The total number of vehicles at the Hanford Site with possible specks of radioactive contamination rose to 14 Wednesday after a spread of contaminants that appeared to start Friday at the facility’s Plutonium Finishing Plant. At least two vehicles might have been contaminated before workers drove them home Friday after completion of demolition of the plant’s highly contaminated Plutonium Reclamation Facility.
Seven of the contaminated vehicles belong to workers at the project and seven are government or contractor vehicles. One, with possible contamination found on the interior, is used by the Hanford tank farm contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions. Unlike the other 13 vehicles, it had not been parked at the Plutonium Finishing Plant but was being used for work at a nearby facility in central Hanford. It had repeatedly driven a road past the plant that is used by workers but in the secure area of Hanford where the public is not allowed.
The search for radioactive contamination continued on Wednesday. Contamination has been found across Camden Avenue from the plant, but not on the roadway, according to Hanford officials. Seven workers have requested surveys of their homes to make sure they did not track radioactive contamination into their residences. The home surveys had started Wednesday, with experts from the Washington state Department of Health observing.
Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. lost a day in responding to the spread of contamination. It is “unacceptable to us that we didn’t follow our processes for notifications so that we could take timely action on this condition,” Ty Blackford, CH2M president at Hanford, said Wednesday.
Surveying conducted Friday night after completion of the reclamation facility demolition detected contamination, but the correct manager was not notified so surveying for contamination and containment could have continued on Saturday, a day no work had been scheduled at the plant.
