Staff Reports
WC Monitor
1/22/2016
A Hanford Fire Department employee who handled potentially contaminated vortex coolers used at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant has received a preliminary positive result for radioactive uptake. Preliminary bioassay results for eight other fire department employees were negative. Results are pending for 101 additional Hanford workers who have requested bioassay testing to check for internal contamination. Anyone who may have come in contact with vortex coolers used at PFP were offered bioassay testing, said Erik Olds, chief of staff for the Hanford Richland Operations Office. The worker with a preliminary positive result was one of two who worked most closely with the coolers, which are stored, serviced, and repaired by the fire department. The other worker was among those with negative results. The positive result was for a barely detectable level and more testing will be done to confirm the finding, Olds said. If confirmed, a radiation dose will be assigned to the worker within 90 days.
On Dec. 10, radioactive contamination was found on the elbow of a worker who had been wearing an air-filled suit used for some of the high-hazard work in the ongoing PFP cleanup. An investigation led to the discovery that the shoe-box-sized vortex cooler worn inside the suit to cool the air was contaminated, along with other vortex coolers. The coolers are used only for the air inside the suits, not the air the workers breathe. Eleven of the coolers had been sent from Hanford for troubleshooting and others had been sent to the Hanford Site fire station. The off-site coolers were tracked to Kennewick, which is near Hanford, plus Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The Mine Safety Appliances salesman who took the coolers off-site, as well as workers in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, declined bioassay surveys. Although two of the off-site coolers, both of which were located in Kennewick, had contamination it was at very low levels and was fixed rather than smearable, according to the Washington State Department of Health. At Hanford, six PFP workers and 104 fire department employees requested bioassay testing, with the nine results received to date all for fire department employees. Testing, which is done off-site, can take a few weeks to produce results.
A root cause analysis of the contaminated coolers and their handling is continuing, along with DOE work with contractor CH2M Hill Plutonium Remediation Co. to put corrective actions in place to prevent a recurrence, Olds said. CH2M Hill radiological control personnel are ensuring that vortex coolers are free of contamination before they leave PFP for storage and servicing. The company also is reviewing processes for releasing any air-moving equipment from PFP, including air bottles and regulators. It has increased the number of safety and industrial hygiene personnel assigned to the plant. CH2M Hill plans to send a team of corporate experts in safety and radiological control to Hanford before the end of the month to conduct an on-site assessment and review practices.
All high-hazard work at PFP was paused when the contaminated coolers were discovered, including work on cutting up the last large glove box to be size-reduced, work in the Plutonium Reclamation Facility canyon, and work inside the Americium Facility. Crews since have resumed the size reduction of the HA-9A glove box and recently re-entered the Plutonium Reclamation Facility canyon, where they applied a grout cap to the canyon floor. The grout shields radiological contamination on the floor of the canyon and provides employees a level surface when they begin decontaminating the canyon walls. Both the HA-9A work and Americium Facility work require workers to wear the air-filled suits, and officials want to do just one project at a time using the suits. With the choice made to restart size reduction of the glove box, work at the Americium Facility remains on hold. However, PFP demolition still is planned to begin in the spring and to be completed by the end of 2016, Olds said.
