By Art Nash, Energy Specialist
The type of radioactivity that I often speak about with Alaska residents comes from a naturally occurring substance, radon gas. And though radon’s alpha radiation comes from buried uranium, the main concern to homeowners is the potential of contracting cancer gradually through chronic exposure rather than acute radioactive sickness.
Radon is an air pollution issue, which is experienced inside homes where the gas seeps up through the ground and building foundation.
Radon isn’t the only naturally occurring radioactive material in Alaska. In industry, there are times during geological drilling that other subsurface sources of radiation can be exposed and have to be disposed of.
In the healthcare field in Alaska clinics and hospitals, several types of non-naturally occurring radiation sources exist that some workers are in contact with, such as through administering X-rays, barium applications and fluoroscopy procedures. Looking at industrial sources of radiation on a localized regional scale, only one nuclear plant has operated in Alaska thus far. This plant was located just outside of Delta Junction for about a decade and closed a half century ago.
Radon is probably the most commonly encountered radiation source for Alaskans, since it comes into homes and doesn’t discriminate what type of residents it affects.
One concern of chronic radioactive exposure for Alaskans doesn’t originate in the state. Rather, the state monitors various radionuclides that could come into Alaska as pollution from other countries.
The nearest example is the release of radiation into ocean water from the Fukushima power plant a dozen years ago on Japan’s eastern coast. Since then, samples of radioactive cesium have been found offshore of Alaska and British Columbia.
However, the levels of cesium found have been well below the standards for health concerns from direct exposure and it has been found in the ocean rather than on land. Of course, the ecosystem of our food supply that supports fish and crabs could bear artifacts of radiation from the original Fukushima disaster, so the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation runs a seafood monitoring program, which is also important due to the fact that around two-thirds of America’s seafood comes from Alaska, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
The other known polluting accident that brought radioactive cesium to Alaska was the meltdown at Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant in 1986. Predominately by air, the radiation came through western Canada, ran northward through the Interior and onto the North Slope. Immediate aerosol monitoring by UAF’s Geophysical Institute within the month after the release showed no health hazards were present to Alaskans from the initial fallout. Several years later, samples of soil, plants and wildlife were taken during a study focusing on subarctic food chains and ecosystems, which found there was not a health hazard to Alaskans.
Understandably there are now many eyes on the current situation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant given its precarious management in the midst of a war zone. Rest assured, if any radioactive release comes from that power plant, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will be monitoring and the Division of Public Health will be communicating to Alaskans any concerns that may crop up!
Art Nash is the statewide Energy Specialist for UAF Cooperative Extension Service, and has been director of the AgrAbility program for its half decade of serving disabled Alaskans. He can be contacted with questions at 907-474-6366 or at alnashjr@alaska.edu.
