DOE Faces Skepticism Over Hanford Tank Vapor Concerns
WC Monitor
7/18/2014
Current and former workers at a meeting the watchdog group Hanford Challenge hosted this week on chemical vapors were skeptical that the Department of Energy really knows what workers are exposed to at the Hanford tank farms. Hanford officials have said sampling has found no exposure over occupational limits for the 38 workers who received medical evaluations for possible exposure since March. But workers continue to have symptoms after smelling tank vapors and some workers with previous chronic exposure are on long-term disability. Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, said one Spokane neurologist has diagnosed 26 workers with toxic encephalopathy. “The federal government is asking us to go out there and do our part in the cleanup of Hanford and the citizens of the Northwest are relying on us,” said Pete Nicacio, business manager for Local 598 of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters. “I’m sick and tired of hearing that people are not getting sick, that there is nothing going on out there.”
Some of the 38 workers who received medical checks this spring are still experiencing health effects from exposures, although all appear to have returned to work, according to Hanford Challenge. DOE officials who could respond to questions were not at the meeting. Mike Geffre, a retired instrument technician at the Hanford tank farms who moderated the meeting, said he agreed with a woman who said that the federal government was not taking responsibility for worker exposures to tank vapors because that would open it up to liability. “It is difficult to explain the amount of suffering workers are going through,” said David Patrick, project steward for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The sorts of incidents when workers “go down”—have their breath taken away and go to their knees—happens at Hanford only at the tank farms, he said. In previous periods when workers were required to use supplied air respirators, there were no incidents, even during times when waste was being pumped and vapors are most likely to be released from underground tanks, he said.
Hanford officials may not have the right instruments to detect the vapors or the instruments may not exist, Patrick said. “I don’t care,” he said. “… you are supposed to protect people against the things you know about and the things you don’t.” Recommendations have been made that have not been implemented, he said. They have included putting chemical vapor scrubbers on tanks where work is being performed, which Hanford Challenge wants done now, and extending vapor stacks into the desert far away from workers. A former industrial hygienist at Hanford, who declined to be identified, said he was skeptical about the quality of the work that went into creating the Industrial Hygiene Chemical Vapor Technical Basis issued in 2006. Many mistakes were made in quality assurance, including correct storage of samples, he said. Because some occupational limits for safe exposure to chemicals are in the range of parts per billion, it takes time to detect them and any sample is just a snapshot in time, he said. “DOE has a lot of good people that want to do the right thing, but they have bad information,” he said.
New Study by SRNL Underway
Thirty studies of tank vapors have been conducted by DOE and other agencies, Carpenter said. In response to the latest round of exposures, WRPS has turned to the Savannah River National Laboratory to conduct another comprehensive study. The lab should do its own sampling of tank vapors, rather than relying on past sampling, Patrick said. Now “people don’t trust the science,” he said. Information does not exist on how more than 1,000 chemicals in the vapors may interact with each other, Carpenter said. He used the example of ammonia and chlorine bleach, which are both fine when used separately in the home as cleaning agents, but are toxic when combined. DOE is not paying enough attention to what the workers in the field say and know, Carpenter said. “We have a lot of knowledge in this room,” he said.
Hanford Tank Farms Contractor Taking Steps
Several steps have been taken by Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions in recent months, including increasing requirements for respiratory protection to require at least half-face respirators if there is a suspected risk of vapor exposure. Workers can voluntarily upgrade to full-face or supplied air respirators, and WRPS is working to make the process of upgrading easier for workers. Engineers also are considering better controls such as remote stacks to release vapors farther away from workers, and better respiratory protection devices are being investigated, WRPS has said.The Chemical Vapors Solutions Team, which includes worker and management members, has been reorganized to look for solutions and promote two-way communication between workers and managers.
Hanford Challenge wants Hanford officials to resample the head spaces of Hanford’s single-shell tanks, which have vapors vented into the atmosphere, and to resample the double-shell tanks, which are ventilated through stacks, using a heated vapor probe so vapors can be sampled from the exhausters without condensation diluting the chemicals. Policies should acknowledge the uncertainty of vapor monitoring and require supplied air respirators when systems do not exist to measure exposure in real time, according to Hanford Challenge. The group also wants sampling to be performed with strict quality control oversight as well as third party oversight to ensure proper methods are used.
ORP Employee Pleads Not Guilty to Computer Theft
WC Monitor
7/18/2014
A Department of Energy Office of River Protection employee has pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing government computer equipment and altering documents that showed he picked up the equipment. Clayton Seth Acheson locates surplus equipment at other government agencies and arranges for them to be transferred to DOE, according to a motion for his arrest filed in Benton County Superior Court. Acheson is accused of going to the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon, where demolition of chemical weapons has been completed, on April 28 and picking up a Dell PowerEdge computer server valued at $7,207 and a 6-bay SATA backup appliance valued at $17,839, plus six other computers for DOE. However, he checked in only five computers at his office.
When a coworker asked him about the computers, he said he had picked up just five and that someone else likely had gotten the other one, according to court documents. The coworker requested the paperwork from the depot and Acheson showed her a document listing five computers. However, the depot documents included a second page listing the sixth computer and a third page showing that Acheson signed for the server and computer appliance. When a DOE forensic expert searched Acheson’s work computer, evidence was found to indicate the document from the depot had been altered, according to court documents. A search of Acheson’s home found a Mac Pro computer valued at more than $5,000, and Acheson said he had not turned it in at work yet.
Acheson said he had altered the records on his work computer, but that was standard practice. The second and third pages of the list from the depot must have been blown away with the wind, he told investigators, according to court documents. He did not transfer the server and appliance into his office, but said it was because he had forgotten his storage key. He said he hid the server and appliance under an unused desk in the reception area, but did not produce the two items until police questioned him on May 3, a week after he had gone to the depot, according to court documents. Acheson appeared in court late last week to plead to charges of first-degree theft and forgery.
