DOE SAYS HANFORD ALERT CAUSED BY OLD CONTAMINATION

Unusual radiation readings that caused an emergency alert to be declared last month at Hanford came from old contamination, according to Hanford officials. No evidence of a new leak from the sluicing system being used to retrieve waste from a Hanford tank or from the system’s transfer hoses was found, Hanford workers were told yesterday. An investigation concluded that insulating blankets that shielded radiation on an area about four-inches square had shifted, causing the elevated beta radiation readings during routine monitoring, Kevin Smith, manager of the Department of Energy’sOffice of River Protection, said in a message to employees yesterday. Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions has completed an assessment of the Tank C-101 sluicer, where the elevated reading was recorded, and the surrounding area and found no additional contamination or exposure to the environment, according to Smith. Work is expected to resume this week to pump waste from Tank C-101 and Tank C-110, the two C Farm tanks where work was underway before the Aug. 21 incident.