City Pulls Out of Tritium Talks
Marc Albert, Berkeley Voice, April 29, 1999

Negotiations over radioactive testing at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory broke down last Thursday, as city commissioners and watchdogs resigned from talks and accused the lab of stonewalling.

Talks between community members, lab officials, and state and federal regulators have continued for two years in the form of the Tritium Issues Work Group at the request of the Berkeley City Council. The group was charged with finding out what health risks, if any, exist due to the lab's production of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used to trace other medicines in common medical treatments.

The lab and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials insist the lab's work presents no danger.

"There's no immediate health hazard. It's well below regulatory limits within the Clean Air Act," said Mike Bandrowski chief of radiation protection at the EPA's San Francisco office.

But critics contend the lab is deliberately holding back information.

"This is a public health issue for the citizens of Berkeley and Oakland, and they have every right for a full accounting of the lab's activities. The lab hasn't recognized that the community has that right," said Community Environmental Advisory Board Chair John Selawsky.

Selawsky met with Mayor Shirley Dean and lab director Charles Shank Tuesday, but Selawsky said any details worked out to resume negotiations would have to be approved by his committee.

"What it boils down to is that CEAC and lab critics want the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research to review sampling and data and determine what needs to be done. The lab also has to make more information available," Selawsky said.

EPA and lab officials contend that they are close to presenting an independent sampling plan. Brandroski called the data requested "irrelevant." But critics from the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste said the lab is stonewalling their Freedom of Information Act request by charging $47,000 for the photocopies.

Dissidents were buoyed at Thursday's press conference by appearances by Councilwoman Dona Spring, Councilman Kriss Worthington, and a representative of Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

 

"For various reasons, including lack of cooperation between members of the group," read Lee's statement, "and the inability to push the few decisions made through to implementation, the Tritium Issues Work Group has been almost completely ineffective in reaching the desired goal of understanding the extent of contamination at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab caused by the National Tritium Labeling Facility."

The lab and regulatory officials said they would wait for direction from the Berkeley City Council on whether and how to proceed.

"It's unfortunate that some members of the community have pu1led out," said lab spokesperson Terry Powell, "but we are committed to continuing with other community members and regulators and we remain committed to independent sampling."

In the press conference, critics said the lab's promise of $100,000 in funding for independent sampling was a "public relations ploy." The CMTW maintains that LBNL was never serious about turning over funding to the TIWG.

Lab officials and critics have been at loggerheads over hiring IEER to do the sampling. The CEAC members say IEER is a respected scientific firm employed by the government to review practices at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

IN BRIEF: Tritium Press Conference Rebroadcast

The Earth Day '99 press conference denouncing the use of tritium at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be broadcast on Berkeley Public Access, B-TV Channel 25 today at 5:30 p.m.; Friday, April 30 [1999] at 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m.

Speakers include Carlos Plazola, aide to congresswoman Barbara Lee; City Council members Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring; and Gene Bernardi, Pamela Sihvola and L A Wood of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste.