Councilors, University Officials, Santa Discuss Radioactive Waste Questions

The Cambridge City Council, with the aid of six Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) officials, 20 anti-nuclear demonstrators and Santa Claus, debated the dangers of low-level radioactive waste last night.

Little was decided--after two hours of discussion, Francis Duehay '55 suggested that the city Biohazards Committee make a full report on the issue, which first arose two months ago when waste began piling up at universities in Cambridge after the temporary closing of the nation's two dump sites.

"We did bring this issue out into the open, though," Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci, who called for the meeting, said. "We are going to pursue this at every level to make sure that the testimony of these men is accurate," he added.

Vellucci was referring to the representatives of Harvard and MIT who spent more than an hour trying to convince the board that the waste, produced by medical experimentation, was harmless.

"There is as much radioactivity in a pound of butter as there is in one of our scintillator counting vials," a representative of MIT told the council. "These wastes are packed in little bitty glass jars," he added.

Dr. Warren E.C. Wacker, director of University Health Services, told the council and an audience of more than 100 that "the chief danger from these wastes is that the chemicals they are dissolved in are flammable. The levels of radioactivity are comparable to nature," he added.

University officials stressed that the crisis is mostly over. "The Washington dump will reopen soon," Walter Milne, an MIT spokesman, said, adding that MIT had never been in immediate danger of having to stop research efforts.

"We have enough storage space for six months," he told the council.

Wacker said Harvard officials had set October 19 as the cutoff date for research but had been able to find an alternate dumping site in time to prevent any research shutdown.

Vellucci, who waged a similar campaign against DNA research three years ago, found his target for the evening in Harvard radiation safety officer Jacob A. Shapiro.

Shapiro, who told the council that the Harvard staff "does the best job we can" of insuring that the doors to waste storage rooms are locked, also agreed with Vellucci that there was the chance of radioactive material leaking.

"Any liquid can leak," Shapiro said, adding that some chemicals used by University researchers enter the city's sewer system when workers rinse glassware and empty flasks.

Six opponents of nuclear waste storage in Cambridge presented the council with a list of demands, including the immediate cessation of transportation of radioactive waste through the city.

"The 'natural levels' argument we heard tonight is a red herring," Brain Feigenbaum, a Boston University law student, said. "The natural levels of radiation are not good for you either," he explained.

"There is no permanent place to store waste in this country," Feigenbaum added, reading a list of cities whose leaders have banned transportation of nuclear waste.

Another opponent of waste storage, Ramona Hamblen, told the council that it should be concerned with more than local problems. "Radiation will travel through the water system. Just because it starts out in Washington doesn't mean it isn't going to end up here," Hamblen added.

The public hearing ended on a fitting note, as a Clamshell organizer dressed as Santa Claus urged the council to ban waste shipments and storage in the city.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. doesn't have a red nose--a birth defect, a mutation due to radioactive waste," he explained.

"Therefore, I feel it is only fair to warn you that I will not visit any city this Christmas where there is radioactive waste stored," Claus added.