“It was complete chaos" says Hanford worker who inhaled plutonium

The worker tested positive for inhalation of the potential lethal nuclear isotope of plutonium – a key ingredient to the production of nuclear bombs and warheads.

For the first time since an extremely dangerous demolition job at Hanford started losing a grip on its safety plan, a Hanford worker directly impacted by the failures has granted an interview.

“It was complete chaos" says Hanford worker who inhaled plutonium

This is completely insane. Contractors who remove black mold from homes, probably take better precautions from spreading and inhaling mold spores. We're talking about a type of radiation that is the worst kind to get inside your body. It's inevitable that this construction worker will probably develop cancer in his life. What's even more troubling for me, is that this contractor didn't just f@ck up one time, they screwed up again 6 months later! According to the article, they rushed the job to make deadlines and got sloppy. Remember, we are talking about dismantling a highly toxic and radioactive Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFT), which is part of the Hanford nuclear research complex, in the state of Washington. To take shortcuts on such a project is idiotic.

“They only care about their money. Their bonuses. That they make their deadline. That’s the only thing that matters to them,” said the PFP worker.

www.king5.com...

Another matter of concern, which was mentioned in this article, is the fact that radioactive particles got airborne and ended up on worker's cars and construction trailers.

Radioactive particles ended up on all kinds of items including worker’s boots, office trailers, jersey barriers, tumbleweeds. And elevated airborne levels of plutonium were recorded at an employee exit right next to a public highway.

The plutonium spread also made it onto cars. The KING 5 Investigators have found 36 cars total. Seven of them were personal vehicles, driven off the site by unsuspecting employees. The vehicles, with contamination on them, were driven into town and to their homes. One of those cars belongs to the worker who was contaminated internally six months earlier.

“We got in our cars and went home to our families. We hugged our wives, our children, our grandchildren and did our daily routines, so we don’t know what we took anywhere,” said the worker.

www.king5.com...

The article mentions that the Department of Ecology and the EPA forced the U.S Department of Energy to shut the construction project down due to "a “creation of danger” to people and the environment." Federal Hanford officials and contractor representatives refused requests for interviews. It's not even known if any fines were levied against the Hanford facility or the contractors.

What if airborne plutonium spread down wind from this construction area? More importantly, just how many "contractors" are demolishing other plants around the country? How would the general public even know, unless an incident like this was reported. The bottom line is that Public (and worker) safety takes a back seat to profits and bonuses.

“If you get an airborne spread of contamination you risk contaminating rivers, agricultural products, and lands (and people) absolutely. So we want to make sure we’re trying to reign in all that in as much as we can,” said Smith.

www.king5.com...

OOPS.......

KING 5 has learned that on February 8, more plutonium contamination was found outside the safety zone. This was found on steps leading to a mobile officer trailer where PFP office staff work.

www.king5.com...

INFORMATION ON THE PLUTONIUM FINISHING PLANT:

www.hanford.gov...

So in short, this facility is (or rather, was) for processing & refining plutonium from spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium. And they contaminated the crap out of everything in the process of demolishing the site.

Boy, that sure puts a whole new, uncomfortable spin on "dirty bombs", doesn't it?

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Probably develop cancer in his life?

It would be a miracle if he doesn't.

Hanford is a huge silent problem that has been addressed over the years many times here on ATS.

A selection of relevant threads:

Hanford Nuclear tunnel collapases.

Hanford, WA: Monunental Cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site

The Green Run: Hanford has been intentionally poisoning us for decades

'Bizarre' Cluster of Severe Birth Defects Stuns Health Experts, Rural Washington Area

Hanford is a relic that is deteriorating relatively rapidly and unless something can be done to halt that, far worse problems are on our horizon from this site.

Don't checkout a film titled Silkwood.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

CH2M Hill are project managers. They set project costs, deadlines (er...) milestones, and pick the crews. They were actually sold and changed their name "CH2M Jacobs". It goes something like this: US Government needs a nuclear plant demolished and pick a contractor to run the demolition project; the contractor finds the labor force to do the work; the contractor reports back to the government on state of progress, budgets, issues, etc. The goal is to come in on time and on budget. What really happens, is that all the regulations, things like safety, are overlooked with a wink and a nod, as long as the work is done. Got to love the incentive to get done under time and under budget!

The "safety first" motto that gets thrown around usually means one thing, expensive. So when creating your work crew, why pay the guy who has 15 years experience in doing the job when you can get a younger guy, with less experience, at a cheaper rate? Gotta love that bottom line!

This is a reactor shutdown and out of use for what, a decade? Now think about the huge mess at Fukushima Daiichi, with a hot, active core sitting at the bottom of a reactor vessel, in a collapsed building, shooting out radiation. Why our government would not do a better job of over site, especially if they current administration is trying to sell nuclear power as an option, when the fear of Fukushima is still in everybody's mind is beyond me.

I mean, have they not seen how clean up is going in Japan??! You walk in, get suited up, when you leave you are showered off. It just blows my mind that people would just drive home! Wow. Oh, and Geiger counters everywhere.

Plutonium is nasty stuff. It is sticky and heavy. Like they said in the article, the liver and your bones is where it ends up if gets past your lungs. Which is why the people in Japan wear complete body suits including air filtered helmets during their lean up effort. Just wow!

A bunch of the nuclear reactors were made in the 1950's. They too will need to be dismantled. The government needs to do a "lessons learned" on this and correct these deficiencies moving forward.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

EXCELLENT points!

This has been a nightmare since the sixties, perhaps even earlier.

Look up "downwinders" in Eastern Washington. My mother, and probably grandmother, were both likely downwinders.

Unless something is done, twenty years ago, this is going to reach the Columbia River and the ground water...assuming it hasn't already, it hasn't that I'm aware of, but it's going to.

I live a fairly short drive to the south and east of Hanford. Downwind. Nice, eh?

But to most of us living in the region this is nothing new. Nothing new, at all. Olympia has ignored it. Washington DC has ignored it. Now, twenty/thirty years later, it's a problem? Really?

Tell that to the downwinders who've died, or their families. It's been a problem for decades.

Really sad, have been looking into the developments as of late with the funding for cleanup as well. It's been hidden for too long as a national concern, the damage, and it's worse than we know.

Here's one of the big issues presented currently with cleanup:

Newhouse says he’ll fight Trump’s call to cut funds for Hanford nuclear cleanup

President Donald Trump’s proposed $230 million cut to the budget for the federal Hanford Site nuclear cleanup will face bipartisan opposition in Congress.

The proposal for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 trims a Hanford Site budget that during the current fiscal year totals more than $2.37 billion.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, said, “Now is not the time to jeopardize worker safety or impede this vital cleanup,” and that he will work with “colleagues on both sides of the aisle” to restore funding. He noted that previous administrations also had proposed cuts, and that they did not happen.

[url=http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/gop-congressman-says-he-ll-fight-trump-s-call-to/article_e28048ac-bb04-51b5-90d2-4866487eea31.html]Source[ /url]

a reply to: shawmanfromny

You would think they would take SOP as gospel there.
I used to test raw uranium levels with a gamma probe in Points North Landing, at the one of the many uranium mines in that area.
You had you work clothes, then you had what's called "hot clothes"
The uranium would come up from underground in the drill rod. Placed into core boxs in 3.3 meter lengths.
And put on a table outside the "hot shack."

Then I would get changed out of my work coveralls and get into my hot coveralls in a porch oil area inside the hot shack.
I would test the levels of uranium in the hot shack, check for the type of mineral in the joints of the core and log the results.
Any single item besides yourself, that was brought into the hot shack, would stay in the hot shack for good.
Separate boots clothes, pencils..etc.
If it ever entered the hot shack by accident, it stayed..even people's precious cell phones.
Once done you get into the elephant shower to De-Cant. And then Back into your civvies.
If you forgot to do something in the hot shack and even had to step in there for a second...back into the shower.
God I hated points north.

a reply to: seagull

This is a tragedy and shows how little the government cares about the environment and it's people. They pick and choose their battles...if this bullsh!t occurred close to the District of Columbia, you better believe this wouldn't be ignored.

Fukushima renders this incident moot. The entire planet is contaminated.

Oppenheimer hit the nail on the head - "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds."

a reply to: shawmanfromny

This will help:

President Donald Trump’s proposed $230 million cut to the budget for the federal Hanford Site nuclear cleanup will face bipartisan opposition in Congress.

The proposal for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 trims a Hanford Site budget that during the current fiscal year totals more than $2.37 billion. It comes after a difficult year for the decades-long cleanup as radioactive contamination has spread from a demolition site and a tunnel collapse risked the exposure of radioactive waste.

www.seattletimes.com...

Gotta love the Trump Death Budget....