New management has been assigned to the Hanford Site Plutonium Finishing Plant and work is being rescheduled after continuing safety problems in ongoing cleanup of the facility. “Over the past few months, we’ve experienced a number of safety-related events that, while they didn’t cause any serious injury, are unacceptable,” said John Ciucci, president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., in a message to employees. Organizational changes are being made to ensure safety remains the top priority during the remaining challenging work to prepare the plant for demolition, he said. Tom Bratvold has been named acting vice president of PFP closure and will report to Ciucci. Bratvold has extensive Hanford experience and leadership in radiological control and safety, Ciucci said. Kelly Wooley will be the PFP deputy vice president and Tim Oten will be director of engineering.
Work at the plant will be rescheduled so that only one high-hazard project that requires workers to use supplied air respirators will be done at any time. Workers are size-reducing the last large and highly contaminated glove box in the main portion of the plant and finishing decontaminating the Plutonium Reclamation Facility canyon. Work also remains in the tank room of the Americium Recovery Facility. The goal has been to start tearing down the main portion of the plant this spring in order to have it demolished to slab on grade by a Tri-Party Agreement deadline in September. Since the high-hazard work began last summer there have been several incidents of worker skin contamination and possible internal contamination. Some equipment sent off-site was later found to be contaminated. In addition, contaminated equipment was sent to the Hanford Fire Department. Another piece of contaminated equipment was sent to the fire department in January after the initial problem with contaminated equipment was discovered.
