
Workers Contaminated With Radioactive Waste At Hanford Climbs To 10
Listen
As many as 11 workers may have ingested or inhaled radioactive contamination at the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition site at Hanford in southeast Washington state. Ten workers are confirmed to have tested positive and one needs more testing to confirm the results.
That’s up from the previous count of six.
The amounts of that contamination are small when compared with an average person’s yearly background exposure. The majority have between 1 and 10 millirems. The average person gets 350 millirems per year from natural and man-made substances.
But Washington state Department of Health experts take any contamination very seriously. Nearly 300 workers have requested lab tests. And more than 50 people’s initial tests are still outstanding.
In the good news column: federal contractors found no contamination inside 53 government vehicles that were being re-checked. Workers had enacted a “stop work” this week until the insides of all the vehicles were gone over. Work is now back on.
Copyright 2018 Northwest News Network
Related Stories:

Washington’s Senator Patty Murray said Hanford safety in jeopardy, she’s ‘really, really worried’
(Credit: Anna King / NWPB) About a dozen federal workers have been fired from the Hanford site in southeast Washington state. Hanford is the contaminated legacy of plutonium manufacturing during

Project 2025 and Hanford: What Trump’s second term could mean for WA’s toxic sludge
A gate and signs stand guard at one of the Hanford site’s tank farms. (Credit: Anna King / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 4:02) Read By Anna King and Jeanie Lindsay Traffic

Washington state, federal agencies finalize agreement for tank waste cleanup at Hanford
Hanford workers take samples from tank SY-101 in southeast Washington state. (Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy) Listen (Runtime :59) Read When it comes to tank waste at Hanford in southeast