Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993 TAG: 9312080158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"It left me appalled, shocked and deeply saddened," said Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary about information she learned only recently that 18 civilians had been injected with highly radioactive plutonium in the 1940s to determine what doses workers might be exposed to safely.
"It is apparent that informed consent could not have taken place," she said. All the individuals are dead, although many lived for years after the experiment.
Learning of the plutonium tests "just gave me an ache in my heart," she said.
Her department released summaries of previously secret information about nuclear tests in Nevada, the amount of plutonium produced and now located at weapons factories, and limited information about government tests during the 1940s and '50s on humans to determine the health effects of radiation doses.
O'Leary said she was personally stunned by information she has received about the human testing, although she said she was prevented by privacy laws - and an ongoing internal review - from disclosing details at this time.
Recently the Albuquerque (N.M.) Tribune reported the testing and identified five of the 18 individuals. Those five persons were injected with plutonium as part of work being done by the Manhattan Project in the 1940s in the development of the first atomic bomb.
O'Leary directed that as much information as possible be released, perhaps as early as June, on the tests involving the 18 people as well about 800 other radiation tests involving some 600 individuals.
The fact that some tests were done on humans in connection with the government's nuclear program has been known for years, but few details have been available and officials have said the participants always were aware of the potential danger.
O'Leary said in the case of the 18 individuals whose cases are being investigated she would not rule out a possible lawsuit against the government by survivors. The last of the 18 died two years ago.
Tara O'Toole, assistant secretary for environment, safety and health, said some of the 800 tests on which documents are being assembled were "perfectly legitimate, perfectly valid" but that others - especially those involving plutonium doses - were clearly questionable.
O'Leary said of the plutonium-related tests "the majority of the experiments were clearly below . . . the standards of correctness."
Meanwhile, the department said it conducted 204 more underground nuclear tests between 1963 and 1990 at its Nevada test range than previously had been announced, or about one-fifth more than officially acknowledged over the years.
Thirty-four of the tests resulted in some release of radiation into the environment, but officials said in each case the contamination was confined to the vast Nevada test area and did not affect workers.
The additional tests, bringing the total to 1,051, were concealed in an attempt to keep the Soviets from finding out about them. Nevertheless, the Soviets all along have claimed there have been 1,080 U.S. tests.
The Soviet surveillance was not always on target, however, said Roger Heusser, deputy director of classification at the department. In at least two cases, there were diplomatic protests of tests when, in fact, none occurred.
by CNB