FW: UPDATE ON RANGE FIRE AT HANFORD - AERIAL TANKERS RETURN TO HA NFORD

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@pnl.gov>]

An official update on the Hanford range fire.
-----Original Message-----
From:	^PNNL Communications 
Sent:	Thursday, June 29, 2000 4:29 PM
Subject:	UPDATE ON RANGE FIRE AT HANFORD - AERIAL TANKERS RETURN TO
HANFORD
Importance:	High

Priority message to staff at PNNL.

***************************
Aerial tankers are again dropping fire retardant and bulldozers are widening
fire lines today as firefighters continue their efforts to control a range fire
that is burning out of control on the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site
north and west of Richland.  

The fire has spread over approximately 190,000 acres and is estimated to be
about 40% contained.

The fire started Tuesday afternoon, ignited by a collision between a car and
truck on Highway 240 on the Northwest corner of the site. An alert level
emergency was declared Wednesday afternoon when the fire crossed Highway 240 and
began moving toward the center of the 560-square-mile site.

Just before noon today, the fire spread across a former radioactive waste
disposal area known as the B-C Crib, located south of Hanford's 200 East Area
near the center of the site.  In anticipation of this, radiation-monitoring
sites were established by both Hanford personnel and the State of Washington to
check for possible airborne contamination.  

During the production of plutonium, cribs were used as underground disposal
sites for low level radioactive liquid waste.  They operated similar to
residential septic tank drain fields.  Liquids from plutonium processing
facilities were piped to the cribs and allowed to percolate down through the
soil, using the earth as a filter to trap most of the radioactive materials.

Because of the potential for fires to spread contamination, Hanford controls the
vegetation growing around cribs to prevent against deep-rooted plants bringing
contamination to the surface.  Vegetation controls have been conducted routinely
over the last two years and as recently as last weekend. 

All firefighters have been briefed on the potential radiological hazards on the
site as a result of the fire and Hanford firefighters are fully trained to
respond to radiological hazards.  Only Hanford firefighters are being assigned
to areas where a radiological hazard exists.  All Hanford firefighters wear
dosimeters to measure exposure to radiation and all non-Hanford fire-fighting
teams have at least one person with them who wears a dosimeter.  The dosimeters
assigned to Hanford firefighters are analyzed quarterly but they will be
analyzed early if there is any indication of exposure to radiation.

A study conducted nearly two years ago estimates that if fire were to spread
across the entire Hanford Site, firefighters working twelve hours on the fire
lines would receive a maximum of seven millirem of exposure which is equal to
one dental x-ray.  Residents in the Richland area would receive much less,
calculated to be approximately one tenth of a millirem.  As a precaution,
firefighters have been offered a whole-body radiation count at the conclusion of
their fire-fighting efforts, should they want one.

Radiation measurements have been taken by Hanford personnel and the State of
Washington from more than 25 separate locations around the Hanford Site and
field data shows no readings above normal background levels.  Laboratory
analyses are expected to be available from Hanford samples this afternoon.
State samples were taken to an independent laboratory in Seattle.  Hanford
management has also asked for independent sampling to be done by the
Environmental Protection Agency.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is expected to arrive in the Tri-Cities late
this evening to personally survey fire damage and offer assistance. 

###


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