Takoma Park, Maryland (May 3, 1999): The U.S. Department of Energy is exposing members of the general public to needless radiation risks by leasing contaminated buildings at its Oak Ridge site in Tennessee to private companies, according to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER).

An article in the May 1999 issue of IEER's newsletter, Science for Democratic Action, says DOE's "rush to rent" is caused by a desire to generate funds to accelerate and reduce the cost of cleanup at Oak Ridge. The so-called "reindustrialization" program now under way at DOE's Oak Ridge site may be used by the agency as a model for other cleanup facilities.

Workers employed by DOE's new tenants at Oak Ridge are not provided the same health and safety protections as the agency's own employees. As a result of DOE's "rush to rent," IEER says that lessee workers may be subject to radiation exposure without proper training and oversight.

DOE is renting the contaminated facilities as part of its "reindustrialization" program, an attempt to save money on cleanup at the Oak Ridge site. Until the Oak Ridge uranium enrichment facility was closed in 1987, a gaseous diffusion process produced highly enriched uranium (HEU) for use in nuclear weapons, including the Hiroshima bomb. Substantial radioactive and other hazardous contamination remain on the Oak Ridge site, located about 20 miles northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee.

The safety of the leased buildings has been questioned by organized labor, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and even DOE itself. One DOE building now occupied by private sector workers has 35-foot high ceilings but its walls have been decontaminated to only 8 feet above ground. Moreover, cleanup work in the building is taking place near lessee workers, which can increase health and safety risks by resuspending radioactive and other hazardous particles.

"The DOE has been leasing radioactively contaminated buildings at Oak Ridge for three years without a clear idea of who is responsible for lessee worker health and safety, without adequate health and safety protections, and without even an agreement about the standard of protection to be afforded to the lessee workers" said Lisa Ledwidge, editor of IEER's quarterly newsletter Science for Democratic Action, and author of the research that revealed the radiation risks. "The DOE is thereby extending to new groups of workers its lamentable Cold War record of unnecessary exposures to health risks that are poorly documented."

Even though lessee workers are not doing work for the DOE, the agency has set a high limit for permissible radiation exposure -- 5 rem per year, the maximum for a DOE "general worker." This is 200 times higher than the EPA annual exposure limit for members of the general public from nuclear fuel cycle activities, which is 25 millirem. Moreover, the 5 rem standard is being applied to the lessee workers without the benefit of a rigorous radiation protection program including training, inspections, and thorough individual exposure monitoring, as is required of DOE general workers.

The DOE is also leasing Oak Ridge contaminated facilities without external oversight of worker health and safety. Instead it is using the clauses in its leases as the primary means for ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations. But this entails a clear conflict of interest because Oak Ridge, as landlord, needs to lease the space to fund cleanup and support economic development.

"Instead of cleaning up and reducing public exposure, the DOE is bringing the public into contact with the contamination," said Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER. "That's wrong. If contaminated facilities are to be leased at all, rigorous measures of training, monitoring, and oversight should be put into place to ensure that the workers are not exposed to more radiation than is allowed for the general public."

Oak Ridge also appears to be out of compliance with a legislative requirement that stipulates that before entering to any lease, the DOE must obtain agreement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the property is "clean enough" for transfer. The DOE claims that the rule does not apply to the Oak Ridge reindustrialization program, only to cleanup activities with a specific end state of "economic development." But the EPA maintains that it is not prudent to continue leasing property at Oak Ridge to the private sector. In addition to failing to obtain EPA approval, Oak Ridge has ignored worker and public concern about the leasing process.

Mary Bryan of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, a grassroots group that monitors the Oak Ridge site, is also critical of the Oak Ridge approach to reindustrialization. "DOE-Oak Ridge claims the facilities and the workers are safe, but has not provided enough data for external agencies to determine whether or not this is truly the case. Until the buildings are proven to be safe and the lessee workers are adequately protected, the reindustrialization program at Oak Ridge should be stopped. "

"The DOE created the problem by premature leasing. Therefore it should suspend leasing and compensate the lessees for costs they will incur to move their operations and workers," said Ms. Ledwidge.

IEER also recommends that the DOE:

• Establish enforceable protection standards that classify lessee workers as members of the general public so far as maximum permissible exposure to radiation or other harmful substances is concerned. The applicable radiation exposure regulation should be the EPA 25 millirem fuel cycle limit for the maximally exposed individual.
• Create clear regulations and guidelines under which all parties, including DOE and the lessees, can be held accountable for worker protection.
• Establish clear, continuing comprehensive external oversight of worker safety and environmental and public health protection, including involvement of workers and the public as well as monitoring and documenting potential and actual worker exposures.
• Obtain EPA approval before entering into any lease agreement, with the additional proviso that the 25 millirem dose limit to the maximally exposed individual should apply.

IEER is a non-profit organization in Takoma Park, Maryland that provides the public and policy-makers with clear, thoughtful studies on a variety of energy and environmental issues.