The congressman representing the Hanford Site has tested positive for COVID-19, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant uncovered 20 more cases among its workforce, and someone at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has died from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced Wednesday he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing mild symptoms.
Newhouse, who represents Washington’s 4th congressional district, tweeted that he “began to feel a little run down yesterday, so I took a COVID-19 test” and the results came back positive last night. “My symptoms remain mild,” he added, saying he is quarantining at home and following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines
As a member of the House Appropriation Committee, Newhouse has a say in the assuring funding levels for the two operations offices at the DOE’s largest and most complex nuclear cleanup site.
As for WIPP, it has recorded about a third of its total cases of COVID-19 within the past two weeks. Two weeks ago, there were only four new cases reported in WIPP’s weekly update on the virus.
Of the 124 WIPP people infected with the virus, 54 of them have recovered, prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a press release. Of the 20 people most recently confirmed to have a case, 15 work for the prime contractor, four work for a subcontractor and one works for the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees the disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
Meanwhile, Kelly Beierschmitt, Los Alamos’ deputy director of operations, shared news of the fatal case at the world’s first nuclear weapons lab on Tuesday during a meeting of the Los Alamos County Council. It is the first fatal case for the lab, which now has 220 confirmed cases among its workforce, Beierschmitt said.
COVID-19 infections continue to sweep the nation. As of Thursday morning, there have been more than 11.5 million cases in the United States and a quarter-million deaths, according to a dashboard, run by John Hopkins University.
