The Washington State Department of Health is reportedly considering whether Hanford shipments of plutonium-contaminated gloveboxes to Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland should be temporarily suspended. The suspension is being considered after a June 19 incident with a container holding glovebox sections, in which contamination was allegedly spread at the plant. The Department of Health said in a staff report released by Hanford Challenge late last week that the state has concerns about Perma-Fix opening shipping containers outside in the open air and moving equipment without a containment system. A department employee recommended to managers that shipments be suspended until Perma-Fix submits an incident report with a causal analysis and develops a procedure to off-load waste shipments that minimizes the spread of contamination. It also wants Perma-Fix to take air samples when waste shipments are off-loaded.
Before a shipment from the Plutonium Finishing Plant was unloaded June 19, contamination was found on one of the glovebox sections, according to the Department of Health report. Workers had been required to enter the shipping container to slip the rigger under the glovebox sections so they could be lifted and workers were not wearing personal protective equipment, according to the report. The state does not believe that radioactive material became airborne or was inhaled by workers, but said that contamination was found on the outdoor pad, rigging, a forklift and one of the glovebox sections. The Department of Energy had surveyed the glovebox sections before they were shipped and believed they were free of external contamination then. Perma-Fix could not be reached after Hanford Challenge released the report.
