During an unusually hot summer, some crews at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are sweating through their protective clothing, according to federal safety reports.
Hanford workers at the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility experienced some incidents of contamination during June and July after management modified requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) as high temperatures in the high-desert site topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit, according to staff reports filed with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
The National Weather Service forecast for the Richland, Wash., area calls for daytime highs to be in the triple-digits through Wednesday with an excessive heat watch in effect into Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to drop into the 80s on Thursday and Friday.
A June 25 DNFSB report to the board’s technical director, Christopher Roscetti, said a worker for the tank contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions, had contamination on personal clothing after removing the day’s PPE and the “the worker noted he had sweated through his coveralls.”
A somewhat revised set of PPE layers failed to totally solve the problem, according to a DNFSB report dated July 2. Two workers doing chores in the facility’s Basin 44 also experienced some contamination: one on the bottom of their shoe, and one on their wrist.
Finally, in a July 9 report, the board’s staff said Hanford managers believe they have struck upon the right combination of protective clothing and altered work practices to minimize contamination.
“The revised ensemble includes a more impermeable coverall with extra sets of waterproof shoe covers, a rain bib, arm-sleeves, and muck boots,” according to the report. The work start time has been moved earlier in the day, to reduce heat stress also.
Hanford’s Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is part of the Effluent Treatment Facility that removes radioactive and other hazardous contaminants from wastewater at the complex.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
