Radiation is found 10 miles away from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation as demolition work is halted after contamination of workers

Seven decades after making key portions of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are being exposed to radiation as they tear down buildings that helped create the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Dozens of workers demolishing a plutonium processing plant from the 1940s have inhaled or ingested radioactive particles in the past year, and even carried some of that radiation into their vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The incidents have prompted the federal government, along with state regulators, to halt the demolition of the sprawling Plutonium Finishing Plant until a safety plan can be developed.
The contamination has also shaken confidence in a massive cleanup of Hanford, the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons production site.
The work costs the federal treasury around $2 billion a year.
Hanford is near the city of Richland, about 200 miles southeast of Seattle.
"This is a very disturbing set of incidents," said Tom Carpenter, head of the Seattle-based watchdog group Hanford Challenge.
The Energy Department, which owns Hanford, has launched an independent investigation into the spread of radiation at the plant.
The investigation will be conducted by an agency office that is not connected to work at Hanford. Radioactive particles are known to have contaminated 42 workers, which led to the shutdown of demolition, the agency has said.
Carpenter said widespread worker contamination has been rare at Hanford in recent decades. Plutonium production ended in the 1980s and the site in 1989 switched its focus to the cleanup of nuclear wastes.
A union representing some Hanford workers said it was closely monitoring the situation.
"We've got our eyes on [the Energy Department] and will do what we've got to do to keep workers safe," said Paul Ruggles, vice-president of the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council. Workers have the ability to immediately shut a project down, and will not hesitate to do so if their safety is threatened, Ruggles said.
Hanford officials issued a report in late March that said a total of 42 Hanford workers inhaled or ingested radioactive particles from the demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant when they were exposed during contamination events in June and December of last year.
Radioactive contamination was also found outside plant offices and inside two dozen vehicles, the report said.
Seven workers' homes were checked for radioactive contamination, with none found, the report said. The report concluded Hanford officials placed too much reliance on air-monitoring systems that failed to pick up the spread of radioactive particles.
Managers of the private contractor performing the demolition work for the federal government were also caught between maintaining safety and trying to make progress toward project deadlines, according to the report.
Risk escalated as walls of the plutonium plant were knocked down and the rubble was stored in piles. Fixatives sprayed on the rubble to keep radioactive particles from blowing away might not have been effective, the report said.
In addition, the state Health Department found very small amounts of airborne radioactive contamination near Highway 240 in the past year that could have come from the plant demolition 10 miles away.
The amount of radiation involved was low - even lower than naturally occurring levels of radiation people are exposed to in everyday life.
But the project was not supposed to expose workers to any additional radiation.
The amounts of radiation that have escaped are considered too small by state experts to pose a health risk.
All the contamination was found on lands that are closed to the public.
Hanford was created during the Manhattan Project in World War II and made the plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, that effectively ended the war.

In May 2017 The Big Wobble reported, The Oregon Department of Energy has activated its emergency operation centre in response to an emergency at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington.
ODOE officials are coordinating with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Health Authority and nuclear safety experts at Oregon State University, ODOE spokeswoman Rachel Wray said Tuesday morning.
"Hanford is 35 miles away from Oregon," Wray said.
"We are concerned about Oregonians' health and that concerns the food we eat."
The U.S. Department of Energy declared an emergency at the site at 8:26 a.m. Tuesday after a routine check found that a portion of a storage tunnel that contains radioactive waste had collapsed.
The tunnels are hundreds of feet long and are covered by about eight feet of soil.
The Hanford Fire Department is on the scene and is reporting that the tunnel has caved in an area approximately 20 feet by 20 feet over one of the tunnels next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, or PUREX.
There is no indication of a release of contamination at this point, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a news release.
There were no workers in the tunnel when it collapsed.
Workers in that area of the site have been evacuated, and those in potentially affected areas have been told to stay indoors
Hanford is located on the Columbia River near Richland, Wash. It has more than 9,000 employees. About 29,000 Oregonians live in the nearby communities of Boardman, Irrigon, Hermiston and Umatilla.

The Big Wobble Quote: Once the radiation hits the soil it will never leave in our lifetime...

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Washington state nuclear accident update; Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington is an emergency

The Oregon Department of Energy has activated its emergency operation center in response to an emergency at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington.
ODOE officials are coordinating with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Health Authority and nuclear safety experts at Oregon State University, ODOE spokeswoman Rachel Wray said Tuesday morning.
"Hanford is 35 miles away from Oregon," Wray said.
"We are concerned about Oregonians' health and that concerns the food we eat."
The U.S. Department of Energy declared an emergency at the site at 8:26 a.m. Tuesday after a routine check found that a portion of a storage tunnel that contains radioactive waste had collapsed.
The tunnels are hundreds of feet long and are covered by about eight feet of soil.
The Hanford Fire Department is on scene and is reporting that the tunnel has caved in in an area approximately 20 feet by 20 feet over one of the tunnels next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, or PUREX.
There is no indication of a release of contamination at this point, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a news release.
There were no workers in the tunnel when it collapsed.
Workers in that area of the site have been evacuated, and those in potentially affected areas have been told to stay indoors
Hanford is located on the Columbia River near Richland, Wash. It has more than 9,000 employees. About 29,000 Oregonians live in the nearby communities of Boardman, Irrigon, Hermiston and Umatilla.

The Big Wobble Quote: Once the radiation hits the soil it will never leave in our life time...

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The Wire

Radioactive plutonium and americium have been found in air samples during demolition of the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation

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Radioactive plutonium and americium have been found in air samples collected where workers enter the secure area of the Hanford nuclear reservation in southeastern Washington, state health officials said Tuesday.
The air samples were collected by the state Department of Health on June 8 at the Rattlesnake Barricade just off of public Highway 240.
That was the day workers at the Plutonium Finishing Plant were ordered to take cover indoors because of an airborne release of radioactive particles during demolition of the highly contaminated facility.
Department of Health officials at a Hanford Advisory Board committee meeting in Richland on Tuesday said analysis results for the air samples were received Monday.
The levels of contamination in the samples were "very, very low," said John Martell, manager of the Radioactive Air Emissions Section of the Department of Health.
"The level is interesting from a regulatory point of view, but is not a health risk" to the public, said Mike Priddy, manager of the Environmental Sciences Section of the Department of Health.
Hanford employees were told in a Tuesday memo that the Department of Health considers "that the amount detected is below levels that would be of concern for human health."
The Department of Energy and Department of Health are beginning an investigation and have not conclusively linked the airborne contamination to the Plutonium Finishing Plant incident, officials said.
"We are taking it seriously," said Tom Teynor, Department of Energy project director for the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
The samples were collected in an area where officials were not expecting to find airborne contamination.
The Rattlesnake Barricade is at least three miles from the Plutonium Finishing Plant.

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Hanford Nuclear Reservation Emergency Update! Hundreds of workers instructed to stay inside and not to eat or drink anything after tunnel collapse.

A nuclear cleanup facility at Hanford, one of the biggest, most complex superfund sites in the country, has been evacuated and workers in the vicinity have been instructed to "shelter in place."
At 8:26 this morning, the Hanford Emergency Operations Center jumped into action after an alert regarding subsidence of soil covering old railroad tunnels that contain contaminated materials. Susannah Frame of KING 5 reports that the "subsidence" concern translates into a collapsed tunnel, and hundreds of workers at Hanford have been instructed to stay inside and not to eat or drink anything.
There isn't much more we know at the moment-the media lines are busy.
We do know that access to the area where the alert was generated, 200 East Area, has been "restricted."
The Department of Energy says that Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been briefed on the Hanford situation, "and there is no initial indication of any worker exposure or an airborne radiological release."
Hanford officials say there is still no evidence of environmental contamination from the tunnel, and that crews have been surveying the area near the tunnels for contamination.
A remotely controlled robot, called a TALON, is also monitoring the area for contamination and taking video.
Senator Maria Cantwell says that she is closely monitoring reports of "collapsed train tunnels," which house rail cars that contain radioactive materials.
"I have been in touch with labor leaders, and in contact with the Department of Energy and contractors at the site," Cantwell said.
"Worker safety must be our number one priority, and we need to understand whether there has been any environmental contamination resulting from the subsidence at these tunnels.
My thoughts are with the first responders who are working to assess the situation on the ground, monitor any environmental impacts and design next steps for securing the area."
Washington governor Jay Inslee released a statement on the emergency, saying that the Department of Energy informed the state that "a tunnel was breached that was used to bury radioactive waste."
The White House reached out to the governor's office about the emergency, too.

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The Wire

Leaked plutonium and other radioactive particles found on workers' cars and pickups stop's demolition for the second time at Plutonium Finishing Plant

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Demolition is stopped at the Hanford nuclear reservation's Plutonium Finishing Plant after another spread of radioactive contamination.
Some workers in portable offices at the plant, which are well away from the plant's demolition zone, were told to remain in their office trailers until areas nearby were surveyed for radioactive contamination Monday afternoon.
Some of the contamination was found on workers' cars or pickups.
At about 4 p.m., workers were in the process of being released from the offices as radiation surveys determined that there was a clean route for them to exit the administrative area without tracking and spreading contamination that might be on the ground.
The contamination may be from the final demolition work Friday on the plant's most contaminated area, the Plutonium Reclamation Facility, said Ty Blackford, president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., in a message to employees.
The last of the reclamation facility was torn down Friday as part of demolition work that started 13 months ago.
The reclamation facility was believed to be the most contaminated area of the plant.
Hanford officials have called the plutonium and other radioactive particles there "flighty" because they can become airborne easily.
Since Friday's open-air demolition using heavy equipment, small amounts of contamination have been found on a jersey barrier, a vehicle hood, the ground and a trash can near the Plutonium Finishing Plant's office trailer, according to Hanford officials.
The specks of contamination on two workers' vehicles parked at the plant were discovered Monday.
It is unknown if the vehicles were contaminated Monday or if they had been contaminated as long ago as Friday, driven home and then driven back to work.
"The interiors of both vehicles were surveyed, and no contamination was detected inside either vehicle," Blackford said in a memo to employees late afternoon Monday.
"Additional surveying is being considered."
Work at the Plutonium Finishing Plant had been stopped Wednesday and Thursday with about a half day's demolition left on the reclamation facility.
CH2M officials and union leaders were concerned about laboratory results for lapel air monitors worn by several plant workers who were south of the demolition area.
They showed that workers possibly could have inhaled low levels of airborne radioactive contamination in recent days.
Testing of workers for contamination within their bodies is continuing.
The demolition zone was expanded before last week's stop-work order was lifted.
When demolition work resumed Friday, the southern boundary of the demolition zone had been expanded and workers there were required to wear respirators.
Routine radiological surveying was done after demolition work wrapped up Friday on the reclamation facility.
Surveyors found specks of contamination to the east of the reclamation facility and what remains of the main processing area of the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
A stop work order was issued by CH2M officials Sunday.
Employees returned to work at the plant after the weekend Monday, but no demolition work was done.
Surveys had shown the area near the offices to be clean, but more specks of contamination were found there Monday, which was a breezy day, during follow-up surveying.
A critique was held Monday to discuss the contamination spread, its possible causes and the path forward, Blackford told employees.
No emergency was declared.
A spread of radioactive material also occurred in June.
"Friday's contamination spread was smaller and at lower levels than the contamination spread in June," Blackford said.
In June, as demolition was being done on the plant's reclamation facility, small spots of low-level radioactive contamination were found outside the area marked for radiological control near the demolition.
An airborne radiation alarm also sounded and workers were ordered to take cover as a precaution.
In August, Washington Department of Health laboratory results came back for air samples collected the same day as the June contamination spread.
Samples collected at least three miles from the plant had radioactive contamination at such low levels that it was not considered a health risk.
The only activities allowed under the current stop work order at the Plutonium Finishing Plant are stabilization of debris from the demolition of the reclamation facility to make sure rubble piles are safe and surveying for radioactive contamination spread.
"As I said last week, PFP has and will continue to challenge us," Blackford told employees.
"We will work through this and learn from it."
Before the most recent stop-work order, Blackford had within a few weeks the remainder of the Plutonium Finishing Plant could be demolished down to its foundation.

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