Low Levels Of Airborne Contamination Escaping Demolition Area At Hanford
Listen
Top state health officials are concerned that radioactive waste in the air is spreading around the Hanford site in southeast Washington. It’s mostly from that same demolition site that’s contaminated two workers, dozens of vehicles and closed down nearby offices.
Both state and federal officials are monitoring the air around the Plutonium Finishing Plant with metal disks called “cookie sheets” and air-sipping filter machines. They’re finding traces of plutonium and americium.
Some of that contamination is escaping the demolition site and getting into areas that are publicly accessible.
John Martell is the manager of the state Department of Health’s Office of Radiation Protection. He said in his more than two decades there, he’s never seen anything like it.
“We want to make sure that contamination stays within the work area within the contamination area that it’s expected to be in,” Martell said. “And so seeing those numbers out there is an indication their [federal contractors] controls are not working.”
Martell did stress the levels of contamination are low, and he doesn’t believe there is any serious public health risk.
Related Stories:
US Marshals Service says that Travis Decker is dead
The U.S. Marshals Service has said that Travis Decker, the man wanted in connection with the deaths of his three daughters, is dead.
Displaced in the fields: Domestic farmworkers and the cost of immigration shifts in the Pacific Northwest
As immigration policies shift nationwide, local farmworkers in the Northwest say they are losing hours and losing ground. Some fear being replaced by foreign workers on visas, while others worry about detention.
Walla Walla Heroes Memorial Run to raise scholarship money
5K organizers in Walla Walla, Washington, hope runners and walkers will overwhelm paths with their support. The run will raise scholarship money in honor of three healthcare workers who recently passed away.
