Studeo
8th March 2011, 01:39
A small nuclear power plant used at McMurdo Sound near New Zealand's Antarctic Scott Base is being implicated by US media in unusual cancers in men who worked on it in the 1960s.
It has also been revealed the PM-3A nuclear power plant - known at MacTown as "nukey poo" for the way it leaked - had 438 malfunctions in its life between 1964 and 1973.
After it was closed down, the US shipped 7700 cubic metres of radioactive contaminated rock and dirt to California, but passed through Dunedin where it stayed for four days.
ABC-TV affiliated stations in the US this week reported what they said was a link between the plant and cancer.
Ohio man Charlie Swinney died a year ago from multiple cancerous tumours.
The US navy veteran wrote many letters to the US Veterans Administration questioning his condition and the link with McMurdo.
"Charlie had over 200 tumours in his body," said Swinney's wife Elaine told the ABC stations.
"He kept saying, this isn't right. Why is there so many of us in this close group getting sick like this."
Other McMurdo veterans across the US have now been revealed to have cancer.
Jim Landy of Pensacola is fighting stomach, liver and brain cancer and links it to McMurdo.
"I believe it was a greater risk than we all assumed," Landy told ABC-TV.
Another veteran in Wisconsin survived testicular and lung cancer.
The initial story prompted other stories.
Bob Boyles of North Carolina told of how he collapsed and was rushed to hospital.
"When you get cancer, you kind of say, OK, why me?
"The first thing the doctors asked me was, well, that's the type of cancer you typically get from exposure from radiation," Boyles said.
ABC said before dying in 2002 Karl Sackman of Idaho, wrote the VA saying there had been leaks at the plant.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who's on the Senate Committee of Veterans Affairs, says he's working to fully fund an investigation, to expedite claims and use the best science available.
A US Naval Nuclear Power Unit operating report on the plant said there were 438 malfunctions.
"The cause of the increased malfunctions is attributable to the fact that the initial control rod drive mechanism system was a complex experimental system which was continually modified in efforts for improvement," the report said.
The plant, built by Lockheed-Martin, was designed to fit inside a C130 Hercules but as there were fears over what would happen if the plane crash it was instead shipped to McMurdo.
As well as producing 1250 Kw of electricity, it also ran a water distillation plant.
It was fuelled by strontium-90 pellets, an unusual few because of their high radioactivity levels.
The fuel passed through Lyttelton on US Navy vessels with a secret US-New Zealand agreement that the US would pay for any damage.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4739904/Health-fears-around-polar-nuke-leak
It has also been revealed the PM-3A nuclear power plant - known at MacTown as "nukey poo" for the way it leaked - had 438 malfunctions in its life between 1964 and 1973.
After it was closed down, the US shipped 7700 cubic metres of radioactive contaminated rock and dirt to California, but passed through Dunedin where it stayed for four days.
ABC-TV affiliated stations in the US this week reported what they said was a link between the plant and cancer.
Ohio man Charlie Swinney died a year ago from multiple cancerous tumours.
The US navy veteran wrote many letters to the US Veterans Administration questioning his condition and the link with McMurdo.
"Charlie had over 200 tumours in his body," said Swinney's wife Elaine told the ABC stations.
"He kept saying, this isn't right. Why is there so many of us in this close group getting sick like this."
Other McMurdo veterans across the US have now been revealed to have cancer.
Jim Landy of Pensacola is fighting stomach, liver and brain cancer and links it to McMurdo.
"I believe it was a greater risk than we all assumed," Landy told ABC-TV.
Another veteran in Wisconsin survived testicular and lung cancer.
The initial story prompted other stories.
Bob Boyles of North Carolina told of how he collapsed and was rushed to hospital.
"When you get cancer, you kind of say, OK, why me?
"The first thing the doctors asked me was, well, that's the type of cancer you typically get from exposure from radiation," Boyles said.
ABC said before dying in 2002 Karl Sackman of Idaho, wrote the VA saying there had been leaks at the plant.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who's on the Senate Committee of Veterans Affairs, says he's working to fully fund an investigation, to expedite claims and use the best science available.
A US Naval Nuclear Power Unit operating report on the plant said there were 438 malfunctions.
"The cause of the increased malfunctions is attributable to the fact that the initial control rod drive mechanism system was a complex experimental system which was continually modified in efforts for improvement," the report said.
The plant, built by Lockheed-Martin, was designed to fit inside a C130 Hercules but as there were fears over what would happen if the plane crash it was instead shipped to McMurdo.
As well as producing 1250 Kw of electricity, it also ran a water distillation plant.
It was fuelled by strontium-90 pellets, an unusual few because of their high radioactivity levels.
The fuel passed through Lyttelton on US Navy vessels with a secret US-New Zealand agreement that the US would pay for any damage.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4739904/Health-fears-around-polar-nuke-leak