Saturday, July 19, 2003
The irradiator would be used to kill bacteria that could cause food poisoning.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Judy Szela said she found out about plans for a nuclear irradiator to be built in her community from a local grocery store employee.
"I was upset because I didn't know anything about it, but as I started asking my neighbors, no one knew about it," she said. "I was devastated. And it didn't feel right. Then the more I started doing research, I was devastated. And afraid."
Szela and some of her neighbors in suburban Bucks County are trying to block the opening of an irradiator, saying they're concerned about terrorism, accidents, public health and environmental dangers.
The proposed 1,600-square-foot irradiator would be located inside a 150,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Milford Township, Bucks County, that is operated by CFC Logistics Inc., a subsidiary of the Clemens Family Corp., which also owns Hatfield Quality Meats.
Irradiation facilities are used for killing bacteria in meat and produce, sterilizing medical supplies, hardening wood, and other uses, said Neil Sheehan of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission office in King of Prussia, Pa.
The Bucks County irradiator, if approved by the NRC, would feature an 18-foot-deep underground tank with a rack of cobalt 60 at the bottom. Items to be irradiated would be lowered into the roughly 6-foot-square tank for about 15 minutes. There are about 50 irradiation facilities in the United States that use cobalt 60.
Officials from CFC Logistics and from the township say the equipment is state-of-the-art and would pose no danger to the community. However, members of a group called Concerned Citizens of Milford say they are worried about accidents or acts of terrorism that would release deadly radiation into the environment, as well as the dangers of eating irradiated food.
Here are concerns
"Cobalt 60 is dangerous; it has to be replenished, it has to be transported and our goal is to have it never come here," said Szela, a member of the citizens' group who lives a few miles from the proposed irradiator. "The weight of public outcry is very strong, and we are telling our elected officials that we don't want this."
The group's attorney, Robert Sugarman, acknowledged that the NRC -- not the township -- ultimately has the power to accept or reject the irradiator. But he believes Milford officials can and should try to intervene -- and he suggested that there may be legal action if that doesn't happen.
Township supervisor Charles Strunk suggested the fears stemmed from "a very rude and obnoxious group of outside agitators" from environmental and other groups.
"I can tell you that I wouldn't mind one bit living next door to it," he said.
CFC Logistics hopes to have the machine up and running by the fall.
"It's inherently safe," said CFC Logistics president Jim Wood. "The possibility of any accident or danger of any employees' coming into contact with this material just isn't there."
Unlike older irradiators in which the radioactive material is moving around the stationary items it's sterilizing -- making accidental drops and jams more likely -- the Milford irradiator would have the cobalt 60 staying in place, Wood said.
The Food and Drug Administration in 1997 deemed irradiation as a safe method of killing bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Opponents, however, say that too little is known about the long-term effects of continuous consumption of the product.
The consumer group Public Citizen argues irradiation could cause cancer and that the materials could be used to make a radioactive "dirty bomb."