Two workers at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Tuesday they have tested positive for COVID-19.
The latest infections were cited on an Energy Department website for the nuclear cleanup facility. Anecdotal information suggests there have now been 27 cases at Hanford since the pandemic began. Four of those have been confirmed since Friday.
Benton and Franklin Counties, where Hanford is located, each reported at least 2,440 COVID cases as of Wednesday, according to health data from Washington state. They have been among the hardest-hit counties in the state.
The Hanford website also indicates seven employees reported Tuesday they have been tested for the novel coronavirus 2019. These individuals have either been away from their work locations for more than 10 days, or the facility they work in has already undergone disinfecting.
There are about 11,000 federal and contractor employees at Hanford. Like most other sites overseen by the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Hanford went with a bare-bones workforce inside the fence between late March and late May in order to slow the spread of the virus.
Hanford is still in Phase 1 of DOE’s protocol for a return to operations, recalling back key workers and those employed in roles that require little or no personnel protective equipment. The process, the pace of which is largely tied to local health data, starts with Phase 0 preplanning and culminates with Phase 3, where on-site employment returns to near pre-COVID levels.
Hanford and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina have been two of the most transparent sites on COVID-19 data within the DOE nuclear cleanup complex. As of Wednesday morning, SRS has confirmed a total of 87 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce; 53 of those employees have recovered and been cleared to return to work. The South Carolina site includes operations for both EM and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
One week ago, there were 31 active cases across the EM complex, according to a federal official.
