Hanford Workers Get Apology Report On May Explosion Calls Health Checks ‘Downright Ugly’

A Hanford manager apologized publicly Friday to 10 workers who were not promptly checked for chemical exposure after a May explosion at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

A new report on Hanford’s emergency response to the blast is “downright ugly,” added a federal Hanford official.

The apology to workers came from Mike Yates, a vice president with Fluor Daniel Hanford, the U.S. Energy Department’s management contractor at the site.

Affected company workers should have received better care immediately after the May 14 chemical explosion at a nuclear weapons plant, Yates said at a news conference in this south-central Washington city just outside Hanford.

“We offer our apologies to those employees not cared for properly,” Yates said.

Worker Joe Hennessey, who was among the 10 workers, said that while he is satisfied with the apology, “I don’t think their investigation is complete yet.”

Lloyd Piper, DOE’s Hanford manager, declined to say whether any penalties will be imposed for the inadequate response.

Hanford is still working out steps that will be taken to prevent such problems in future, Yates said.

But officials have already decided on one improvement, he said: At key plants, one person will be charged with ensuring worker protection during emergencies. In a crisis, worker safety would be those individuals’ sole responsibility.

Hanford, where the government made plutonium for nuclear weapons for more than four decades, is a dangerous place, Piper said. But the lessons learned since the May accident will make it a safer work environment, he said.

Officials estimate the explosion has cost the taxpayers about $500,000 for cleanup and related delays.

A new report on Hanford’s handling of the matter reiterates that the explosion “was preventable,” Piper said. “The health failures were preventable.”

Slow notification of civilian law enforcement and emergency agencies was also preventable, Piper said. Off-site emergency officials have complained they were not told of the blast for hours.

“The findings are not good,” Piper said. “In fact, they are downright ugly.”

The Energy Department has been deeply embarrassed by the explosion, which released some chemicals and a small amount of radioactive plutonium into the environment, and by Hanford’s response.

Hanford officials repeated Friday that they do not believe the blast released any radiation or dangerous chemicals beyond the boundaries of the 560-square-mile reservation.

The explosion at the Plutonium Reclamation Facility, once used to recover plutonium from waste materials produced at Hanford, blasted off doors, drove a metal shaft into the ceiling like an arrow and split open the roof of the building.

Ten workers - eight electrical construction employees, a health physics technician and a security guard - were in the vicinity.

After the blast, as a chemical plume escaped up a smokestack of the Plutonium Reclamation Facility, the guard told the electrical workers to leave the nearby trailer and go to the building. They may have been exposed to the chemicals as they made their way there.

Several have complained about the slow emergency response. Some are also complaining of medical problems - lung irritation, skin rashes and other symptoms - they link to chemical exposure from the explosion. So far, no one has been hospitalized as a result of the blast or its aftermath.

Yates apologized that proper procedures were not followed immediately after the explosion, when officials failed to promptly take nasal smears that would have detected the presence of any chemicals in the workers’ bodies. Hanford also was slow to test the smears and slow to release the results.

Yates also apologized that the workers had to drive themselves to a Richland hospital hours after the blast for checkups. And he said some of the follow-up care has not been good, but did not elaborate.

During the event, some workers also were sent around the plant - without proper protective gear - to check for radiation leaks, Piper said.

Hanford officials have said that much of their emergency training is for coping with problems involving radioactive materials. They say they were not prepared to cope with the May 14 explosion, which involved nonradioactive chemicals.

The Energy Department will demand improvement in Hanford guidelines for response to chemical emergencies, Piper said.

Plant managers did not understand the hazards posed by the chemicals in their care, agreed Steve Veitenheimer, the DOE official who investigated the blast.

His report concluded that nitrogen oxides and nitric acid escaped up a smokestack and through holes punched in the roof by the blast.

Numerous plant workers summoned to help with the blast passed through four security checkpoints and entered the stricken plant.