The total number of active cases of COVID-19 at nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management remained high this week at 282, which is still lower than the 298 active cases during Thanksgiving week, a spokesperson said Thursday.
Active, reported cases were in the double digits as recently as October and have spiked since across the Office of Environmental Management’s (EM) network of Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanup sites.
A document obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor indicates DOE EM’s cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio has confirmed 75 cases of COVID-19 so far during the pandemic.
The document summarizes COVID-19 data compiled through Wednesday by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the decommissioning contractor for the former gaseous diffusion plant complex. Of the 75 people who have contracted the virus only 22 were active, as of Wednesday.
There are 104 Fluor-BWXT employees quarantined, according to the document. Company and DOE officials at the site did not respond to inquiries this week.
Of Fluor-BWXT’s 1,941 total employees, about 1,480 are now working onsite. Another 267 are teleworking, according to the document.
Statewide in Ohio there have been more than 456,000 total cases of COVID-19 and over 6,800 deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to an Ohio Department of Health dashboard. There have been more than 7,100 cases of the virus in the four counties immediately surrounding the Portsmouth Site, according to the Fluor-BWXT document.
Meanwhile, a county commissioner in one of those four localities, Scioto, has died from COVID-19. The Portsmouth Daily Times reported Saturday that Scioto County Commissioner Mike Crabtree, age 71, had been hospitalized due to the virus. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday that Crabtree died.
“It is with a broken heart and profound regret that we announce the passing of our dear friend,” the Scioto County Commission said in a Wednesday Facebook post.
Meanwhile, another 16 workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state informed management Monday they have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The latest COVID-19 cases were disclosed on the emergency operations website run by contractor Mission Support Alliance at the former plutonium production complex.
The unofficial tally of cases is now 244 based largely upon updates posted on the website for the 586-square mile complex that employs 11,000 federal and contract workers. In a memo posted online last month, the DOE’s manager at Hanford, Brian Vance, urged staffers to maintain their vigilance for mask-wearing and social distancing and not to succumb to “COVID-19 fatigue.”
November was the worst month so far during the pandemic for the Hanford-adjacent Benton and Franklin Counties. Combined, the counties had at deadline recorded more than 15,000 cases during 2020, with the case rate per 100,000 population over 14 days amounting to 1,149 in Franklin County and 800 for Benton County, according to a dashboard maintained by the Benton-Franklin Health District. The numbers were derived over a two-week period ending Nov. 25.
At DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) In New Mexico, new infections fell since the site’s last pre-Thanksgiving tally. WIPP primate contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership was notified of 8 positive tests for workers between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, according to a Thursday Twitter post.
Seven of the eight recently infected with the virus work directly for Nuclear Waste Partnership, and the other who works for a subcontractor, according to the announcement. The eight cases represent a decrease from the 13 new cases of COVID-19 reported at the disposal facility near Carlsbad just prior to Thanksgiving.
Altogether, WIPP had at deadline recorded 145 positive cases with 69 recoveries.
A WIPP worker died recently, though Nuclear Waste Partnership and DOE have not confirmed that COVID-19 was the cause. An official with the New Mexico Environment Department disclosed the fatality earlier this month, saying that the prevalence of COVID-19 at and around WIPP was one reason she refused to extend a temporary work approval to continue digging a new underground shaft the mine needs to increase the rate at which personnel can emplace waste shipments.
On the East Coast, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina had as of Monday recorded “somewhere north of 700” total confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the site’s top DOE official.
“We continue to get COVID cases at about the rate of the general population” around the 310-square-mile facility next to the Georgia state line, Michael Budney manager of DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office, said during a presentation to the SRS Citizens Advisory Board.
As of Friday morning, there were 79 active cases at Savannah River, down from 82 reported by officials via the site’s operations website right after Thanksgiving. The figure is still much higher than the 36 active cases — meaning people who tested positive but not been cleared to resume work— that Savannah River reported one month ago.
“Based on the holidays coming up we have instituted some extra telework,” Budney said during this week’s online meeting with the citizens group. Testing is being offered to anyone who travels these days, he added. Budney did not say how many Savanna River workers are teleworking.
Asked by a board member if the cases are disrupting operations, Budney said no, although special precautions are taken with control room operators. They enter facilities through different entrances than other workers in order to minimize their exposure to other people, the manager said.
The SRS Citizens Advisory Board will not meet during December and the body will likely continue to meet virtually during the opening months of 2021, said James Tanner of DOE contractor S&K Logistics, who serves as the administrator for the panel.
SRS Area Congressman Contracts Virus
Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), whose district includes Augusta, a major bedroom community for the Savannah River Site, has tested positive.
“I have been undergoing regular COVID-19 testing and learned today that I have tested positive for COVID-19,” Allen said in a Nov. 24 press release posted on his website and on his Twitter feed. “I do not have any symptoms and will continue to work on behalf of the 12th District from home as I quarantine.”
Allen was re-elected Nov. 3 to what will be his fourth term representing the district as he took more than 58% of the vote against Democrat Liz Johnson.
Allen becomes the second member of the House of Representatives near a DOE nuclear cleanup site to test positive for COVID-19 in the past couple of weeks.
After announcing Nov. 18 that he had COVID-19, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), has recovered and is back in the House of Representatives, a spokesperson said Friday morning. ”The Congressman is recovered and almost back to 100%,” the Newhouse spokesperson said via email. “He is back voting in the House this week.” Newhouse’s distract includes the Hanford Site.
An Allen spokesperson did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment about the congressman’s COVID situation. Allen’s Twitter account has remained active this week.
As of early Friday afternoon the United States has recorded 14.2 million cases of COVID-19 with 276,000 deaths resulting from the illness, according to an online database curated by The New York Times and Google.
