Staff Reports
WC Monitor
11/13/2015
Safety issues continue to be reported at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant as employees conduct work on three high-hazard projects at once. Incidents of workers being contaminated with small amounts of radioactive material were first reported this summer in the weekly site reports from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In August, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. issued a “management concern,” according to information from the company charged with leading the decontamination and demolition of the facility. The defense board staff reports said the company initiated an analysis that month to determine actions to better protect workers. But on Sept. 8 DOE sent CH2M Hill a letter noting numerous radiological issues at the Plutonium Finishing Plant as work is done in areas with high levels of airborne contamination. “Of particular concern are the intake events and the cut/puncture events that can have significant consequences,” the letter said. “As you continue with corrective action development, strong compensatory measures may be required.”
Despite CH2M Hill’s stepped-up efforts to safeguard workers, more safety incidents have been reported over the past two months since the letter was sent. One worker experienced skin contamination during work to cut up a glove box that stands more than 12 feet high and is considered “high holdup” because of its significant level of radioactive contamination. The worker’s protective suit that was breached, allowing radioactive material to reach his forehead and hairline. The suits worn for some of the high-hazard cleanup activities at the plant are filled with air and the work areas are congested, making it easy for workers to brush the suits against objects and possibly damage them. In addition, three workers were observing work on the glove box from a control room. When a monitor alarm for airborne contamination sounded, they immediately exited, but two of them had contamination on the bottom of their boots and one had contamination on a finger. In another incident mentioned in a defense board report after the DOE letter was sent, a negative air machine was being moved with one end of a hose not fully closed off, allowing radiological material to spread.
CH2M Hill’s protective steps include additional management oversight, mockup activities for the workforce, changes in how protective suits are removed, and improvements in personal protective equipment, including more padding in the suits to make them more durable when workers brush against items. The company also has been working with the manufacturer of the protective suits, with some of the earlier breaches of the gear possibly related to seams that did not hold. CH2M Hill has strengthened its inspection of the suits.
CH2M has initiated three safety stand-downs. One each was held for workers removing the large glove boxes and for workers in the Americium Recovery Facility, which includes the McCluskey Room where worker Harold McCluskey in 1976 was injured in an explosion that occurred within a glove box there. The third stand-down was for a joint brainstorming session between the two groups. More actions will be taken based on corrective action plans, according to CH2M Hill. The company also has been focusing on lessons learned at the Department of Energy’s Idaho cleanup project, where the air-filled suits have been used more extensively.
Work to dismantle two large high-holdup glove boxes and operations at the plant’s Americium Recovery Facility and the Plutonium Reclamation Facility constitute the most hazardous cleanup work ever done at Hanford, according to DOE officials. The work was scheduled last to take advantage of experience gained doing other work at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Since summer, about seven incidents of skin or clothing contamination have occurred during roughly 40,000 entries into spaces contaminated with plutonium, which is a low incident rate, according to CH2M Hill. The incidents should have not health consequences for workers, it said.
By the end of December, CH2M Hill expects to complete cutting up the high-holdup glove boxes, with work on one already finished. The most hazardous work at the Plutonium Reclamation Facility also should be done then. Workers are scraping up contamination from the floor of the facility’s canyon, where contamination equipment and spills fell for more than 30 years. Cleanup of the Americium Recovery Facility is expected to continue until February or March. DOE has pledged to have the plant fully demolished by the end of 2016.
