AFTER FOUR WORKERS RECEIVE DOSE AT HANFORD’S PFP, NONCOMPLIANCES FOUND

After four workers at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant received radioactive doses from a sealed strontium 90 source in October, the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company have identified several noncompliances, according to a DOE enforcement letter released this week. While no occupational dose limits were exceeded, “significant worker extremity doses” were documented, according to the April 25 letter from DOE’s Office of Enforcement and Oversight. “Despite the deficiencies revealed by this event, the Office of Enforcement and Oversight is electing to exercise enforcement discretion at this time based on CHPRC’s completion of a thorough and wide-ranging root cause evaluation that identified direct, root and contributing causes, and the development of comprehensive and conservative corrective actions to prevent recurrence, including improvements to the radiation protection program,” the letter states. 

 

The event originated on Sept. 18, when a PFP worker tagged a piece of equipment as out of service due to a mechanical issue and placed it in locked cabinet. On Oct, 16, a radioactive control technician “found what appeared to be a watch or hearing aid battery on the floor,” and after being handled by three workers “it was placed on the desk for future disposition,” the letter states. The following day a fourth worker noticed “what appeared to be a magnet on the desk and, upon further examination, determined that it was a sealed radioactive source containing a non-accountable (exempt) quantity of Sr-90 with an activity of 966 microcuries,”according to the letter.

 

CHPRC said in a statement: “We appreciate the Office of Enforcement and Oversight’s review and analysis of this event. CH2M HILL is committed to safe, compliant work across the Hanford Site. The enforcement letter drew from many of our own findings from the investigation we completed after the strontium source was found. As a result of our investigation, we’ve improved our source custodian training and revised applicable procedures.”