Discovery of Contamination Spread at the Plutonium Finishing Plant during Demolition Activities

Technical Report · Thu Apr 05 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1899309· OSTI ID:1899309

Knodel, Julie ^[1]; Wooley, Kelly ^[1]

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1. CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc., Richland, WA (United States)

Between December 14 and December 18, 2017, contamination was detected outside of the Contamination Area (CA) at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) demolition zone, including around the PFP offices and on multiple vehicles located outside the radiological boundary. The consequences of this event were personnel exposure and potential radiological contamination leaving the Hanford Site. The scope of this causal analysis is focused at the events leading up to and including the contamination spread outside the PFP CA and development of the corrective actions to prevent recurrence. Specific methods to be used upon resumption of demolition activities are under development at the time that this report is approved and will be fully vetted by the DOE-RL and the DOE Expert Panel. It should also be noted that studies of radiological emissions from Hanford are part of the routine National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants Compliance Monitoring (NESHAPS) Program and are not addressed in this report.

• Research Organization: Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-08RL14788
• OSTI ID: 1899309
• Report Number(s): CR-2018-0022; EM-RL-CPRC-PFP-2017-0018
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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