Fallout From Nasty Secrets

On a spring day in 1950, U.S. scientists perfecting techniques for tracking Soviet atomic tests packed a conventional bomb with radioactive material -- probably lanthanum-140 -- and exploded it in the atmosphere near Los Alamos, New Mexico. No injuries were reported, but the fallout reached populated areas at least 70 miles away.

The Los Alamos test, one of many similar experiments described in a congressional report released last week, is just the latest in a series of disclosures from the early days of the atomic age, when the government often learned about the effects of radiation the quick and dirty way -- by exposing unsuspecting civilians. Over the past month, a frightening array of nuclear experiments have come to light, including large-scale medical tests involving hundreds of patients. A series published in the Albuquerque Tribune detailed one experiment in which 18 people were injected with high concentrations of plutonium, apparently without their full consent. In another test, 800 pregnant women were exposed to radioactive iron in order to investigate its effects on fetal development. The testicles of 67 inmates at an Oregon state prison were exposed to X rays to determine how radiation might alter sperm production.

When the first reports of such experiments appeared seven years ago -- in a congressional study titled American Nuclear Guinea Pigs -- the Energy Department was less than forthcoming. This time, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary says the Clinton Administration's policy is to "come clean" about the radiation tests, and she has ordered the most thorough investigation ever into the experiments. The Energy Department has also promised to declassify millions of pages of secret documents related to past activities of the nuclear-weapons industry. The worst disclosures may be yet to come.