A 13-year study has concluded that few people living near the Savannah River Site suffered a substantially higher risk of cancer from pollution at the nuclear weapons complex during the Cold War.

The federally sponsored study, out for public comment through Friday, says the overall surrounding population did not receive major radiation doses from SRS.

“This has been a long time coming,” said C.M. Wood, a health physicist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have learned that there were not significant doses to the public from the Savannah River Site.”

The findings are important, Wood said, because they likely will end the ambitious research project on pollution and its health effects to local populations in South Carolina and Georgia.

At SRS, scientists relied on 50,000 boxes of records to help reconstruct radiation and chemical releases at the site from the early 1950s to 1992, when atomic weapons production reactors shut down. Some of the records had been classified for decades by the federal government. The study was launched in 1992.

The CDC, which hired a contractor to perform the work, will not continue the research unless substantial new information turns up in the next few months, Wood said. The report is expected to become final after a federal committee reviews it in September, according to the CDC.

Atomic engineer Arjun Makhijani, a critic of federal nuclear sites, said it is hard to believe people’s health hasn’t been threatened by SRS. He has not reviewed the study, but noted the Savannah River is a drinking-water source and popular recreational spot.

“Discharges from the Savannah Site do pose a risk to the downstream population,” he said.

The CDC report notes that some people living near SRS who were born in 1955 likely received higher doses than people born in the 1960s. Nuclear weapons production in the 1950s released into the air and water substantial amounts of iodine, which can cause cancer.

Still, the report found a less than 1 percent chance anyone born in 1955 and living near the site would die from cancer related to SRS pollution.

A previous phase of the study documented notable releases of radioactive pollutants, such as plutonium, tritium and iodine, from the 1950s to 1992. The 1999 phase of the study showed some buildup of contaminants in animals and plants near the site, as well as in cow’s milk.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.