A few months ago, two “contamination events” occurred the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington State. The events happened while employees of CH2M Hill were working on Building 324 which is the most radioactively contaminated building at Hanford. It is near the Columbia River and only a mile away from the town of Richland. Building 324 was a laboratory that worked with some of the most dangerous materials while nuclear weapons were being produced at Hanford.
According to Hanford management, there was no risk to public health or the environment. No workers have reported being injured or sickened by the events. Tom
Carpenter is the executive director of the advocacy group, Hanford Challenge. He said, “It’s pretty close to populated areas, and it’s a very, very large inventory of radioactive waste. Because of the levels of contamination and where it’s situated, (the project is) a top, top concern.”
Employees of CH2M were stabilizing Building 324 before they began to demolished it. Last March, they found spots of contamination on equipment and in other places in the building. The contaminating material was pure strontium 90. It is one of the most dangerous unstable isotopes that were used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The contractor was surprised to find the strontium 90 and work was halted in order to increase safety procedures.
One Hanford worker who asked not to be identified due to fears of retaliation said, “They should have stopped the work. No one was hurt, but they found Strontium 90. That wasn’t expected. The safest thing to do would have been to stop and increase safety controls for the workers. Instead, they waited another month.”
A month after they first found strontium 90 in the Building, more strontium 90 was found on the clothing of a worker. This prompted a “stop work” on the project. Tom Carpenter said, “What worries us is what appears to be a pretty cavalier attitude about safety.” The worker who requested anonymity said, “I’m worried about the work going forward. You could not put a human anywhere near the contaminated soil under the building. This is the highest (level of radioactivity) I’ve ever seen in over 30 years at Hanford.”
The contractor CH2M Hill has been criticized before for displaying incompetence in another dangerous job in 2017 when they were working on the demolition of a facility referred to as the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Plutonium was released into the air because of poor safety controls. Radioactive particles escaped from the perimeters of the project on multiple occasions. Contamination found its way to the town of Richland. Forty-one workers tested positive for inhaling radioactive particles. One of the contaminated workers said, “I’m scared, like we all are, that sooner or later it’s going to bite me and I’m going to end up with cancer.”
CH2M did not notify a Hanford advisory board or the public about the problems at Building 324 in March and April. Workers said that this was a serious mistake. Tom Carpenter said, “CH2M has a pattern of this. They shouldn’t be covering it up. Transparency and credibility is all they have at this point and if they blow that again, who’s going to believe them in the future?” It is not clear whether or not work has resumed on Building 324.