It’s Chrismas 2017 and Hanford is the gift that keeps on giving in a morbid way. I live in Washington State where the Hanford Nuclear Reservations, one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world, is located. The U.S. nuclear weapons program produced nuclear materials for warheads at Hanford for decades before being shut down. There was no concern for the environment in the early days and radioactive liquids were poured into trenches dug in the dirt without so much as a sheet of plastic to contain them. A great deal of toxic and radioactive material was buried in single wall steel containers that are now leaking.
I have blogged often about problems at Hanford including improper handling of radioactive materials, failure to document contents of buried tanks, failure to properly protect the health of workers, failure to meet deadlines for cleanup, poor design of treatment facilities, radioactive contamination from the soil leaking into the Columbia River and many other issues. The Attorney General of the State of Washington has had to drag the U.S. Department of Energy into court several times to force it to act on serious problems.
The DoE is now busy working on the destruction of the Plutonium handling faclity at Hanford where plutonium was recovered for warheads. Recently, a railway tunnel filled with contaminated railway cars near the facility was exposed to the environment when the roof of one of the tunnels collapsed. Officials had been repeatedly warned that this could happen for years but apprently did not take the warnings seriously. As always, they claimed that there was no danger of exposure to radioactive materials for the workers because of the protective gear that they wear.
Following the recent demolition of the Plutonium Reclamation Facility, the most contaminated part of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, specks of radioactive materials were found beyond the boundaries of the radiological control boundaries over the past two weeks. Inside the boundary, the workers wear protective gear including protection from just such specs of radioactive materials in the air. But, beyond the boundary, the protective gear is removed.
Specks of radioactive materials were found in or on fourteen vehicles, including two vehicles which may have been driven home by employees on December 15th, just before the contamination was found. Seven homes in the Richland, Washington area were checked for contamination but, fortunately, there was none found.
In early December, some of the air monitors that workers wear on their lapels did register low levels of radioactive contamination in the air. These particular workers were outside of the demolition area where protective gear is worn. Two hundred and fifty-seven workers at Hanford have been checked to see if they have inhaled any radioactive particles.
Work on the demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant has been suspended pending investigation of the source of the radioactive materials that threatens the workers. The two senators of Washington State, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, support the cessation of work until conditions improve for the workers. They are waiting for a report on the Government Accounting Office review of safety at Hanford following the collapse of the tunnel near the Plutonium Finishing Plant. They have asked for additional information on the contamination and efforts to identify and stop it from the DoE. They say that the workers at Hanford have the right to a work place where safety is put ahead of legal deadlines and financial interests.
Demolition of the Plutonium Reclamation Facility at Hanford:
