Re: Hanford Site cleanup standards

[John Andrews <andrewsjp@chartertn.net>]

Some years ago I helped prepare a decommissioning plan for the mountain 

of thorium ore at the old Bendix plant in West Chicago.  We looked at 

the accident statistics of trucking the material out of the area to 

build a new mountain somewhere else.  The decision was made to plan on 

local stabilization rather than move the material in part because of the 

accident potential of trucking past the local school.  Ultimately the 

material was moved elsewhere.



So much for accidents such as running over school children with trucks 

of thorium ore.



John Andrews

Knoxville, Tennessee





Doug Aitken wrote:



>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From:   William V Lipton [mailto:liptonw@dteenergy.com]

>> ..... What is clear is that to achieve any reasonable cleanup will be 

>> expensive.

>> To actually return the land to an undegraded condition is probably

>> beyond what we can afford.

>

>

> As a newcomer, the following may well have been covered, and 

> considered. So please excuse an amateur entering into this debate....

>

> But a point I have not seen raised is the risk involved in the 

> clean-up itself (of any site, to a given "safe" level). I imagine it 

> would be possible to do a risk analysis of the cleanup operation 

> itself, based on past experience.

> And not just the radiological risk, but the overall risk of all 

> cleanup and storage operations (personal injuries, vehicular 

> accidents, contamination dispersion outside the site, etc.)

> Obviously, it is necessary to remove the really bad stuff, but, at 

> some point, you get to (very) diminishing returns. And  the risks 

> involved in continuing the cleanup will outweigh the benefits, expense 

> notwithstanding.

>

> Somewhat analogous to the choice between removal of hard asbestos 

> insulation from a building or sealing it in place. Generally more risk 

> is involved in the cleanup than leaving everything as is (with 

> suitable sealing and maintenance).

>

> But I guess that the forces that drive these cleanups (greenies, a 

> frightened, misinformed, public and, of course, the lawyers......) 

> consider the workers who do the cleanup as "expendables" .....

>

>

> Doug Aitken        Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements QHSE Advisor







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