A Seattle-based advocacy group and a labor union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to revise a legal settlement and give the feds more time to implement engineering controls to protect workers from harmful vapors at the former plutonium production facility.
The controls, initially expected in 2021, should now be completed on Feb. 1, 2028, according to a press release last week from Hanford Challenge and the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598.
“This extension is necessary to allow more time for testing and implementing engineering controls to protect worker health and safety,” Hanford Challenge said in the release. In addition to granting more time, DOE and its Hanford Site contractors will make online postings to increase transparency and accountability, according to the release.
The amendment is being made to a September 2018 settlement over a federal lawsuit brought to protect Hanford workers from headaches, nosebleeds and other maladies linked to vapors from Hanford’s underground radioactive waste tanks.
