The number of contaminated vehicles identified after a spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant has increased to 21. Fourteen of those are government and contractor vehicles, and seven belong to workers. The last worker-owned car with contamination was released to its owner Wednesday.
Surveys of vehicles are continuing at the Department of Energy cleanup site in Washington state. As of Wednesday evening 46 government and contractor vehicles had been checked for contamination, with 45 yet to be surveyed. Work was canceled at the site Thursday and Friday due to freezing rain, but crews were expected to survey vehicles again over the holiday weekend.
No additional spread of contamination had been found from Dec. 22-28, but some checks were limited by snow. Workers were being kept out of areas where radioactive contamination was most likely because protective gear limits traction and puts workers at risk of slips and falls. As weather permitted, more fixative was being applied to areas where speaks of contamination had been found. Plans were being made to apply a clean soil cover to a contaminated area near office trailers.
The radioactive contamination spread was discovered late Dec. 15, the final day of open-air demolition of the plant’s Plutonium Reclamation Facility. Since then, 257 Hanford workers have requested bioassay checks for inhaled or ingested radioactive particles. Additional requests are expected when more workers are on site after the first of the year. Demolition of the remaining part of the Plutonium Finishing Plant that remains standing is on hold.
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (both D-Wash.) said they have “grave concern” about both the spread of contamination at the plant and also worker air monitors that showed airborne radioactive contamination earlier in December. In a Dec. 22 letter to James Owendoff, acting head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the senators said demolition should remain on hold “until all facts from the past two weeks are known, fully understood, and communicated to the workforce and public, and all corrective actions and safety precautions are in place.”
