passing through his brain. July 16, 1979 – Church Rock uranium mill spill – release of radioactive mine tailings An earth/clay dike of a United Nuclear Corporation uranium mill settling/evaporating pond failed. The broken dam released 100 million U.S. gallons (380,000 m3) of radioactive liquids and 1,100 short tons (1,000 t) of solid wastes, which settled out up to 70 miles (100 km) down the Puerco River and also near a Navajo farming community that uses surface waters. As a result, the Navajo community suffered serious health implications. The pond was past its planned and licensed life and had been filled two feet (60 cm) deeper than design, despite evident cracking. September 29, 1979 – Tritium leak at American Atomics in Tucson, Arizona. At the public school across the street from the plant, $300,000 worth of food was found to be contaminated. The chocolate cake had 56 nCi/L (2,100 Bq/L) of tritium. 1980s Early 1981 - Douglas Crofut, an unemployed industrial radiographer, was injured by an unknown source of radiation, suffering radiation burns from which he would ultimately die. Although the source of radiation was never conclusively determined, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission strongly suspected that the source was an 192Ir industrial radiographic source which had temporarily gone missing and had been in the care of a fellow industrial radiographer living near Crofut. At the time of his injury and death, Crofut was reported to have been the first such death in the US since the Manhattan Project. Crofut’s death is notable for being the only US death attributable to an unknown source of radiation, along with being the only known case in the US of a suspected suicide undertaken via radiation exposure. July 1981 – Lycoming, Nine Mile Point, New York. An overloaded wastewater tank was deliberately flushed into a building subbasement, resulting in a pool four feet deep. This caused a number of the approximately 150 55-gallon drums stored there to overturn and spill their contents. Fifty thousand U.S. gallons (190 m3) of contaminated water was discharged into Lake Ontario. 1982 – International Nutronics of Dover, New Jersey spilled an unknown quantity of 60Co solution used to treat gems, modify chemicals, and sterilize food and medical supplies. The solution spilled into the Dover sewer system and forced shutdown of the plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was only informed of the accident ten months later by a whistleblower. 1982