Plutonium Released In Fire Scorched Contaminated Soil No Health Threat, Feds Say

Radioactive plutonium was released near nuclear waste storage tanks during the huge Hanford wildfire late last month, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday.

The concentration, although 10 to 100 times above normal background levels, was too low to pose any health threat, the department said.

If a person were to inhale an equivalent amount for a year, it would be only one-third to one-fifth of the dose from a dental X-ray, the department said.

But watchdog groups, some of which are conducting their own monitoring, say the fire-related hazards at Hanford may be understated and are only beginning.

When plutonium burns, it is transformed into tiny particles that can burrow into the lungs and inflict serious health problems, said Hisham Zerriffi of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

“Our preliminary results, just from field estimates, show elevated levels (of radioactivity) from the ash,” said Tom Carpenter, with the Government Accountability Project’s Seattle office.

“They are going to, I think, play games with words and couch things in ways that are reassuring to the public. I don’t think they know enough to issue blanket reassurances.”

Watchdog groups also warn that the greatest contamination risk is not from the fire, but windstorms that could spread radioactive dust from the denuded prairie. That’s a significant problem where the June fire crossed old waste dumps, like a trench called the B-C Cribs.

Approximately 120 million gallons of high-level radio-active waste were dumped in the B-C trenches during the 1950s, said Bob Alvarez, former senior safety and environmental adviser to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and now director of the Nuclear Policy Project. There’s more radioactive waste in those cribs than in all of the Energy Department’s nuclear site at Los Alamos, N.M.

“The fire destroyed a very important layer (of soil and vegetation) that keeps the contamination from resuspending,” Alvarez said. “When the wind blows … it can travel a great distance.”

A 1975 Energy Department Report predicted a wind-borne release of up to 12 curies of strontium 90 and 3.2 curies of cesium 137 if a fire burned the entire crib area, Carpenter said. “That’s a whopping amount of strontium.”

His on-the-ground assessment shows a large area around the B-C cribs burned, he said.

Energy officials say aerial photos show the actual cribs didn’t appear to burn. The fire was spotty in the immediate surrounding area, which also is contaminated, they said.

In any case, the Washington Department of Health agrees there is no risk.

“I’m very confident there isn’t going to be any health problems,” said Debra McBaugh, of the state Health Department. Still, it is going to install permanent air monitors downwind from the B-C cribs. And during high wind, additional air samples will be taken elsewhere in the area.

Energy Department officials held a briefing in Richland on Wednesday to release the latest findings from air samples taken during the wildfire late last month. The fire, started by an automobile accident, scorched 192,000 acres over the course of four days.

Air testing will continue at least until the vegetation grows back at the site. While the initial results show no threat to the public, it will take several months to do the detailed laboratory work that takes the analysis down to the lowest detectable levels of radioactivity.

“We fully expect to see radioactivity in the air samples,” but nothing serious, said Harry Boston, deputy manager of Hanford. “We are using the data to refine the models to protect our workers, firefighters and the public.”

Whatever the final data shows, the Government Accountability Project says the Energy Department deserves credit for the way it is handling the Hanford fire.

The Energy Department acknowledged the radioactive releases within weeks of the Hanford fire - unlike the fire at its nuclear facility at Los Alamos, N.M., where it took months, Carpenter said. In addition, it’s significant that the Energy Department allowed independent sampling by the Accountability Project.

“It’s a significant step, no matter what we find,” Carpenter said.