Proposed irradiator
would be safe from
quake, lava, tsunami,
experts say
Big Island voters may choose
By Rod Thompson
to block a fruit-treatment plant
Star-BulletinHILO -- A Big Island irradiator to sterilize flies in fruit would be safe even in a major earthquake, according to an engineer with the company that wants to build it.
"It's a short, squat facility which is very good for earthquakes," said Jerry Dzwierzynski of the Isomedix Services division of Steris Corp.
Dzwierzynski was one of a dozen experts on engineering and hazards who were called yesterday by Lyle Wong of the state Department of Agriculture to answer critics who say the facility won't be safe.
Those critics gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot which attempts to block the facility.
The state and county back the facility as a way to boost fruit exports.
Dzwierzynski said the building would be 30 feet by 30 feet, 16 feet high, with 6-foot-thick reinforced concrete walls.
Honolulu engineer Glenn Miyasato said he had concerns about the facility until he saw the design.
"There are a lot of things going for this that a lot of other structures don't have. There are hardly any openings. That makes it a lot stronger," he said.
In comparison, Big Island buildings constructed to handle earthquakes typically have 8- to 12-inch walls, he said.
Myron Yoshioka, a hazardous materials coordinator for the Hawaii County Fire Department, said he had fears about an irradiator until he visited four near Chicago and New York.
Firefighters there told him irradiators there aren't considered hazardous materials facilities.
In case of a problem, "basically, you do nothing," he said.
That's because the cobalt irradiation source is automatically lowered by gravity into an underground pool of water which shields the radiation.
"This is really an excellent facility," he said.
Dzwierzynski said the stainless steel-lined pool of water does not become radioactive and the water is treated so it can't react chemically.
He said he has often drunk water from such pools.
Don Swanson, scientist-in-charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said studies have shown that a lava flow is likely to hit any given spot in or near Hilo only once every 4,000 years.
If lava does approach an irradiator, officials have a few days to several weeks to move the cobalt to a safer place, he said.
Opponents have said consumers won't buy fruit treated at the facility.
Dzwierzynski said various polls convince him at least 40 percent of the public will eat the fruit.
Although Isomedix wrote a letter to a Big Island supporter in August saying the Shipman Business Park south of Hilo would be the "logical" place for the facility, Dzwierzynski said no decision has been made.
Both the business park and another site under consideration near Hilo airport are out of tsunami zones, another concern to opponents.
If a Big Island deal falls through, business interests on Oahu have proposed Steris build a facility there, Dzwierzynski said.
