New disclosures of harmful radiation releases at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state could help win federal compensation for those who became ill following the emissions in the 1940s, some lawmakers say. ``The federal government owes something if folks have been harmed by these early releases of radiation,'' said Rep. Sid Morrison, a Republican whose district houses the 560-square-mile Hanford reservation near Richland, Wash. An independent panel of scientists released preliminary data Thursday that showed some residents in the early years of atomic bomb building in the 1940s could have been exposed to large doses of radioactive iodine. For a few infants, the doses were as high as 2,900 rad over three years. One rad is the amount of radiation a body organ would absorb from about a dozen chest X-rays. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said the findings underscore the need for the Energy Department to make public its secret records of health risks at all DOE sites nationwide. He said he was ``surprised and disturbed'' by the results of the dose reconstruction study at Hanford. ``The study suggests that the Hanford residents may have been exposed to more radioactive iodine than from any industrial nuclear facility in the world,'' he said. Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., said the Energy Department should launch a major campaign to help locate people who may have been exposed to the radiation. ``The number of curries released over all these years are comparable to the levels released in Chernobyl (in the Soviet Union) ... The missing link is where are the people who were exposed?'' Adams said. ``If we find these people around the country and if there has been injury then the government should compensate them for it,'' Adams said. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said if it can be proven that people were injured as a result of the emissions it ``would be only fair'' to compensate them. Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., said the high doses of radiation exposure during the 1940s suggests a study into thyroid disease should begin immediately. However, he added, ``Radioactive materials have leaked from existing storage tanks at Hanford as recently as last month... I fear the public is left with the impression that the only threat at Hanford existed 30 years ago.'' Some members of Congress are pushing to remove the Energy Department's oversight authority of health and environmental safety at nuclear weapons plants. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colo., have proposed bills to establish independent oversight of DOE's weapons facilities through the Department of Health and Human Services. ``I think that because the federal government has misled the people of the Pacific Northwest, that unless there are truly independent decisions being made on health and safety, the citizens of the Northwest are going to doubt the department's credibility,'' Wyden said. Energy Secretary James Watkins said his department is preparing to enter an inter-agency agreement that would transfer some radiation research activities from DOE to HHS.
