
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990                   TAG: 9007130171
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ARMS PLANT IRRADIATED THOUSANDS

Radioactive iodine released from the sprawling nuclear weapons facility at Hanford, Wash., exposed as many as 13,500 nearby residents to heavy doses of radiation to their thyroid, scientists reported Thursday after a two-year review of once-secret government records.

People who live downwind reacted with anger and relief about the government's disclosure that enough radiation spewed from the base to cause cancer.

"I feel like they used us for guinea pigs, and I don't feel like they cared one iota what happened to us, either, or our families," said Betty Perkes, of nearby Pasco.

Although the vast majority of the 270,000 people in the vicinity received only low exposures during the peak of emissions, 1944 to 1947, infants and young children may have received huge exposures.

The estimates said 13,500 residents could have received cumulative exposures of up to 33 rads in those years. Among about 1,400 youngsters drinking milk from cows just to the west of the complex, the median dose was 70 rads.

Theoretically, the report said, a small number might have gotten a whopping 2,900 rads.

One rad is the amount of radiation a body organ would absorb from about a dozen chest X-rays.

The study is intended to create computer models of possible radiation doses to nearby residents.

by CNB