Mulberry Tree Not So `Hot'

RICHLAND - A state-ordered test prompted by one scientist's findings detected no dangerous levels of a nuclear fuel byproduct in the fruit of a mulberry tree near a defunct Hanford reactor.

The lab test ordered by the state Department of Health found barely detectable levels of strontium 90 in the tree near the H reactor - 0.04 picocuries per gram of mulberry fruit. A picocurie is a measure of radioactivity.

A human would have to eat 25 tons of mulberries from the tree within one year to absorb a radiation dose of 100 millirems, the annual federal limit for someone who does not routinely work in a radiation zone, a Health Department draft report says.

A second tree at another site on the nuclear reservation also was tested. That test found no detectable strontium.