Doe Releases Report On Radiation Experiments Presidential Panel Will Determine Ethical Implications Of Human Tests That Involved Thousands Of Americans

About 9,000 Americans, including children and newborns, were used in 154 human radiation tests sponsored by the Energy Department’s Cold War predecessors, officials said Thursday.

The figures released by the Energy Department’s Office of Human Radiation Experiments indicate the scope of the experimentation was greater than previously known. It does not include tests done by the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

The information released Thursday includes experiments conducted at Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Ellyn Weiss, director of the radiation office, told a news conference that within a few months the department expected to report details of an additional 150 or so radiation experiments on humans. She did not say whether the department had an estimate now of how many people, beyond the 9,000, were used.

“We are proud of shining a light on this previously untold part of the atomic age,” Weiss said.

The department had said last fall that it knew of about 100 radiation experiments; it provided no public estimate then of how many people were involved.

An assessment of the ethical implications of the government-wide human radiation experiments from the Cold War years, including those reported by Weiss’s office, is being done by an outside advisory panel appointed by President Clinton.

Among the experiments reported by Weiss’s office Thursday:

At Hanford nuclear reservation in southeastern Washington in 1963, two employees volunteered to inhale radioactive iodine.

The report also notes several human experiments, which have been reported previously, including people who drank radioactive iodine in cow’s milk and the 1949 Green Run, when radioactive iodine and xenon were intentionally released to obtain information for monitoring Soviet nuclear activities.

The report also said that radiation was routinely released into the environment as a byproduct of processing activities at Hanford.

The report added details about human experiments at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Between 1965-72, 18 employees swallowed or inhaled radioactive material to assist in the calibration of whole-body counters.