Tuesday, September 7, 1999
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Taking Matters Safely in Hand
Environmental Safety specialist will oversee safety of researchers at International Radioecology Laboratory in Ukraine
By Alex Crevar

In April 1986, the world witnessed one of the forms an apocalypse might take when an explosion rocked Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor number four in Ukraine. The blast spewed fission by-product across Europe with 200 times more radioactive than the atom-bomb explosions of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined. Traces of the explosion reached as far as the United States.
Since 1991, UGA genetics professor Ron Chesser and toxicology professor Cham Dallas have been carrying out radioecology studies in the area, looking at the adaptations of plant and animal life near Chernobyl. In July 1998, UGA made its partnership with Ukraine and the U.S. Department of Energy official by establishing a permanent international radioecology laboratory in Chernobyl. UGA is charged with the task of guaranteeing laboratory compliance with radiation protection fundamentals.
Dennis Widner, a radiation-safety officer with UGA’s Environmental Safety Division, recently spent 10 days in Chernobyl. Columns talked with him about his role as visiting radiation-safety officer.

Columns: First, what is the overall purpose of UGA’s Chernobyl
research?
Widner: There has always been natural radiation on the earth, but not until the Manhattan Project in the 1940s did people have a concept about handling large doses of radioactive materials. We did study some of the long-term effects of the fallout around Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but not until Chernobyl did we have such a specific dose to study. Scientists can now track the long-range effects of radiation on generations of mammals living in the region. Radioecology looks at the life in an area to see its reaction to a radioactive change in the environment.

Columns: Have the reactions in the wildlife at Chernobyl been what was expected?
Widner: Frankly, no. There was a general drop in health and a rise in disease in the short term, but no drastic mutations. In fact, in many of the areas the resilience has been evidenced by the flourishing plant and animal life. Without a Geiger counter, you would not know there were huge amounts of radiation in the area.

Columns: Have humans shown the same resilience?
Widner: That is not so sure, because in human evolution 13 years is not a long time. We have not had enough generations to see the effects. We do know that the generations following the explosions in Japan have not showed the kind of lasting effects originally feared. In the short term, the people of Chernobyl showed thyroid cancer, failing health and general declining life standards and even death.

Columns: What is your charge as radiation-safety officer?
Widner: One of my jobs is to make sure that people don’t go beyond their radiation-exposure limits in a given year. I hope to establish safety in the laboratory, which folks from all over the world will use, and UGA will maintain.
I’ll be making observations--including samples, levels of exposure and contamination surveys. Another means is personnel bio-assays on returning researchers to be compared to the base-line recordings taken before departure from the United States. From there, I can make decisions on what safety is needed in the laboratory environment and then see what is in place and what needs to be changed.

Columns: Will lab safety affect the range of research in the area?
Widner: High levels of safety will draw researchers in many areas. I will use my experience in radiochemistry, radiation protection and what I have learned in nuclear power to assure safety is a priority at the International Radioecology Laboratory.
Ukrainian regulations--and general thinking about radioactive safety--are different than in the United States. That is something we will have to work with. It is likely that Ukrainian scientists do not have to be subjected to U.S. standards, but it is my charge to make sure that regulations are in place so that U.S. citizens will be safe doing research at the IRL.

Columns: Is this routine work for the Environmental Safety Division?
Widner: This is a shot that almost any RSO would love to have. We have top-quality people in this department, most with high-level private-sector experience.
Even though we are small, the division handles five parts of campus safety: laboratory and chemical, radiation, hazardous waste, environmental health, and occupational health. Most people don’t realize the tasks the division undertakes daily.
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