites in the NorthernHemisphere. Further, the levels in these organisms are lower now thanthey were immediately following the nuclear test shots. Thesebiological analyses may now form a baseline for future testing ofbiota.

The consortium conducting the study was the Consortium for RiskEvaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), an interdisciplinarymulti-university organization that for a decade has independentlystudied and reviewed risk issues associated with the cleanup andlong-term stewardship of legacy wastes at US Department of Energysites. Its principal investigator Powers, is Professor of Environmentaland Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ.CRESP-related Universities whose scientists participated in theAmchitka study in addition to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks were:Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Vanderbilt University, theUniversity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, University ofPittsburgh, and University of Alberta.

Collaboration

A distinguishing characteristic of the CRESPstudy was the collaborative process that generated it and then shapedthe actual work. Prior to its undertaking the study, four diverseentities (the State of Alaska, DOE, the Aleutian/Pribilof IslandAssociation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) had to agree on theplan developed by CRESP. And that plan specifically called forinvolvement of affected groups in the study. "It was the most rewardingand productive collaboration in my 30 years of marine research to havethe honor of working with Aleut fishermen and other colleagues in theexpedition itself", Burger said.

The Physical Data

Analysis of current biological contamination was linked to otherstudies. The group's geophysical studies present no evidence that thenuclear test materials have entered the seas there. Although its workwas limited in scope, the team directed by University of Alaska's MarkJohnson did not clearly locate near-shore seepage of the island's owngroundwater. Exploration of the island itself by University ofAlberta's Martyn Unsworth turned up additional new information. Byusing advanced remote sensing to explore the rock substructure, it hasfound clear evidence that the likely path to the sea of any nuclearmaterial that leaves the cavities created by the nuclear test shotswill travel more slowly than previously thought.

Challenge for the Future

Vanderbilt's David Kosson drew an implication from the geophysical workhe coordinated for this project: "In one sense, these findings pose adifficult challenge for those responsible for protective monitoring ofthe remote Amchitka Island since the presence of long-lived radioactivematerials will require long-term attention to a site that mayeventually pose potential risk to future generations." There is nocurrently known technology to address the radioactive shot cavitiesthemselves; hence future surveillance is needed and the study serves toprovide baseline data for that effort.

The Catalyst

In 2000 the Governor of Alaska specifically requested that DOE agree tofund and to ask that group, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation withStakeholder Participation (CRESP) to do such an analysis. After theSecretary of Energy agreed and a 2002 CRESP/UAF workshop suggested atechnical path forward, the State and the Department signed a Letter ofIntent that assigned the four party team (see above) to approve a planfor the needed research and to help assure the independence of theCRESP study. 18 months after CRESP was given partial funding and theactual go-ahead in February 2003, it is reporting these substantiveresults.

Interpreting Complicated Data

One of CRESP's challenges was to analyze biological samples for a longenough time to know what levels of radionuclides were actually there(since some radionuclides are present in any marine system). It hadthen to distinguish whether what it did find might have come from thenuclear tests -- or was from other sources such as fallout, or even wasnaturally-occurring. For example, CRESP wrestled with what it meant tohave more algae samples showing plutonium from Amchitka and more fishsamples showing Cesium-137 from the reference site at Kiska. In allthese cases the data was consistent as levels were both safe and whatwould have been expected anywhere in oceans in the Northern Hemisphere.CRESP PI Charles W. Powers says: "CRESP people are committed toexplaining how we thought through all of the complicated issues posedby the data since the public deserves to have the same peace of mindthat we have about what we found."

Study Distinctiveness

• Voluminous (300 pages of direct report and more than 1000 pages of appendices), many of which will now go directly into the academic literature.
• Required recruitment and coordination of unusually diverse scientific talent. Fourteen senior scientists from 6 major universities were involved in the work.
• Field work in a very remote and taxing environment: Six senior scientists leading 18 additional researchers and 4 members from A/PIA launched into the Bering Sea toward Amchitka and Kiska from Adak Island, already the western most settled community in the Western Hemisphere, and worked in cold seas and heavy winds most of the time.
• CRESP people, including those from UAF, made clear and unambiguous efforts consistently to reach out to affected Aleut communities as they defined their scientific plan and then included Aleuts on the expedition itself to aid in collection of samples.

What is CRESP?

It is interdisciplinary multi-university organization through whichsenior scientists and their laboratories have, for ten years, studiedand reviewed risk issues associated with the cleanup and long-termstewardship of legacy wastes at sites involved in the nation's nuclearweapons production process that began in the 1950's. CRESP wasspecifically created to address the recommendation by the NationalAcademy of Sciences that the U.S. Department of Energy's EnvironmentalManagement Office needed an independent academic mechanism to researchand review risk problems related to nuclear waste management. Its PI,Powers, is also President of IRM, a non-profit whose current work is toadminister the Consortium.

Who developed the Science Plan for this study and edited this report?

JoannaBurger, Ph.D., Rutgers University Professor of Biology, head of theCRESP Ecological Health Center of Expertise and leader of CRESP'sAmchitka biological studies; David Kosson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair,the Department of Civil And Environmental Engineering, VanderbiltUniversity, head of the CRESP Remediation Center of Expertise andleader of CRESP's Amchitka geophysical and radiological analysisstudies. Michael Gochfeld, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Environmental andOccupational Medicine at RWJMS-UMDNJ, is an occupational physician whowas responsible for approving and implementing the Health and SafetyPlan for this rigorous expedition. David Barnes, Ph.D., AssociateProfessor /PE, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department hascoordinated The University of Alaska-Fairbanks' participation in CRESP

Powers and these four researchers led the Science Plan effort andedited the draft report. Arthur Upton, M.D., a noted radiobiologist andformer Director of the National Cancer Institute, now clinicalprofessor at RWJMS-UMNDJ, led a subcommittee of the CRESP Peer ReviewCommittee he chairs in issuing a review of the draft. The Amchitkareport editors amended their draft in response and issued a finalreport.

These reports and other Information about CRESP can be obtained from its web site www.cresp.org

Additional quotes about the Report from CRESP people:

Peer Review of the Draft: Before releasing the report, CRESP did, as ittypically does with important studies, ask its distinguished peerreview committee to review its draft report so it could improve thefinal version. Arthur Upton, former director of the National CancerInstitute and chair of the CRESP Review Committee on behalf of itssub-committee on Amchitka said of that draft: "The methods were wellconceived, expertly applied and have produced results that aredefinitive and thereby enable conclusions that should be meaningful toall concerned ... . In view of the high quality of the studiesreported, and their failure to find evidence of the release ofradioactivity from the shot cavities into the surrounding environment,the results that are presented should be reassuring to concernedstakeholders."

Complexity from beginning to end: "I continue to be in awe of thepersistence and skill of the CRESP people. We sent them with everyprotection we could reasonably devise, but the fact that the expeditionwas executed safely and successfully in this forbidding environment isquite extraordinary. And then we found that the challenge of analyzingour data proved every bit as difficult as the expedition itself.Intellectually honest and nimble people -- when they are reallycompetent -- will find a way to find out the facts. This is a study ofwhich we are all very proud," said Charles W. Powers, CRESP PrincipalInvestigator and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine,Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ

Project Efficiency: "I am excited by the fact that we were able, withinthe very short single season of work, to add so significantly to thegeophysical understanding of Amchitka and its marine environment. Iworked with excellent teams from four good research universities."David Kosson, head of the CRESP Remediation Center of Expertise andProfessor and Chair, the Department of Civil And EnvironmentalEngineering, Vanderbilt University.

Collaboration and Productivity: "It was the most rewarding andproductive collaboration in my 30 years of marine research to have thehonor of working with Aleut fishermen and other colleagues on thisimportant project to determine that our commercial and subsistencefoods are safe free from radionuclide damage for us, the sea lions,halibut and the eagles of Amchitka." Joanna Burger, Rutgers UniversityProfessor of Biology, head of the CRESP Ecological Health Center ofExpertise and leader of the CRESP Amchitka biological studies.