Federal officials should have shared radiation risk sooner

As information continues to develop in the unfolding mystery of radioactive contamination in a Piketon school, the big question is still unanswered. Why?

Not only why have radioactive elements that are known as potential carcinogens been detected at Zahn’s Corner Middle School.

The bigger and more disturbing question is why the federal government only recently let the community know that an air monitor at the school detected trace amounts of neptunium in 2017 and americium in 2018.

The school of about 360 students and staff sits less than 5 miles from the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant that enriched uranium until 2001. But that proximity should not be cause for the discovery, at least one expert says.

It was not until the past few weeks that school officials and residents learned from the U.S. Department of Energy about the elements its monitoring had detected. Additionally, an outside researcher found uranium in the building in wipe samples a concerned resident had collected.

Federal and state health officials say the level detected is so low that it should not pose a danger to children and staff at the school.

Still, the Scioto Valley Local School District school board and administrators prudently ordered the middle school closed last Monday, eight days shy of the end of the school year, rather than continue exposing children to potential risks in the building. Officials hope to be able to reopen the school in the fall after independent tests are conducted.

Official statements from the energy department have not been comforting, given the gulf between

DOE’S actions and its words.

In a statement Monday the department said it was “taking immediate steps to obtain independent soil and air quality samples in the surrounding area, and will take all appropriate actions to address community concerns.”

But surely, the “appropriate actions” should have been to immediately disclose the findings of the radioactive elements near the school when they were first detected two years ago and again last year.

Also ringing hollow was a statement from the department on Tuesday that “DOE treats all detections seriously — even those that are at such low levels.” The department added that it is working with local officials to obtain additional air and ground tests and that “We are confident that those findings will allay any cause for further concern.”

Again, how seriously does DOE really treat such findings when it failed to disclose them for so long?

Area residents are concerned that efforts underway since 2011 to clean up the former enrichment facility could be responsible for causing the radioactive elements to be detected near the school. Indeed, some have long suspected health problems of residents could be linked to the plant, including its status as having the secondhighest cancer incidence in the state.

It may take time to determine the source of the elements, but any necessary investigation into the cause should not prevent parents from being given the information they need to make whatever decisions they believe are appropriate to protect their children.

If the government’s delay in sharing that information has increased the health risk to children in Piketon, full accountability must be pursued.