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California State University, Northridge CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE Secret Nuclear Meltdown? Measuring Cesium-137 from Environmental Samples to Determine Radiation Exposure from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Valley, California A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Science in Geology by Justin Raul Pardo August, 2020 The thesis of Justin Raul Pardo is approved: Dr. Trevis Matheus Date Dr. Priya Ganguli Date Dr. Jennifer Cotton, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Acknowledgments Before I joined the geology department, I was learning about stable isotopes and their applications from Dr. Jennifer Cotton’s geochemistry class. I knew I caught the “isotope bug” of wanting to do research in isotope geochemistry and would like to graciously thank my advisor, Dr. Cotton for taking me as her first graduate student. Joining Dr. Cotton’s lab allowed me to participate in research projects, learned from top researchers in my field at the Isotopes in the Spatial Ecology and Biogeochemistry Course at the University of Utah, and collaborate with new researchers. I want to thank next my co-advisor Dr. Trevis Matheus, who has shown and taught me the dendrochronological world. This project would not have been completed without Dr. Matheus in the field and lab mentoring me in how we collect and cross-date tree-cores and wood samples. I would also like to thank Dr. Priya Ganguli for being on my thesis committee and directing me to take a class with my current advisor that began my academic journey. Dr. Ganguli spoke highly about Dr. Cotton’s geochemistry class, which has since positively changed my life and led me to enroll in a doctorate program at the University of Ottawa This project could not have existed without Dr. Joshua Schwartz informing Dr. Cotton about this idea and the financial support by Marilyn Hanna, CSUN Graduate Studies’ Programs (i.e., Graduate Equity Fellowship, Graduate Student Travel Funding, and Thesis Support), California State University Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Program, and Associated Students’ Scholarship in Recognition of Tom Piernik and Student Travel & Academic Research program. iii Table of Contents Signature Page…………………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………...iii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………vi List of Figures………………….………………………………………………………..………vii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………viii Section 1. Introduction………………………….………………………………………………..1 1. 1 Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) Secrecy ……………………………………1 1.2 Nuclear Reactors and Meltdowns…………………………………………………....2 Section 2 Background……………………………………………………………………………5 2.1 Site Selection History for SSFL……………………………………………………..5 2.2 Secret Nuclear Meltdown……………………………………………………………6 2.2.1 Formation of the Sana Susana Field Advisory Panel……………………...7 2.3 What is Cesium-137…………………………………………………………………8 2.4 Importance of Cesium-147 to Human Health …………….………………………...10 2.5 Radiocesium in the Environment from Atmospheric Testing……………………….11 2.6 Previous SSFL Studies………………………………………………………………13 2.7 Cesium-137 in the Ecosystem……………………………………………………….15 2.7.1 Cesium-137 in Wood………………………………………………………15 2.7.2 Cesium-137 in Wildlife……………………………………………………17 2.8 Dendrochronology and Dendrochemistry....…………………………………...……18 2.9 Potential Impact of this Project……………………………………………………...19 Section 3. Methods………………………………………………………………………………21 3.1 Field Site……………………………………………………………………………..21 3.2 Tree-Ring Process……………………………………………………………………22 iv 3.2.1 Collecting Tree-Cores and Wood………………………………………..23 3.2.2 Mounting and Sanding Tree-Cores………………………………………25 3.2.3 Ring-Counting……………………………………………………………25 3.2.4 Cross-dating……………...………………………………………….…..26 3.3 Small Mammal Collections……………………………………………………….28 3.4 Background Concentration of Cesium-137……………………………………….31 3.5 Measuring and Reconstructing Cesium-137 Levels………………………...…….32 Section 4. Results……………………………………………………………………………..36 4.1 Dendrochronology………………………………………………………………...36 4.2 HpGe Radiation Detector Analyses………………………………………………38 4.2.1 Tree-Cores and Wood…………………………………………………..38 4.2.2 Small Mammals………………………………………………………...40 4.3 NaI Radiation Detector Analyses…………………………………………………42 Section 5. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………46 5.1 SSFL Analysis…………………….………………………………………...……46 5.2 Research Assumptions and Limitations…………………………………………..46 5.2.1. Assumptions in the Study………………………………………………46 5.2.2 Potential Analyses of Strontium-90…………………………………….47 5.2.3 Lack of Samples Closer to SSFL……………………………………….47 5.3 Small Mammals Surrounding SSFL vs. Chernobyl and Fukushima…………......48 5.4 Wood Near SSFL vs. Chernobyl and Fukushima.………………………...……...49 5.5 The Possibility of an Extensive Nuclear Release at SSFL………………………..51 5..5.1 Potential Explanation for a Spike in Cancer Rates……………………..54 Section 6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………55 References……………………………………………………………………………………..56 v List of Tables Table 1: Wood and tree-core sets location …………………………………………………..23 Table 2: Small mammals sets that were collected for gamma-ray analysis………………….30 Table 3: Tree-cores used in cross-dating and their mean ages……………………….……....36 Table 4: COFECHA results…………………………………………………………………..37 Table 5: 2 sets of tree-cores and 3 sets of wood samples assayed by HpGe detector………..39 Table 6: Cesium-137 results from the HpGe detectors for 5 small mammal sets……………40 Table 7: 2020 and 1959 estimated maximum radiocesium levels……………………………41 Table 8: NaI detector results………………………………………………………………….42 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Santa Susana Field Laboratory location………………………………………..6 Figure 2: The decay scheme of Cesium-137……………………………………………..9 Figure 3: Map of properties surrounding SSFL…………………………………….……13 Figure 4: Tree-core and wood sample locations………………………………………....22 Figure 5: Small mammal sample locations…………………………………………..….28 Figure 6: NaI Energy Spectrum of Trinitite and Wood …………………...……………42 Figure 7: NaI Energy Spectrum of Backround…………………………..…………..….43 Figure 8: NaI Energy Spectrum of Small Mammals……………………………………44 Figure 9: NaI Cesium-137 Peaks of Trinitite, Background, and Samples………………44 Figure 10: Comparison of radiocesium in small mammals……………………………..48 Figure 11: Comparison of radiocesium in Wood……….………………………………50 vii Abstract Secret Nuclear Meltdown? Measuring Cesium-137 from Environmental Samples to Determine Radiation Exposure from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Valley, California By Justin Raul Pardo Master of Science in Geology The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) was a nuclear reactor development, rocket, and missile testing facility built ~48 km (30 miles) northwest of downtown Los Angeles in Simi Valley, CA. For two weeks in July of 1959, highly radioactive material was potentially emitted into the atmosphere following a secret nuclear incident. The partial meltdown was withheld from the public for three decades and what occurred there is surrounded in secrecy. Since then, independent studies hired by Boeing and the SSFL advisory panel, made up of researchers from the UCLA school of public health have produced conflicting reports of an estimated radionuclide viii release. Previous soil studies examining radiocesium a half-life later, or 50% original material remaining, could not identify any soil samples nearby to the SSFL facilities or local communities that had concentrations statistically different from the mean of 0.087 pCi g-1 or 3.219 Bq kg-1 for non-contaminated background samples (McLaren and Hart, 1993; Hamilton, 1997). However, radiocesium is highly soluble in water and bound to soil particles, so 30 years is an ample amount of time to remove it from the surface via rain, wind, or wildfires. In this study, we focused on environmental samples present during the 1959 incident, and shown to have great promise in retaining radiocesium by collecting wood of three species of the genus Quercus (Oak) from sites 2 – 55 km away from SSFL, as well as preserved small mammals at local museums from the families of Cricetidae and Soricidae, that were collected from 1959-1964 about 10 – 60 km around SSFL. The samples were analyzed by both NaI and HpGe gamma-ray detectors, to estimate the concentration of the radioactive isotope Cs-137. All samples, measured in the years 2019 and 2020, were below detection limit for Cs-137. Depending on the mass of these samples and the sensitivity of the detector, these samples all contained Cs-137 levels < 4.16 Bq kg-1 and indistiguishable from uncontaminated background levels. All these samples support the assertion that if any released nuclear material from SSFL entered the ecosystem was negligible amounts in comparison to “natural” radioactivity from the Atmospheric Bomb Testing in Nevada from the 1940s. ix Section 1: Introduction 1.1 Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) Secrecy In 1989, an internal DOE study finding widespread radioactive and chemical contamination at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) was leaked to the public (Wing et al., 2006; Rucker, 2009). The Boeing Company, formerly Rockwell International Rocketdyne Division, operated SSFL. Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE), Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) all participated in various operations and research at SSFL. Contamination at SSFL is believed to have been released from either a secret partial nuclear meltdown at the experimental nuclear power reactor, a facility that fabricated fuel from plutonium and uranium, a “hot lab” that researched the irradiated nuclear fuel shipped
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