nuclear-news

The number of vehicles contaminated with specks of radioactive material at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant has jumped to 19 as checks continue.

As of about 2 p.m. Wednesday, 12 government or contractor vehicles had been found with radioactive contamination, with 55 of 86 vehicles still to be surveyed.The number increased from seven contaminated government and contractor vehicles discovered before the Christmas weekend.

The dozen government and contractor vehicles are in addition to seven worker cars or pickups found to have specks of contamination since demolition was completed Dec. 15 on the most contaminated section of the plant, the Plutonium Reclamation Facility.

Post-demolition surveying found specks of radioactive material, some too small to see, had spread outside the demolition zone set up to control the spread of radioactive contamination. The highly contaminated plant has been cleaned out, but demolition with heavy equipment is still high-hazard work. Contamination that can easily become airborne remains after 40 years of work to process plutonium produced at Hanford into hockey-puck sized “buttons” and plutonium oxide powder to be shipped to the nation’s nuclear weapons production facilities…….http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article191895614.html