97 



American Society for Circumpolar Health 



August 10, 1992 



Senator Frank Murkowski 

 101 12th Avenue, Box 7 

 Fairbanks, AK 99701-6278 



Honorable Senator Murkowski and 



Members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: 



As President of the American Society for Circumpolar Health 

 and Vice-President of the International Union for Circumpolar 

 Health I commend you for holding this hearing on the risks of 

 radioactive materials here in Alaska and the Arctic. This is a 

 timely hearing in that this past weekend's "Anchorage Daily News" 

 contained an article stating that a fire in western Russia is 

 burning an area contaminated after the Chernobyl incident. It is 

 known that the wind patterns in that region can bring the newly 

 re-airborne radioactive material into the Arctic and potentially 

 into northern Alaska. 



Alaska has been a place for dealing with nuclear materials 

 for many years. 



* The first nuclear powered electrical generator plant in 

 the world is not may miles from the site of your hearing and when 

 it was shut down it raised many local concerns as to the 

 pollution it may have, and may still be producing. 



* The site of the first peaceful civilian use of atomic 

 power was to be here in Alaska where a harbor was proposed to be 

 blasted not far from the community of Point Hope. 



* The Native populations of the north central part of the 

 state became contaminated in the mid-1960s with radioactive 

 cesium and strontium from the fallout of these materials after 

 atmospheric testing around the world. The global wind patterns 

 and magnetic drift of the particles caused them to precipitate 

 and bioaccumulate in the Arctic food chain. Radioactive body 

 burdens of up to 200 times the background levels were measured in 

 the people of Anaktuvik Pass. 



* The largest of the country's nuclear underground 'tests 

 was performed at Amchitka Island in a very seismically active 

 region of our state. There are still concerns over the hundreds 

 of sea otters that were killed in the blast, as well as the 

 potential hazard if a major earthquake opens the cavern that the 

 blast created. 



* A formal body of the indigenous people of the Arctic, 

 the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, has requested repeatedly that 

 the Arctic be a nuclear free zone. 



* Most recently we have concerns coming from specific 

 sources in Russia. 



Carl Hild David W Tetnplin Anita Todd-Tigert Jeanne R. Roche 



President Vice President Treasurer Secieiaiy 



PC Box 242822 • Anchorage. Alaska 99S24 



