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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Blast Tore Hole In Hanford Image Report Says Explosion, Botched Response Preventable

Nicholas K. Geranios Associated Press

A chemical explosion at the Hanford nuclear weapons site did more than blow the lid off a storage tank.

Perhaps the biggest casualty of the May 14 blast was Hanford’s can-do air of competence, which had grown over the years after accidents in the early 1990s. It was replaced by Keystone Kop images of frantic confusion: electricians sent directly into the path of a reddish-brown chemical plume, exposed workers having to drive themselves to the hospital, collapsed security, a failure to notify emergency officials for hours.

The Energy Department spent two months denying that radiation was released, but admitted in July that the explosion released trace amounts of radioactive plutonium just outside the doors.

Since then, Hanford officials have apologized to their own workers for not promptly checking them for chemical exposure. And manager Lloyd Piper refers to “health failures” that investigators say were preventable.

“The findings are not good,” Piper said of a bleak Energy Department draft report on the blast released last week. “In fact, they are downright ugly.”

Hanford produced weapons-grade plutonium beginning with the Manhattan Project of World War II and continuing until the late 1980s. The sprawling, 560-square-mile reservation is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site and contains more than half the nation’s nuclear weapons’ wastes.

The government has pledged billions of dollars to clean up the mess, a task expected to take decades. The explosion at the defunct Plutonium Reclamation Facility illustrates how difficult that work can be.

Investigators said hydroxylamine nitrate and nitric acid stored in a 400-gallon tank at the facility since 1993 slowly evaporated over the years. The mixture condensed until it exploded like an overinflated tire.

The blast punched two 6-inch holes in the roof of the huge building and broke a water line. The Energy Department has said water swept traces of deadly plutonium outside, but insists there was no significant release of radioactivity.

Ten workers - eight electrical construction employees, a health physics technician and a security guard - were in the vicinity. The electrical workers were mistakenly sent outside into the path of an escaping chemical plume, despite regulations requiring them to stay indoors during such an accident. Some initial tests to detect contamination were botched.

Some workers now say they have developed skin rashes and other problems they blame on chemical exposure.

The workers were not sent to a hospital for several hours. Even then, they had to drive themselves. The treatment was so shabby that a vice president with Fluor Daniel Hanford, the Energy Department’s management contractor at the site, apologized.

There were other mishaps that day: Hanford employees were able to drive through four security checkpoints when access to the facility was supposed to be blocked. Site officials also admit their emergency plans are so focused on radiation disasters that they aren’t well prepared for chemical accidents.

Local and state authorities, supposed to be called within minutes of such an explosion, were not told for three hours. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not receive notification until six hours after the explosion, spokesman Mike Howard said. “This was not timely,” Howard said.

No good explanation has been offered on why the contents of the tank were not checked after last October. Investigators said workers even then ignored indications that the liquid in the tank was evaporating, creating a volatile situation.

Hanford officials said they have now conducted an inventory of other tanks containing such chemicals and taken steps to prevent explosions.

The draft report concluded the explosion and its muddled aftermath were preventable. Hanford officials promised to improve emergency procedures.

A Hanford watchdog group, Heart of America Northwest, complains the federal investigation is biased.

“The fox is investigating why the hens are missing from the hen house,” said Gerald Pollet, director of the Seattle-based group. “We need an independent investigation of the explosion.”

Piper insisted the recent blast has sharpened Hanford’s response.

“We are safer today than we were before the explosion,” Piper said.