LEUKEMIA IN THE PROXIMITY OF A GERMAN BOILING-WATER NUCLEAR-REACTOR -EVIDENCE OF POPULATION EXPOSURE BY CHROMOSOME-STUDIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL-RADIOACTIVITY

Exceptional elevation of children's leukemia appearing 5 years after t he 1983 startup of the Krummel nuclear power plant, accompanied by a s ignificant increase of adult leukemia cases, led to investigations of radiation exposures of the population living near the plant. The rate of dicentric chromosomes in peripheral blood lymphocytes of seven pare nts of children with leukemia and in 14 other inhabitants near the pla nt was significantly elevated and indicated ongoing exposures over the years of its operation. These findings led to the hypothesis that chr onic reactor leakages had occurred. This assumption is supported by id entification of artificial radioactivity in air, rainwater, soil, and vegetation by the environmental monitoring program at the nuclear powe r plant. Calculations of the corresponding source terms show that emis sions must have been well above authorized annual limits. Bone marrow doses supposedly result primarily through incorporation of bone-seekin g beta- and alpha-emitters.