Officials at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state have been alerted to the recent discovery of some radioactive bird feces.
The contaminated bird droppings were discovered during a routine radiation survey in Hanford’s waste tank farms, according to an Aug. 23 Energy Department Occurrence Reporting and Processing System report. The radioactivity reading on the substance, which was found on top of Verification Tank C, was 85,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm)/100 square centimeters for beta/gamma radiation and 56 dpm/100 cm2 for alpha radiation.
Workers then carried out decontamination and disposal of the material, according to the ORPS report.
“This isn’t an unknown phenomenon; there have been similar occurrences at Hanford in the past with mud swallows and rabbits,” a Hanford spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by email.
