1986 (Jan 5) James Neil Harrison contaminated with hot uranium hexafluoride at Kerr-McGee's Sequoyah Fuels Corp., Gore (OK), uranium contamination spreads thru lunchroom and to towns nearby.
1986 (Jan 7) Georgia Tech AGN 201 reactor, 0.1 Wt, in Atlanta, GA is closed.
1986 (Mar 21) Voyne Ray Cox, a 33 year old oil-field worker, is overexposed to a Therac 25 medical linear accelerator in the East Texas Cancer Center (ETCC) in Tyler, Texas. Therac 25 gives a Malfunction 54 software error which delivers an estimated 25,000 rad dose. Cox vomits blood and for the next week needs morphine delivered IV. By June, most of his body is paralyzed. He lapses into a coma and dies in September in a Dallas hospital.
1986 (April 26) Chernobyl 4 (Pripyat, USSR) explodes and burns, spreads contamination worldwide. Thirty one killed from heat and radiation exposure. Worldwide effects from internal contamination harder to measure.
1986 (April) Vernon Kidd, 66, receives a fatal overdose (estimated 25,000 rad) from a Therac 25 medical linear accelerator at the East Texas Cancer Center in Tyler, Texas. Kidd dies one month later.
1986 (April) ICRP 48 "The Metabolism of Plutonium and Related Elements" published.
1986 (June 29) Northrop TRIGA Mark F reactor, 1 MWt, in Hawathorne, CA, is closed.
1986 (July) ICRP 49 "Developmental Effects of Irradiation on the Brain of the Embryo and Fetus" published.
1986 (Sept) ICRP 50 "Lung Cancer Risk from Indoor Exposures to Radon Daughters" published.
1986 (Oct 3) Nuclear powered Soviet submarine suffers explosion and fire in missile tube, kills at least three and sinks with reactor on-board.
1986 Webbers Falls (US) explosion of a tank containing radioactive gas at a uranium enrichment plant. One man is killed, eight injured.
1986 Department of Energy in the case of Rocky Flats agrees to partial regulation of waste disposal and storage activities by Colorado Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
1987 (Jan 17) A patient at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Yakima, Washington, receives approximately 11,000 rad overdose from a Therac 25 medical linear accelerator due to a software error.
1987 (Mar) ICRP 51 "Data for Use in Protection Against External Radiation" published.
1987 (Mar) ICRP 52 "Protection of the Patient in Nuclear Medicine" published.
1987 (Mar) ICRP 53 "Radiation Dose to Patients from Radiopharmaceuticals" published.
1987 (Mar) ICRP 54 "Individual Monitoring for Intakes of Radionuclides by Workers: Design and Interpretation" published; supersedes ICRP 10 & 10A.
1987 (Apr 8) Rockwell Int. L 85 reactor, 3 KWt, in Canoga Park, CA is closed.
1987 (Apr 27) Oak Ridge National Lab, 1 person is accidentally exposed to radiation from a Co-60 sealed source.
1987 (June) THTR-300, a HTGR, goes on-line in Hamm-Uentrop, N.-W. (W. Germany); closed October 1989.
1987 (Sept. 13) Cs-137 ruptured therapy source (Goiania, Brazil) kills 4, contaminates 249.
1987 (Dec 22) Battelle Memorial Inst. pool-type reactor, 2 MWt, in Columbus, Ohio, is closed.
1987 (Dec) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act designates Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for scientific investigation as only candidate site for the US's first geological repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
1987 Federal study finds higher-than-normal risk of several kinds of cancer among plant workers exposed to plutonium. DOE sets priorities for pollution cleanup activities at Rocky Flats, CO.
1987 1.5 rem per year for workers set by NRPB (Britain).
1987 Ununnilium, element 110, discovered.
1988 (Feb 26) Babcock & Wilcox Split Table Critical Facility, 1 KWt, in Lynchburg, VA is closed.
1988 (Aug 11) Virginia Tech pool-type reactor, 100 KWt, in Blacksburg, VA, is closed.
1988 (Aug 18) Memphis St. U. reactor, 0.1 Wt, in Memphis, TN is closed.
1988 (Sept) ICRP 55 "Optimization and Decision-Making in Radiological Protection" published.
1988 (Oct 27) Westinghouse Training Reactor pool-type, 10 KWt, in Zion, Ill, is closed.
1988 (Dec) Atucha 2, a 692 MWe Seimens pressurized heavy water reactor in Buenos Aires, Argentina begins commercial operation.
1988 DOE closes plutonium-processing Building 771 at Rocky Flats, CO for safety violations. Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus bans storage of radioactive waste from Rocky Flats in Idaho. Gov. Roy Romer bans extended waste storage at Rocky Flats.
1989 (Apr 7) 42 crewmen die when the Soviet nuclear submarine "Komsomolets" sinks to 4500 ft. in the Norwegian Sea, leaving the USSR's sub reactor and nuclear warheads (two nuclear torpedoes containing 28 lb. of plutonium) 310 miles off Norway.
1989 (April) ICRP 56 "Age-dependent Doses to Members of the Public from Intake of Radionuclides: Part 1" published.
1989 (Oct 19) The 343rd and final underground nuclear explosion at the Semipalatinsk, USSR site in Kazakhstan. Official statistics cite a total of 467 tests of all types at site.
1989 (Oct) ICRP 57 "Radiological Protection of the Worker in Medicine and Dentistry" published.
1989 (Oct) ICRP 58 "Relative Biological Effect for Deterministic Effects" published.
1989 (Nov 17) U. of CA L77 reactor, 10 Wt, in Santa Barbara, CA is closed.
1989 (Nov) DOE changes its focus from nuclear materials production to environmental cleanup by forming the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management.
1989 Federal agents raid Rocky Flats, allege the plant concealed environmental contamination and improperly stored and disposed of hazardous and radioactive wastes. The energy secretary halts all plutonium production operations.
1989 Nuclear weapons production facilities at Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado and Fernald Feed Materials Production Center in Ohio cease production and change their mission to cleaning up their facilities.
1989 Shoreham, a BWR, 2436 MWt, in Suffolk Co., NY, achieves criticality & produces power; closed May 28, 1989.
1989 "Yellow Children" start appearing in births in Talmenka, Russia (former USSR). Children have jaundice, congenital defects of nervous system and organs. In one month 42 of 59 babies born have these symptoms. Some tenuous link to bomb tests at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
1990 (Feb 14) U. of Oklahoma AGN 211 reactor, 100 Wt, in Norman, OK, is closed.
1990 (Apr 5) Michigan State TRIGA Mark I, 250 KWt, in East Lansing, MI is closed.
1990 (Apr 6) Barnett Industrial X-ray assistant radiographer wraps source guide tube containing an 80 Ci. iridium-192 source around his neck; sustains skin burns in a 5000 -7000 rem localized skin dose; 24 rem whole body dose; radiographer gets 17 rem whole body in Ardmore, OK.
1990 (June 19) A nursing mother is given 4.89 mCi dose of I-131 resulting in 30,000 rad to infant thyroid, 17 rem whole body. Infant's thyroid function completely lost. Tripler Army Medical Center; Honolulu, HI.
1990 (June 21) 32 year-old male receives uniform whole body dose of 1000-2000 rad in one to two minute period in accident at Sor Van Irradiation Facility (Israel). Results from stuck source (300,000 Ci Co-60), no dosimetry, failure to check meter operation. Excellent medical care helps sustain life for 36 days. Patient dies of gastrointestinal and pulmonary complications.
1990 (Sept) Colorado judge rules worker's death is due to radiation exposure (213 rem lifetime) at Rocky Flats, Co., which results in cancer. First ruling of this sort.
1990 DOE drops Rocky Flats contract with Rockwell International, names EG&G as operator.
1990 Greenpeace ship docked off Novaya Zemlya (USSR) monitoring radiation levels is seized by authorities and towed to KGB base.
1990 "Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation -- BEIR V" is published.
1990 Cs-137 brachytherapy source becomes dislodged from applicator, results in approximately 23 rem to patient's thigh instead of uterus.
1990 Kink in catheter causes unplanned dose to pharynx instead of lung in patient. Exposure estimated at 1500 rem from Ir-192.
1990 Due to a hospital mix-up, a patient is given another patient's therapeutic dose to the lung. The patient irradiated was to receive radiation treatment to brain.
1990 Due to a hospital mix-up, the wrong patient receives 296 rad to the midline of the brain.
1990 Patient who is due for a lung irradiation receives 1032 rem to the face, 282 rem to eyes, 357 rem to the scalp. Nurse who notes dislodge Ir-192 sources, tapes them to patient's face. Nurse receives 17.6 rem to fingers.
1990 Misadministration of I-131 to patient results in unplanned exposure of 5752 rads to thyroid.
1990 After eating game and fish contaminated with Cs-137, seven people hospitalized in the Tomsk, Siberia, Russia (former USSR). Town is where plutonium and uranium cores for weapons are manufactured.
1991 (Jan 24) US warplanes bomb two Iraqi reactor sites; contamination reported as "insignificant."
1991 (Mar 8) U. of CA Berkeley pool-type reactor, 1 MWt, in Berkeley, CA is closed.
1991 (April 2) Lawrence Livermore (CA) Leaking valve on shipping container vents tritium to the atmosphere. One worker receives 1/3 to 1/2 of full year's allowable radiation dose; three others receive uptake. Livermore suspends all use of radioactive gases.
1991 (May 21) New version of 10CFR20 published in Federal Register. Combines internal and external doses, defines extremities to include knees and elbows, uses internal dose calculations based upon ICRP 30 data.
1991 (Oct 26) 34 year old male worker in Nesvidge, Beylorussia (former USSR) medical equipment sterilization facility works by exposed 800,000 Ci Co-60 source. He carries no dose rate meter and fails to turn key on the panel which would shield source. Field measures 1500 rad/min. Receives an estimated 1100 rad. Given Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor and Interluken-3, he is kept alive for 113 days. He dies of bilateral pneumonia and internal bleeding.
1991 President Clinton announces cancellation of several nuclear-weapons programs no longer needed because of the end of the Cold War.
1992 (Jan 27) First shipment of irradiated food, 1000 pints of strawberries, to US supermarkets. Irradiated by Vindicator of Florida, Inc. Spices had been only food irradiated previously.
1992 (Mar 24) Sosnovy Bor nuclear power plant in St. Petersburg, Russia (former USSR) leaks iodine and noble gas to atmosphere thru a break in fuel rod "small salamander." RBMK design (like Chernobyl) has levels 10 times normal limits. Level 3 accident vs. a 7 for Chernobyl.
1992 (Aug 24) Hurricane Andrew hits Turkey Point 3 nuclear power plant 20 miles south of Miami, Florida. Much damage to turbines but none to safety related systems despite wind gust of 170 mph.
1992 (Aug) A smuggler is arrested in Switzerland carrying a 2 gram cesium-137 source in his breast pocket. The source allegedly comes from the former USSR. He suffers from radiation sickness.
1992 (Sept 2 - 4) "Big chunks of the republic are so poisoned they will not be suitable for human settlement for a very long time. We are talking decades," said Victor Danilov-Danilyan, Russia's (former USSR) minister for the environment. "We in Belarus lost one in four people during the Great Patriotic War (WW II), while as a result of Chernobyl, one in five citizens -- approximately 2 million people, including 800,000 children -- now suffer because they live in contaminated zones," said Anatoly S. Zybovsky, deputy chairman of the Belarus State Committee on Chernobyl.
1992 (Oct 9) Two Poles and a German smuggler are arrested in Frankfurt, Germany while trying to sell a cesium-137 and a strontium-90 source brought in from the former USSR.
1992 (Oct 12) Russian coast guard vessel Ural fires warning shots at Greenpeace Solo. Six-member Greenpeace team tries to monitor area near discarded K-27 submarine (of former USSR) which had been dumped along with 15 nuclear reactors and five other sub units in the shallow waters off Novaya Zemlya.
1992 (Oct 15) Sweden reports trouble at Lithuanian RBMK reactor (built by USSR). Lithuanians report small leak into a mostly confined building at the Ignalina-2. The problem is identified as a 10 mm. crack in one of the 3200 pipes connected to the steam separator drums. Reactor is restarted Oct 21.
1992 (Oct 16) Seven people from Czechoslovakia are arrested in Munich, Germany after trying to sell about 2 kilograms of uranium pellets and powder from the former USSR reactor program. Analysis confirms that the material is of low enrichment, as used in nuclear power.
1992 (Oct 18) In Poland, a man is arrested at Terespol near the border with Belarus (former USSR) when a 1.5 kg lump of uranium was found in a lead-lined box in his attic.
1992 (Oct) The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Land Withdrawl Act withdraws public lands for WIPP, a test repository for transuranic nuclear waste located in a salt deposit deep under the desert.
1992 (Nov 16) At Indiana (PA) Regional Cancer Center of Oncology Services Corp. during a routine treatment of an 82-year-old woman suffering from pelvic tumors, an inch-long sliver of iridium-192 (3.7 curies) becomes detached from the control wire as the source was being retracted. Operators disregard a wall-mounted radiation alarm and fail to perform an after-treatment survey of the patient. The woman returns to her nursing home with the source still in her. She dies 5 days later. The source is discovered Nov. 27 when it sets off a radiation alarm at an Ohio waste disposal facility. The source had been excreted after an estimated 90 hours in the woman. The irradiator is the Omnitron 2000.
1992 (Nov 9) Trojan Power Plant, PWR, 3411 MWt, in Portland, OR, is closed.
1992 (Nov 30) San Onofre I, 1347 MWt, PWR, at San Clemente, CA, is closed.
1992 (Dec 7) At the Greater Pittsburgh Cancer Center of Oncology Services Corp. a 3 curie Ir-192 source becomes disconnected as it is being withdrawn from a patient's lung. No overexposures result due to the medical physicist believing an alarm. The irradiator is the Omnitron 2000.
1992 (Dec 26) Ground breaking ceremonies for Pakistan's Chasma nuclear power plant (300 MWe) PWR supplied by China.
1992 (Dec) DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) and its predecessor agencies have decontaminated and dismantled over 90 contaminated facilities across the US. The organization has cleaned up 11 of 43 sites under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Under its Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program, EM has cleaned up 15 of 24 sites and 4,200 of 5,000 vicinity properties.
1992 The Hanford Site changes its mission from nuclear materials production to clean up of its facilities.
1992 Rockwell International fined $18.5 million after pleading guilty to 10 environmental crimes as former Rocky Flats plant operator.
1993 (Jan 9) "British Medical Journal" reports an excess incidence of cancer in children aged 0 to 24 over the period 1953-1990 in Seascale within sight of the Sellafield plant of British Nuclear Fuels.
1993 (Jan 11) An "alarming" suicide rate among soldiers and engineers who helped clean up the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is the result of radiated nervous systems, the breakdown of immune defenses and stress, according to medical experts and social researchers. The San Francisco Examiner reports that nearly seven years after the world's most serious nuclear reactor accident exposed about 500,000 Ukraine residents, reactor workers and cleanup crews to radiation, the death toll stands at 7,000 - - of whom 18 percent have taken their own lives, according to statistics provided by the Russian (former USSR) government. Thousands more are suffering from symptoms caused by excessive radiation, says the article. Studies in Moscow have shown that more than 40 percent of all former Chernobyl workers who ask for medical assistance suffer from severe after-effects, such as permanent memory loss and impaired thinking ability. Says Dr. Alexei Nikiforov, chief of a St. Petersburg research clinic: "We have found a lot of damage. In order to expose the specific reasons for the high rate of suicide, we need more research."
1993 (March 24) F. W. de Klerk, president of South Africa, admits that S. Africa has built 6 nuclear bombs but has dismantled them, "I also trust that South Africa's initiative will inspire other countries to take the same steps."
1993 (Apr 6) Tomsk 7, a fuel reprocessing plant in Russia 1000 miles east of Moscow in the former USSR, suffers a chemical explosion. A tank of nitric acid and uranium ruptures to spread contamination over 2500 acres. The extent of the level 3 accident is not fully disclosed. At least one fireman received over 500 mrem and 25 other persons received approximately 500 mrem.
1993 (Apr 27) In a new report, the Russian Federation details how the USSR broke the international rules for thirty years by dumping radioactive waste in the oceans. The amount of radioactive waste includes 2.5 million curies and 18 nuclear reactors from submarines and an icebreaker. These were mostly dumped in the Kara Sea.
1993 (Apr) Michigan State University, researcher unknowingly contaminates himself with C-14 which was stored in an unrestricted area in an unmarked container. Contamination is found throughout the facility, to residences he visits, to automobiles, and to his private residence. Other personnel entering the facility contaminate their shoes.
1993 (June 9) During a test of the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) at Quad Cities nuclear power plant in Cordova, Illinois, a pipe bursts and burns five workers (one seriously) with radioactive steam.
1993 (Oct) Russia (former USSR) dumps liquid radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan. 1993 (Dec 2) French deliberately cause a meltdown under almost identical conditions at Three Mile Island in the Phebus reactor in the south of France. Close circuit televisions show a bright blue glow as the fuel rods melt. Environmentalists criticize the experiment as dangerous and unnecessary.
1993 (Dec 25) Fermi 2 reactor near Detroit, Michigan suffers a catastrophic lube oil failure on its turbine. The turbine throws blades through the casing and turbine building. Unit suffers fire damage to generator and floods the low level waste building with a million gallons of contaminated water.
1993 (Dec 30) Rung C. Tang sues San Onofre nuclear power plant (California) charging that her exposure to leaking radioactive particles at the plant lead to her contracting acute myelogenous leukemia. Ms. Tang is a former NRC inspector whose dosimetry records indicate an external dose of 34 mrem in an 18 month period.
1993 (Dec) A post-graduate student working in a laboratory using P-32 on the weekend fails to survey afterward due to an inoperable survey meter. Contamination spreads from the individual and laboratory to an offsite church, several residences, and automobiles. NRC finds the offsite contamination 10 days after the event. Event is in northern US university.
1993 The AEC finds that about 500 homes in Taiwan have high levels of gamma radiation because steel beams contaminated with Co-60 have been used in their construction, which began in 1983. Many living areas have dose rates exceeding 40 mR/h and estimated cumulative exposure ranging up to 120 rem.
1993 DOE announces new mission of decontamination, environmental restoration at Rocky Flats.
1994 (Jan 11) Federal judge in Rung C. Tang leukemia case states that "If you decide that an exposure lower than the limit caused a person's disease, it's going to be the demise of the nuclear power industry in this country." This reverses his previous stance that he would allow the jury to consider evidence that nuclear plant operators had failed to achieve a standard "as low as reasonably achievable."
1994 (Feb 4) Mescalero Apache tribal leaders tentatively agree to allow Northern States Power Co. to store used reactor fuel bundles in above ground metal containers on tribal lands in New Mexico. Agreement still needs a vote by entire tribe. This is a first step toward a private waste-storage facility.
1994 (Feb 8) Judge declares mistrial in Rung C. Tang's lawsuit against San Onofre nuclear power plant. Jurors are deadlocked 7 to 2 in favor of the plaintiff. Retrial set for March.
1994 (Feb 16) Security guards blocked 11 attempts by poorly paid Russian (former USSR) nuclear plant workers to steal uranium from work and sell it on the black market last year, a government official says. Police also registered almost 900 attempts to illegally enter nuclear plants and 700 attempts to steal secret documents from them in 1993, said Lt. Gen. Yuri Yefimov, head of the Interior Ministry's department for security of strategic facilities.
1994 (Mar 14) Southern California Edison settles out of court with Rung C. Tang. Settlement amount is undisclosed but reputed to be $3.5 million. The 44 year old former NRC inspector has undergone two bone marrow transplants and is in frail health.
1994 (May 6) Fire breaks out at the world's second-largest fast-breeder nuclear reactor, in Russia's Ural Mountains. Smoke pours from the Beloyarsk reactor, 25 miles north of Yekaterinburg in the former USSR, but firefighters eventually put out the blaze. Officials said that radiation levels are normal and that there were no injuries. The fire is caused by leaking liquid sodium, said a spokesman for Russia's Atomic Energy Agency.
1994 (June 20) States of US sue the Department of Energy, demanding a disposal facility for their high level nuclear waste. The states maintain the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the dpartment to move nuclear waste from reactor sites to a central storage facility by 1998.
1994 (July 12) For the second time, a lawsuit is filed against the operators of the San Onofre nuclear power plant by a worker who claims he contracted cancer through radiation exposure at the plant. In a suit to be filed against Southern California Edison, 62-year-old Glen James alleges he contracted chronic myelocytic leukemia because the plant was negligent in the way radiation was handled. James is being represented by the same law firm that represented Rung Tang, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector who filed the first suit against San Onofre. Both suits charged that Edison officials knew there was a severe contamination problem and that radiation detectors were faulty. Edison has denied all such assertions.
1994 (July 14) Washington state's Department of Labor and Industries grants a worker's compensation claim to a 50-year-old aluminum smelter worker for cancer he claims was caused by EMF exposure on the job. Attorneys say the ruling is the first time a government body has acknowledged such a link. The state agency say the claim was accepted because it includes a doctor's statement's saying EMF exposure is the probable cause of the cancer. The physician, Dr. Samuel Milham, has in research asserted a link between EMF and cancer in aluminum smelters. Other studies, however, have found no unusual cancer levels among workers exposed to EMF.
1994 (Aug 11) Quad Cities 1 & 2 (GE-3 789 MW BWR) corporate staff personnel are investigating an incident which appears to be the deliberate placement of a Sr-90 source in the unattended pants pocket of a worker who had changed into coveralls. The individual's shallow dose equivalent is estimated to be 22 rem calculated based on VARSKIN computer program. The source is a check source which had been deliberately pried off the wall.
1994 (Nov 21) Scientists in former USSR disclose pumping 3 billion curies of radioactive waste under layers of shale and clay for the last 30 years at sites at Dimitrovgrad (near the Volga River), Tomsk (near the Ob River), and Krasnoyarsk (on the Yenisei River).
1994 (Nov) A scrap metal dealer in Kiisa (south of Tallinn), Estonia, dies of radiation overexposure from a 2 cm X 6 cm metal bar. Source is probably from a Co-60 irradiator used for sterilization. Three other patients are hospitalized including the grandmother (400 rads), two brothers, and a boy who had picked up the source (burns on hands). Source was in the kitchen of the home and measured 150 R/hr at 5 cm. 60 people are evacuated from area surrounding the house.
1994 (Nov) Physicists at Darmstadt (Germany) discover element 110 by bombarding a lead target with a beam of nickel atoms.
1994 (Dec 20) Physicists at Darmstadt (Germany) discover element 111 by bombarding a bismuth target with a beam of nickel atoms.
1994 EG&G announces it will not renew contract to operate Rocky Flats that expires in 1995. DOE begins search for new operator of plant.
1995 (Jan 5) Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La) proposes a bill which places a temporary nuclear waste storehouse at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, while scientists continue the study of the site for a permanent repository.
1995 (Jan 6) Hanford Advisory Board officials propose plan to convert nuclear waste into radiation therapy sources.
1995 (Jan 9) Russians drinking water from the Techa River ( draining from the Mayak plutonium facility near Chelyabinsk in former USSR) have more lymphatic genetic mutations (T-cell antigen receptors) than people who suffered radiation from atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japanese and Russian scientists state. The region's death rate is higher than its birth rate the experts state. Japanese scientists are from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima. An international symposium attended by about 130 experts from eight countries, including Russia, the United States and Japan, on radiation effects on human health is held in Chelyabinsk to discuss hazards posed by the Mayak plant to nearby residents at the three-day meeting.
1995 (Jan 28) Artificial reservoirs for liquid nuclear waste in Russia's (former USSR) Ural region may overflow if left untouched, destroying nearby areas near Chelyabinsk 65 with what is called a nuclear flash flood, Russian officials warn. No effective measures have been taken to prevent a 10-meter-high flood with a radioactivity as high as 200,000 curies of Sr-90 & Cs-137. The reservoirs at the Mayak chemical plant now hold a total of 400 million cubic meters of liquid nuclear waste, and there is a strong possibility the embankment will give way, inundating towns and villages along the Techa River nearby. Suspension of an atomic power plant project in the region last year added tothe danger of a nuclear flash flood, adding the project was designed to accelerate evaporation of water at the reservoirs using surplus heat from the power plant.
1995 (Jan 31) The Mescalero Apache Indian tribe of New Mexico votes down by a vote of 490 to 362 ( there are about 3,500 tribal members ) a proposal to build a temporary site for the US commercial nuclear waste.
1995 (Feb 6) Linda, Cheryl Marie, and Paul Michael McLandrich wife and children of Gregory McLandrich bring suit against So. Cal. Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Combustion Engineering for Gregory's wrongful death. He was diagnosed in August 1989 with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of soft-tissue cancer of the abdomen, and died on Aug. 30, 1991, at age 42. The plaintiffs allege that McLandrich was exposed to fuel fragments.
1995 (Feb 23) University of California San Francisco investigating committee concludes that it cannot be determined whether 3 patients who received plutonium injections in the 1940s understood or agreed to radiation exposure they received but that researchers took reasonable steps to protect the patients from harm.
1995 (Mar 2) Two teams working independently at the Fermi Lab's Accelerator Laboratory outside of Chicago, IL, announce the discovery of the top quark with a mass-energy of 176 GeV or 199 GeV (approximately 200 times heavier than a proton). The teams use a 1.7 mi. diameter proton / anti-proton accelerator.
1995 (Mar 20) The Chilean navy threatens to use force to keep a Japan-bound freighter, British-flagged Pacific Pintail, loaded with high-level nuclear waste out of its 320-kilometer territorial waters. A Chilean patrol boat, the Micalva, is sent to the area to persuade the Pacific Pintail to leave Chilean waters. "These waters are not to be navigated. I know of large ships that have been damaged by extraordinarily rough seas in the area," says navy commander in chief Adm. Jorge Martinez Busch. The nuclear vessel also faces natural dangers in extremely rough and stormy weather, battling against 10-meter waves and gale-force winds.
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