Officials to test water from Ohio village near Cold War-era weapons plant after newspaper probe
Authorities in Ohio plan to test the groundwater supply across a village near a former weapons plant after a newspaper investigation published Friday found high levels of radioactivity in samples taken at a school, athletic field, library and other sites.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been removing tons of contaminated soil from the Cold War-era site since 2018 and has long maintained that residential areas were not affected by the work.
However, The Blade in Toledo said its tests showed radioactivity levels 10 times higher than normal in water from a drinking fountain at Eastwood Middle School, 45 times higher than normal at the Luckey Library and 1,731 times higher than normal at a water pump near athletic fields.
'We've got to get to the bottom of this,' said Lt. Col. Robert Burnham, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Buffalo District, which oversees the cleanup.
Nineteen of the 39 samples collected by the newspaper from well water across Luckey — at homes, businesses, and public places — showed radioactivity at least 10 times greater than what the federal government calls normal for the area, the newspaper said. The Blade hired an accredited private lab to conduct the testing.
The radioactivity detected was primarily bismuth-214, which decays from the radioactive gas radon-222. Experts agree that high levels of bismuth-214 suggest high levels of radon are also present.
Radon exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers.
The testing also found low levels of radioactive cobalt-60, a man-made isotope, in two wells. Experts called that finding extremely rare.
Taehyun Roh, a Texas A&M University scientist who specializes in environmental exposures, said regulators should also conduct air and soil testing to assess the extent of the contamination and identify the source.
"Since this area likely has high radon levels, testing for radon in both air and water is advisable,' he wrote in an email. 'A safe drinking water advisory should be issued, recommending the use of bottled water until further assessments and mitigation measures are in place.'
The Corps of Engineers has long maintained that residential drinking water was not being contaminated by the removal work. Burnham and others said they still believe that to be true, citing thousands of their own soil samples.
The state Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health will lead the testing. In an email, Ohio EPA spokesperson Katie Boyer told the newspaper the contaminant levels in the public drinking water are still 'within acceptable drinking water standards.' She said any concerns raised by the state testing would be addressed.
The 44-acre industrial site — 22 miles (35 kilometers) south of Toledo — was long crucial to America's nuclear weapons program. In the 1940s, farmland was replaced by a sprawling defense plant that produced magnesium metal for the Manhattan Project. In the 1950s, the plant became the government's sole source of beryllium metal for nuclear bombs, Cold War missiles and Space Race products, including a heat shield for Project Mercury.
'Things that happened generations ago are still affecting us,' said Karina Hahn-Claydon, a 50-year-old teacher whose family lives less than a mile from the site. 'And that's because the government didn't take care of it.'
Private drinking wells, unlike municipal systems, are not regulated, and responsibility for testing is left to owners. The Blade's testing took place from April 2024 through January.
Radioactivity has been linked to an increased risk of various cancers, including blood and thyroid cancers.
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Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Nuclear troops given unnecessary x-rays in Britain's first atomic bomb test
A hidden document has revealed that troops were given unnecessary x-rays on their way to take part in Britain's first atomic bomb test in the 1950s Troops were given potentially harmful x-rays in a secret biological monitoring programme as part of Cold War weapons tests. Hundreds of Royal Engineers were ordered to submit to the medical examinations without any clinical reason or benefit. The evidence has emerged from a medical officer's journal, hidden for decades at the Atomic Weapons Establishment behind top secret security classifications. Thousands of servicemen were subject to similar orders as Britain developed its nuclear arsenal over the decade that followed. Pam Hill, whose dad Jim Stephenson took part in Operation Hurricane in 1952, said: 'He was sent to do his duty and he did it. Afterwards he had serious gut problems, and 40 years of a severe lung disease which eventually killed him. Seven months are missing from his medical records. It was always on his mind that the whole lung thing was caused by being out at Montebello. If he had chest x-rays at the time, it might have answered all our questions.' Jim's lung condition, bronchiectasis, can be caused by radiation. His children have also suffered unexplained illness, with miscarriages, coeliac disease, and spinal issues. His teenaged grandson has almost no adult teeth. While the cancer risk of an x-ray is small, it increases if done repeatedly. It can be justified only if there is a therapeutic benefit - and for healthy troops already examined and found to be A1-fit, there was none. The Mirror 's three-year investigation of the Nuked Blood Scandal has already uncovered thousands of blood and urine tests given to troops, with the results withheld from their medical records. Now we can reveal there was a third and potentially-harmful form of monitoring, using x-rays. If men had damage as a result of inhaling radioactive particles, it could show up as dark shadows on their lungs. What happened to healthy people living amid fallout was unknown, but since 1947 human experiments have needed informed consent, full communication of the risks involved, and the right to withdraw. A consultant radiologist told the Mirror: 'There was a clear understanding at the time that radiation caused tumours. From a military standpoint you'd probably get ethical approval because it's an unknown and there were civil defence concerns. You would want to know what proportion later developed a problem, what the damage was, whether it rectified itself or led to longer term damage. There would always be a duty of care to the patients. 'To not keep those records long-term would be considered a massive breach of research protocol. There would be redress, and punitive fines. Perhaps more importantly for the veterans, someone would have looked at all these x-rays and made an assessment, written a report on the outcomes. Where is that now?' READ MORE: Video emerges of Defence Secretary saying nuke veterans scandal "shames us as a country" The medical journal covers the weeks shortly before Operation Hurricane in 1952, Britain's first nuclear bomb test, which detonated in the hull of an old warship off the Montebello Islands in Australia. Just over 200 Royal Engineers were ordered to join the fleet, to build jetties, camps and laboratories near Ground Zero. The journal states: 'They came aboard only a few hours before we sailed, and I did not discover until after that it is not a routine in the army to have the chest x-rayed at yearly intervals. Accordingly I had them all done at Royal Naval Hospital Malta.' The log was discovered on a top secret database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, locked on the grounds of national security risks. Labour ministers have ordered the entire archive to be published, but have not commented on why it was a state secret, or why it is not one any more. The Ministry of Defence has spent decades denying it experimented on troops. Few survive from that first operation, and government studies have found they have increased risks of bladder, skin, stomach and 'unspecified' cancers. They also have elevated rates of suicide. Jim's former comrade, Dixie Kidd, 92, said: 'At one point after the bomb we were ordered on to shore to collect things the scientists had left behind, tins of food, raw vegetables. Others were picking up dead sea birds. After we left, I was in a contingent ordered to take readings from the things we had found, two hours on, two hours off. The numbers were to establish the radioactive half-life. 'On the way home, our pay books were taken off us and they put into each one we had been exposed to 5 rads of radiation. All of us the same. I wondered how that was possible, and why I never got ill when so many of my mates did.' Documents seen by the Mirror state that anyone with a dose over 5 rads could no longer be employed on the operation. A higher recorded dose may also have led to war pensions. Another ex-sapper, Eric Waterfield, from 71 Field Squadron, has seen his daughters suffer reproductive issues. He said: 'Three years after Hurricane, a surgeon found a growth in my lung. He said it was better in the bucket than in my chest, so he had it out, and that was the last I heard of it. If there were chest x-rays, it might explain things.' The bogus classification of information about the experiments is now the subject of a criminal complaint to the Met Police, which is considering further action. The missing medical records are being sought in a civil suit estimated to cost the MoD up to £5bn in aggravated damages. Campaign group LABRATS has asked the Prime Minister for a meeting to find a cheaper, quicker route to truth and justice, but has received no reply. Founder Alan Owen said: 'This biological monitoring was done to see what would happen to the British civilian population if attacked. Troops were the only people who could be ordered into fallout and told to stay there, under threat of a court martial. 'We have found veteran after veteran has medical records that are missing this vital data. Without it, medical diagnosis and treatment are harder and war pensions next to impossible. 'All we want is for the most mistreated veterans in British history to get a fair deal - to be heard, to get justice, and to get an apology.' A spokesman for the MoD said: 'The Minister for Veterans and People has commissioned officials to look into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway. This work will enable us to better understand what information the department holds regarding medical testing of service personnel.'
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Inside dystopian town blitzed by 450 nukes plagued by suicides & cancer-riddled families issued ‘radiation passports'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) GROWING up in the most nuked place on Earth, Maira Abenova has helplessly watched as cancer spread through her family. After years of living near the Semipalatinsk Test Site, she told The Sun how the devastating impact of the radiation "did not spare any family". Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 14 The Semipalatinsk Test Site is the most nuked place on earth Credit: Getty - Contributor 14 The Semipalatinsk region in eastern Kazakhstan was a nuclear test site for the Soviet Union Credit: AFP - Getty 14 The Cold War relic sits near the border with modern day Russia Credit: Corbis Historical - Getty 14 Lake Shagan, also called the 'Atomic Lake', highlighted, is an offshoot of the Shagan River Credit: Wikipedia 14 Known as the Polygon, the 7,000 square mile nuclear testing site in north east Kazakhstan was nuked by hellish bombs from 1949 to 1989. Having been hit by a quarter of all nuclear explosions in history, Semipalatinsk Test Site was an atomic playground for Soviet scientists which was kept secret for decades. Its infamous 'Atomic Lake' was blasted into existence 60 years ago by a bomb ten times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. And one of the site's most destructive detonations reportedly caused four times as many instances of severe radiation poisoning as the Chernobyl disaster. Following 40 years of nuclear explosions which wreaked havoc on nearby communities, the consequences are still felt today. Kazakh authorities dished out eerie "radiation passports" to help and identify victims of the fallout - but these have failed to fully cover the tragic repercussions. Local resident Maira Abenova told The Sun: "After more than 30 years have passed, we can now say that for 40 years, an atomic war was waged on our beautiful land." Now a mum and grandma, Maira was raised in the neighbouring high-risk town of Semipalatinsk, which is by the Russian border and is today known as Semey. She is also the founder an advocacy group for victims of the tests called Committee Polygon 21. Maira detailed the tragic consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site which have scarred her own life. Inside 'world's most dangerous town' Wittenoom where just breathing could kill you "In 1971, before turning 60, my mother died of esophageal cancer," she said. "At that time, we could not know the cause of this disease." After losing her mum, her sister passed away in 2013, nearly 25 years after the last recorded nuclear test. "In 2013, literally a month after surgery, my older sister passed away from breast cancer," Maira explained. Her husband was the next loved one to die as a result of the radioactive fallout. She said: "My husband was diagnosed with stomach cancer - he lived in agony for only a year and a half before he passed away." Maira continued: "Just a few months after my husband's funeral, my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer. "He survived only three months." The devastating consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site then caught up with Maira herself. "Last autumn, I was diagnosed with the same disease," she said. "I had an operation, but I don't know how much time I have left. "Our medical system offers little hope - not because we lack good doctors, but because the healthcare system, especially in our region, is in a deeply deplorable state." 14 Maira Abenova told The Sun what it was like growing up in Semipalatinsk 14 Image of the Chagan nuclear test, which created the 'Atomic Lake' on January 15, 1965 Credit: Wikipedia 14 It features a notorious 'Atomic Lake' Credit: WIKIMEDIA 14 She added: "The worst thing is when doctors diagnose cancer. It's like a death sentence. "A sentence of a painful death. Without proper help and treatment." Maira also noted that her local cancer clinic was "always overcrowded". Kazakhstan authorities estimate 1.5 million people have been exposed to the test site's residual fallout. Nearby populations suffered elevated rates of cancer, heart disease and infertility which were all linked to the tests. More babies were born with defects, missing limbs, Down syndrome and other disabilities - while the number of suicide rates among young people also rose. A local city hall official even made the shocking claim that "people in the villages got used to suicides", according to a UN report. And grandma-of-two Maira confirmed this epidemic, saying that after the closure of the site, the higher rates of suicide were known as "Kainarsky syndrome". Despite the first ever bomb going off on August 29, 1949, four years after the end of World War II, radiation levels are still elevated, and children continue to be born with genetic mutations. Maira said: "This evil did not spare any family." Reflecting on these haunting health impacts, she described the aspect that continues to trouble her most. "As for the photos showing the aftermath of the tests, I'd say the most frightening consequences aren't the physical deformities or developmental anomalies," she said. "But rather the lingering fear — the fear of dying from an illness that might not be visible on the outside. "The fear of a young woman giving birth to a child with disabilities, and so on." 14 A total of 456 nuclear tests were conducted at the site Credit: AFP - Getty 14 Maira's very own 'radiation passport' 14 Statue of Igor Kurchatov, the 'father' of the Soviet nuclear program, in the city he was named after Credit: Getty The campaigner also detailed a closed-off town called Kurchatov which was built as the headquarters for the testing site and was only accessible with an official pass. Codenamed Semipalatinsk 21, the base was full of nuclear scientists and military officers, and located on the picturesque bank of the Irtysh River. The top-secret town had 50,000 or so inhabitants who were all supplied with high quality produce sent straight from the capital. Meanwhile, locals outside the town lived in relative squalor with "empty store shelves", Maira explained. "It was built in a short time," she said of the city, which has been dubbed the Soviet version of Los Alamos. "Since the city was built by the military, it resembles a military town - strict lines and no frills." The activist added that scientists timed each blast to match the wind direction - making sure the deadly fallout always blew away from their own HQ. And typical Soviet cover-ups meant that even the locals were unaware of the nearby tests for years. "We didn't know about it until the late 1980s, when information about the terrible tests conducted near us began to leak out to the public," she recalled. Semipalatinsk's role in the Cold War by Harvey Geh Semipalatinsk Test Site, also known as the Polygon, played a central role in the Soviet Union's push to win the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. On August 29, 1949, the USSR detonated its first-ever atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, just four years after the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That explosion - codenamed RDS-1 or "First Lightning" - ended America's nuclear monopoly and officially launched the Cold War arms race. It was a near-copy of the US-made 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb, which America dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. Following the landmark explosion, Semipalatinsk became the main site for testing each nuclear development the Soviet Union made, including hydrogen bombs and experimental warheads. This allowed the USSR to gain data on blast yields and radiation fallout. From its inception in 1949 to its closure in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, 116 bombs were detonated in the atmosphere, while 240 exploded underground. A law created in 1992 meant victims could apply for a "radiation passport", which confirmed their exposure to the fallout and qualified them for certain benefits. Each person who had their application approved was given a little beige book with a big blue mushroom cloud on its front cover. Those holding their own document could then receive things like monthly compensation cash and longer holidays. This system was said to have worked in its initial phases. But these days, the scheme is ineffective, according to Maira. She is now part of a renewed push to improve compensation and bring real justice to the lives of many who have been impacted. Maira said: "The law that was passed in 1992 is effectively defunct today, and its current provisions are discriminatory." 14 Observation tower ruins at the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan Credit: Getty 14 The nuclear scientists were based in Kurchatov, named after renowned Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov Credit: Getty The passport grants holders £30 per month in benefits - barely enough to cover current medical costs - and those who move to live in a different region are disqualified from getting the money. Many locals have reportedly found it challenging to get official recognition for their children to also obtain the document. Emphasising the importance of petitioning for better support, Maira explained: "The hardest thing for us is that we feel doomed and unprotected." Maira also heads the human rights organisation DOM, which has also played an important role forming initiatives aimed at protecting the rights of victims of nuclear tests. She says on social media that for the last three years, the organisation has been working "to shape new ways of addressing victims, to achieve significant change, and to expand dialogue with the state and the international community." Maira has won awards for her work supporting victims of the tests and participated in UN meetings calling for the ban of nuclear weapons. She left Committee Polygon 21 earlier this month but continues to work with victims of nuclear fallout through her leading role at DOM. It is believed that more than one million people resided in and around Semipalatinsk - but today, only a few thousand people remain. The International Day against Nuclear Tests occurs every year on August 29, the day the first bomb went off in Semipalatinsk Test Site. Despite neighbouring locals living through the nuclear fallout of the site, it remains unclear exactly how dangerous living in the region is today. Scavengers have excavated the site in hopes of selling off scrap metal, while locals are known to use the "Atomic Lake" as a fishing spot. Maira said she was aware locals like to go fishing there as they "have come to believe that it is safe". But since the landscape has been marred by nearly half a century of nuclear bombing, she said the area had partly lost its beauty. "It is more reminiscent of the surface of the moon," she said. "A steppe and granite hills that have crumbled over time... scattered across by the atomic explosions."
Spectator
2 days ago
- Spectator
Why is China rushing to grow its nuclear arsenal?
China is growing its nuclear arsenal at a faster pace than any other country on the planet, according to new figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It estimates that Beijing now has more than 600 nuclear warheads and is adding about 100 per year to its stockpile. That means that by 2035, it will have more than 1,500 warheads, still only a third of the arsenal of each of Russia and the US, but nevertheless an enormous increase and a marked shift away from its proclaimed policy of 'minimum deterrence'. To facilitate this expanding arsenal, China is building fields of new missile silos in its western desert regions. The Federation of American Scientists, which identified the silos via satellite imagery, has described them as 'the most significant expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal ever.' China is engaged in one of the largest military build-ups ever seen during peacetime The Pentagon believes China is planning to quadruple its nuclear weapons stockpile by 2030, and its fears have been further heightened by People's Liberation Army (PLA) tests of nuclear-capable hypersonic weapons designed to evade America's nuclear defences. One test involved the launch of a rocket into space, which circled the globe before releasing into orbit a highly manoeuvrable hypersonic glider. The nuclear-capable glider – which has been likened to a weaponised space shuttle – had the ability to surf along the earth's atmosphere before powering down to its target at up to five times the speed of sound (hence the hypersonic). Hypersonic weapons are far more difficult to detect and destroy than traditional ballistic missiles. This week, China's foreign ministry spokesperson insisted: 'China has always adhered to the nuclear strategy of self-defence, always maintained its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security, and has not participated in the arms race.' This claim is almost as hackneyed as that of China's 'peaceful rise', but understanding China's evolving military doctrine is especially challenging because Beijing 'is refusing to take part in nuclear arms control talks. China last year suspended talks over arms control and nuclear proliferation with the US ostensibly because of American arms sales to Taiwan. However, Beijing has always been a reluctant participant. It is engaged in one of the largest military build-ups ever seen during peacetime, yet there are none of the protocols and little of the depth of mutual knowledge about capabilities and intentions that existed and provided a level of stability during the last Cold War with the Soviet Union. Western strategists believe that one aim of the rapid nuclear build-up is to deter America from coming to the defence of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and which it has repeatedly threatened to invade. The thinly disguised message to Washington is that America is deluding itself if it thinks a conflict over Taiwan could be contained to the immediate area and not endanger the American homeland. Trying to make sense of China's military doctrine is made all the more challenging by an ongoing purge at the top of the PLA and a heightened level of intrigue surrounding both the army and the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Earlier this year, General He Weidong, the number-two officer in the PLA and a member of the CCP's 24-strong politburo, was removed from his post. This followed the disappearance of Miao Hua, a navy admiral and one of six members (along with He) of the party's powerful central military commission, which is chaired by President Xi Jinping. Miao was also head of the PLA's political works department – charged with ensuring CCP control over the military. The PLA is a party organisation, and in the military pecking order, Miao was regarded as more powerful even than defence minister Dong Jun. Rumours have also swirled that Dong himself has been under investigation. He appears to have survived, at least for now, but if deposed, he would be the third successive defence minister to face corruption charges. China's rocket force, the most secretive and sensitive branch of China's military responsible for overseeing in part all those shiny new nukes, has also been the target of an extensive purge. Those targeted included the two heads of the force. Among others purged have been a navy commander responsible for the South China Sea and several others responsible for procuring equipment – long a notoriously corrupt part of the military. When Xi came to power in 2012, he pledged to clean up the PLA, which ran a business empire so big that preparing for war often appeared to be a secondary concern. In spite (or possibly because of) Xi's efforts, the graft only seems to have got worse – though it should be noted that 'corruption' is frequently used as a catch-all and a pretext for the removal of those considered insufficiently loyal to the leader. Because many of those now being targeted include Xi's hand-picked officials, it will inevitably be seen as an indictment of his abilities and judgement. This week's figures from SIPRI certainly confirm the worrying extent of China's nuclear ambitions. For the country's top brass charged with wielding these fearsome weapons, however, navigating the corridors of power at the pinnacle of Xi Jinping's capricious CCP is proving considerably more dangerous than the battlefield.
