Study: No leaking radiation from Alaska island nuclear site

By RACHEL D’ORO
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Officials say the latest round of testing on Alaska’s Amchitka Island found no radioactive material has leaked from locations where the federal government conducted underground nuclear tests there decades ago.

Jason Nguyen with the U.S. Department of Energy says environmental samples tested show no subsurface migration of radioactive material. Nguyen moderated a panel discussion Tuesday at an environmental conference in Anchorage.

Nguyen, the DOE’s site manager for Amchitka work, also said a 2014 earthquake with a magnitude 7.9 damaged caps of three drilling mud pits on the now-uninhabited island. But he said none of the diesel-fuel filled mud was exposed. The damage has not yet been repaired.

Three nuclear tests were conducted between 1965 and 1971 on Amchitka, located in the Aleutian Islands chain 1,340 miles southwest of Anchorage.