Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation: - Clark University

viii List of Figures
Figure 6-1 The United States nuclear weapons complex comprised dozens of industrial
facilities and laboratories across the country .......................................................71
Figure 6-2(a) The first external monitoring devices were pocket ionization chambers and
pocket dosimeters (basically tubes the size of pens containing a wire with
an electrical charge that decreased upon exposure to radiation) ..........................72
Figure 6-2(b) Pocket dosimeters were replaced by film badges. A worker here is pictured
checking film badges in 1974 ...............................................................................72
Figure 6-3 Located at the Hanford site in Washington and completed in September
1944, the B Reactor was the world’s first large-scale plutonium production
reactor ...................................................................................................................74
Figure 6-4 Plutonium is handled through a glovebox at the Plutonium Finishing Plant
at the Hanford site .................................................................................................75
Figure 6-5 A low-level solid waste burial ground at Oak Ridge National Laboratory ..........76
Figure 6-6 The effect of exposure age on the risk of cancer mortality in Oak Ridge
workers .................................................................................................................77
Figure 6-7 Radiation-safety technicians check workers for contamination before
they exit a Rocky Flats facility .............................................................................77
Figure 6-8 Today the X-Y Retriever Room at Rocky Flats is used to store surplus
plutonium ..............................................................................................................78
Figure 6-9 Association between lung dose and lung cancer mortality among Rocky
Flats workers employed for 15-25 years ..............................................................79
Figure 6-10 A pool type reactor at the Livermore facility is pictured here ..............................80
Figure 6-11 Dr. John Gofman (second from left) at the time that this photo was taken
(1960s) was the first Associate Director for the Biomedical Program at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ...........................................................80
Figure 6-12 Barrels of transuranic waste site on a concrete pad at the Savannah
River Site ..............................................................................................................81
Figure 6-13 A worker holding uranium metal product at Fernald ............................................82
Figure 6-14 A facility at Hanford for treating persons injured by embedded radioactive
particles (circa 1967) ............................................................................................86
Figure 8-1 The process of uranium mining and milling from ore to its reactor useable
form is depicted here .........................................................................................103
Figure 8-2 Uranium mines in the US are predominantly located in the southwest and
central parts of the country .................................................................................105
Figure 8-3 Many uranium mines were located on Native American reservations ...............107
Figure 8-4 Dependence of lung cancer risk estimate on dose based on a combined
analysis of the lung cancer mortality risk in 11 cohorts of miners .....................108
Figure 11-1 Radiation emissions and incidence of lung cancer, 1981-1985, in the TMI
10-mile area ........................................................................................................130
Figure 11-2. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory map the
plumes of radiation originating from the Chernobyl accident ............................132
Figure 12-1 A map showing the approximate location of worldwide commercial nuclear plants
145
Figure 12-2 A leaky drum at the 903 pad at Rocky Flats. Photo courtesy of the U.S.
Department of Energy ........................................................................................148
Figure 12-3 Native Americans from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Los Alamos residents .........149
Figure 13-1 Estimated solid cancer mortality risk coefficient over increasing ranges
of dose .................................................................................................................174
Figure A-1 Leukemia risk across exposure ages in populations downwind of Chernobyl
and the Nevada Test Site .....................................................................................180