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Thursday August 3 5:42 AM ET

Plutonium Found in Hanford Air

By LINDA ASHTON, Associated Press Writer RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Plutonium particles were blowing around during the fire that burned half the Hanford nuclear reservation in June, authorities said. The levels are not considered dangerous.

Harry Boston, the Energy Department's deputy site manager, announced the findings Wednesday after a detailed lab analysis was performed on air samples taken during the 191,000-acre fire.

The results mean ``plutonium was drifting around in the wind and the dust,'' Boston said. But the level of exposure would have been far below federal limits.

A person breathing the amount of plutonium captured in the air samples every day for a year would be exposed to less than 2 millirem of radiation. The federal ``level of concern'' for exposure is 10 millirem, roughly the same as a standard X-ray. The average person absorbs about 350 millirem a year just being out and about.

The radioactive contamination was detected in air filters taken from an area in the center of the 560-square-mile reservation, where Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored. It was also found in an area where waste from nuclear fuel tests and other experiments was once buried.

Its exact source is unknown.

From World War II until the end of the Cold War, Hanford made plutonium in onsite reactors for use in the nation's nuclear arsenal, including the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

Wind, firefighting equipment and the fire itself stirred up contaminants at Hanford, which the Energy Department said was not unexpected at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.

DOE's Hanford site: http://www.hanford.gov/hanfordfire.html

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000803/us/hanford_fire_1.html

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), August 03, 2000

Answers

There is no safe minimum level of Plutonium
contamination. There is no minimum level
that does not increase the chances of cancer.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), August 03, 2000.

I just wanted to point out that the Federal standard referenced in the article is for EXTERNAL exposure only. Inhaled radioactive particles have no "safe" level as there radiation has an immediate impact on blood cells, lungs, etc. This is clear evidence of a serious concern for the residents near Hanford about possible exposures year-round due to dust containing plutonium.

-- Michael Pixton (mpixton@dtsc.ca.gov), August 03, 2000.