PORT HOPE RADIOBIOLOGICAL
STUDIES PROJECT 2007

 

Presented and Peer Reviewed at the EANM Congress 2007 -
Copenhagen, Denmark

The Quantitative Analysis of Uranium Isotopes
in the Population of Port Hope, Ontario Canada

Asaf Durakovic, Axel Gerdes, Isaac Zimmerman
Uranium Medical Research Center
www.umrc.net

CURRICULUM VITAE
ASAF DURAKOVIC, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P

157 Carlton Street, Suite 206, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5A 2K3
Institute for Mineralogy, JW Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Introduction
The contamination of the civilian population living in the vicinity of nuclear fuel processing plants has been a subject of numerous studies and controversy regarding the adverse effects of internal contamination with uranium isotopes released into the environment. Among many sites in North America, particular interest has been given to facilities such as Fernald, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky although they were never followed up by objective research studies of the quantities and ratios of uranium isotopes. Likewise the oldest uranium processing facility in the world, located in Port Hope, Ontario Canada, although being studied by epidemiological research, the objective analytical study of uranium isotopes in the Port Hope population has never been conducted. The purpose of our study was the quantitative analysis of the internal contamination with four uranium isotopes in the population living near the uranium conversion facility in Port Hope, Ontario Canada.


Port Hope harbor back dropped by the Cameco facility, UF6 drums are visible behind the fence

Materials and Methods
The urine samples of subjects presenting with multi-system, non-specific symptoms of immune system alterations, musculo-skeletal, central nervous system, and neoplastic disease were obtained from residents of Port Hope and analyzed in reference to the control samples from residents of other parts of Ontario. The samples were analyzed at the Institute for Mineralogy, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany in a specialized radiochemistry laboratory by mass spectrometry. The analytical methodology included pre-concentration of urine by co-precipitation, oxidation of organic matter, uranium purification by ion-exchange chromatography, and ICP-MS double-focusing Thermo Finnigan Neptune multi-collector.

Results
Our results show 4 of 9 samples containing uranium of nonnatural origin. Subject 3 was highly positive for depleted uranium with a 238U/235U ratio of 147.11 ± 1.42 and a relatively normal abundance of total uranium. This sample contained a concentration of 236U with a 236U/238U ratio of 4.38 x 10-6 ± 4.3 x
10-7 indicating its reactor origin. Three other subjects (2, 4, and 6) contained detectable amounts of 236U. Subject 6 had a paradoxically high 236U/238U ratio of 5.53 x 10-5 ± 3.9 x 10-6. Subject 2 also had a higher than normal concentration of total uranium at 24.8 ng/L. The 236U in these samples indicates its origin as contamination with non-natural uranium. The remaining five subjects were negative for both depleted uranium and uranium- 236. Control subjects had no detectable 236U and a normal concentration of total uranium in their urine. Control subject 2 had a natural 238U/235U ratio. However control subject 1 had 238U/235U ratio that was slightly depleted. It was learned after testing that this person had visited Port Hope at some time prior to giving their sample.

Mass spectrometry lab data:
238U/235U Isotopic Ratio, Total Uranium, and 236U Concentration

Mass spectrometry lab data:
234U/238U and 236U/238U Isotopic Ratios

A street, private home, and children’s playground in the immediate vicinity of the Cameco facility;
a tarp covers uranium tailings

Discussion
The inadvertent exposure and toxicology of uranium isotopes in both military personnel and civilians employed in the nuclear industry or living in the vicinity of uranium processing plants has been well documented. Both parenteral and oral administration of uranium isotopes has been studied in animal
studies and humans. Of particular interest are inhalational pathway toxicity studies which confirmed significant renal and pulmonary damage with eleven uranium compounds including oxides, fluorides, tetrachlorides, and nitrates in six different animal species as well as humans. Most recent studies of the
Gulf War veterans have estimated a significant carcinogenic risk of inhaled depleted uranium. Uranium containing dust has been identified as the most important source of radiation exposure in uranium mining and processing. Toxicity of uranium in the ground waters (Saskatchewan, Canada), higher risk of lung cancer in uranium miners (New Mexico, Arizona), overall cancer risk in workers involved in the uranium processing industry (Ohio, Colorado), and numerous published studies from around the world all point to the realistic probability of adverse health effects of uranium isotopes in the human population living in the vicinity of nuclear processing plants.

Summary
The contamination with depleted uranium has been verified and well documented in the studies on the military personnel in the conflicts in Iraq and Eastern Afghanistan, as well as, in the civilian population. The history of uranium contamination in Port Hope is well documented. Our results provide the first objective analytical study of long-term contamination and possible association with adverse health effects in the current population of Port Hope. These preliminary results warrant additional multidisciplinary studies.



History of the Nuclear Industry in Port Hope
Canada began mining uranium ores in the early 20th century for their radium content. In 1930, uranium ores were discovered in the Great Bear Lake deposit in the North West Territories and were developed by Eldorado Gold Mines for radium and uranium extraction. The refinery in Port Hope, Ontario was the first facility of its kind built and the only one in North America in the early 1940s that was equipped to refine uranium. Uranium concentrates (yellowcake) were shipped to the refinery where uranium was refined
into uranium oxides (UO2 and UO3) as well as uranium hexafluoride (UF6). From 1941 to 1945, the entire production of refined uranium was supplied to the United States for use in the Manhattan project. The Port Hope facility had hundreds of tons of uranium concentrate on site from years of radium extraction but to meet demand Eldorado reopened the mine at Great Bear Lake which had shut down two years earlier. The facility also refined uranium from ores purchased by the US from Union Minière, a Belgian company that developed a deposit in the African Congo. Canada’s uranium mining and processing industry continued to sell uranium for nuclear weapons until 1959 when United States stopped purchasing uranium from Canada. Production slowed but continued under the Canadian government’s uranium stockpiling program until the mid 1980s. Eldorado Nuclear built a new uranium refinery at Blind River, Ontario (early 1980s). The Blind River facility refined uranium concentrate into UO3 which was shipped to Port Hope. In Port Hope, UO3 was converted into UO2 and UF6. The UO2 was then sold as fuel for CANDU reactors. The UF6 was exported to enrichment facilities. The Port Hope facility also produced depleted uranium metals until 1992 and processed enriched uranium from 1966 to 1987. Port Hope also blended enriched and depleted uranium powders to specific isotopic concentrations. In 1988, Cameco Corporation was formed by the privatization of Canada’s uranium industry and the merger of two government owned corporations Eldorado Nuclear and Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation. Cameco is the only Canadian company and one of only four companies currently providing uranium refining and conversion services to the western world; the other three being Honeywell in the United States, British Nuclear Fuels Limited in the United Kingdom, and Comurhex in France. Cameco is the world’s largest uranium producer with four operating mines in Canada and the United States and two new mines being developed, one in Canada and the other in Central Asia. It has about 40% of the capacity in the western world to produce UF6. It is also the only producer of ceramic uranium oxides for fuel in Canadianbuilt CANDU reactors.

Port Hope is also home to a facility established in 1965 to develop fuel to support Canada’s nuclear energy program. This facility produces fuel pellets from refined UO2 and assembles fuel bundles for CANDU reactors. In 2006, the plant was acquired by Cameco from Zircatec Precision Industries.

Two UF6 drums left on a trailer in a publicly accessible parking lot

Street in Port Hope with UF6 drums just on the other side of the fence

VIEW COMPLETE PEER REVIEWED STUDY HERE
Peer review conducted by European Association of Nuclear Medicine
Copenhagen, Denmark 2007

A joint project of
The Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee (PHCHCC)
and Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC)

Application for Consideration

This application has been developed for use by individuals who have reason to believe that they may have been contaminated by uranium as a result of living, working or spending time in Port Hope, Ontario and wish to apply to participate in the Port Hope Radiobiological Studies Project. Exposure and contamination may have occurred as a result of inhalation, skin absorption or ingestion of uranium and uranium compounds present in the environment or any facility in Port Hope. It may be current, recent or historical exposure caused by current, recent or historical events, locations or materials.

If you are eligible, you will proceed through the following steps:
1. Intake Interview
2. Clinical Assessment
3. Uranium Bioassay

Your application will be reviewed by the project staff. We will contact you to discuss your eligibility for proceeding to a clinical assessment and uranium bioassay. If accepted you will receive a clinical assessment by a physician specializing in internal contamination by radio nuclides. A 24-hour specimen of your urine will be collected and examined in a mass-spectrometry laboratory to determine if you are excreting unusual quantities (abundance) and or types (isotopes) of uranium. You will receive a bioassay report explaining the lab results and their interpretation. A consultation can be provided to your personal physician. Patient participants may be offered an opportunity to participate in follow-on studies of internal contamination effects.

The clinical data from all participants in the study will be used in scientific papers, which will be submitted for review by other scientists, physicians, presented at scientific conferences and published. The identity of all patients and study participants will be kept confidential. As a participant in the project you are deemed a patient of UMRC's consulting physicians and you are protected by the rules of doctor-patient confidentiality.

The Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee will use the study results / data and UMRC's analysis of the data for purposes of public information and planning. The identity of all participants and patients will be kept confidential to the project team. Selected project staff members designated within the PHCHCC executive may have access to individual patient information under the auspices of UMRC's physicians. Patients can choose to reveal their own identities publicly or to others.

I would like to know if I am contaminated and I wish to participate
You may contact the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee (PHCHCC) to discuss applying to the Radiobiological Studies Project being offered by the Committee and the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC), by sending an e-mail to the address below or you may proceed to submit a completed application in writing to the Committee at the address provided.

To recieve a copy of the "Application for Consideration"
for the PORT HOPE RADIOBIOLOGICALSTUDIES PROJECT 2005
Email the PHCHCC at info@porthopeconcerns.com to recieve a
printable PDF version

or to make a DONATION please click here

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Inquiries and Contact Information

All inquiries are confidential

Local Contact
Port Hope Radio-biological Studies Project
Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee
Box 476
Station Main
Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
L1A 3Z3

Email to Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee:
info@porthopeconcerns.com

UMRC Website: www.UMRC.net

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