UPDATED & CORRECTED : Piketon Monitoring Site Reveals 3,000 High Contamination Levels 2013-2019 from Monitoring Stations ; Some 14 miles from Plant

Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office's Environmental Geographic Analytical Spacial Information System website has data back to 2013, according to Bobby Vaughn, an investigative reporter who works with Chick Lawson   and Jeff Walburn. Walburn and Lawson worked on this new finding themselves. Their investigations are exclusively  independent of other groups .   The findings have been incorporated into one of the pending class action RICO suit against the plant, DOE, former operators and supervisors. 

 Dr. David Manuta, former chief scientist of the plant, "Fluorine behaves like a bus or carrier for other substances.  It is the most reactive element on the periodic table."

When releasing the December  2020 Annual site report, the Department of Energy sent out a mailer/flyer to stakeholders informing them, "Environmental Monitoring Data Now Available On Line through PEGASIS.  Interested stakeholders now have access to dynamic mapping and environmental monitoring data at the Portsmouth site through the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), Environmental Geographic Analytical Spatial Information System, or PEGASIS." When actually, this mapping network has been available for years, Vaughn said. " The DOE and Portsmouth management have consistently failed to effectively inform the public of this priceless tool.  If the community had been properly made aware that it existed, urgent attention would have been brought to the schools and prison that have shown radioactive contamination years before Zahn's Corner was forced to shut down.  

 

The highest radioactive DETECT for Zahn's Middle School since 2013 was airborne Technetium-99 on October 27th, 2015. It was detected at a level 487 times greater than the detection limit! But, the school was only just recently shut down in 2019. 

 

Sharing  some of the other high radiological findings from the on line tool:  Station A-3, located 500 feet south of the plant's boundary, and is 1,580 feet from Bailey Chapel Church - - In 2018 and 2019, Plutonium-239 and Uranium-233/234, U-235/236 have been present. 500 feet north of A-3, Uranium-234 and Uranium-238 is being found in drinking water at a residence just off of Bailey Chapel Road. About 9 miles south of the plant boundary, near Lucasville, at monitoring stations centered between Valley Local School District and the Southern Ohio Maximum Security Correctional Facility, 1,500 feet away various uranium isotopes have been detected in surface water and sediment since May 12, 2013.  The most recent being uranium-233/234 and uranium-235/236. Why isn't the prison and the valley schools being investigated like Zahn's Corner was? North of the plant in Piketon, alpha radiation and uranium has been detected multiple times near East Main Street."

Vaughn added, "There are two monitoring stations near Zahn's Corner Middle School, A41A, which is an air monitor, and A-41A, which monitors the soil.   According to PEGASIS, there has been 286 chemical and radioactive detects near Zahn's Corner since 2013.   The school closed in 2019 due to radioactive detects, but the Department of Energy and the Plant have known since at least 2013 there were detected levels of uranium metal, uranium-234, uranium- 235/236 and uranium-238 in the soil.

"In 2014, Technetium-99 was detected in the air at levels higher than the uranium detections.  What is very important to know is technetium-99 is completely artificial, as it is a product of nuclear fission.   Gaseous fluoride was also detected in the air near the school.  This leaves me to believe that the technetium-99 travelled with the fluoride gas directly from the plant."

The school was closed in 2019 for neptunium-237 and uranium found in the air monitors in 2019 once the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report was released to the public.  DOE, EPA and site management knew of the contamination before the ASER was released. For instance, in 2016, Plutonium-239/240 was detected at nearly four times over the detect limit in the soil.

 

My question is:  Shouldn't a proper radiological investigation be performed at Valley Schools and prison, as well as all  Piketon schools?  The proof is clear."

The  investigator  had previously been researching another uranium facility, Honeywell Uranium Conversion Facility, in his hometown, Metropolis, Illinois. " I followed the trail of breadcrumbs that lead me to Portsmouth six years ago.  Ever since, I have been excavating documents and researching as much as I can about the plant."