Lack of Safety Is Charged in Nuclear Site Cleanup

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Lack of Safety Is Charged in Nuclear Site Cleanup

Kazakhstan Probes Nuclear Black Market

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Lack of Safety Is Charged in Nuclear Site Cleanup



RICHLAND, Wash. . For almost half a century, the hulking factories

across a vast nuclear reservation here churned out the plutonium for

most of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, including the bomb

used on Nagasaki.



But in the last several years, with the cold war long over, the 

shuttered silence of the nine nuclear reactors on this 586-square-

mile site has been followed by one of the world's largest cleanups,

costing $2 billion a year.



An army of workers numbering more than 11,000 faces the staggering 

cleanup task at the Hanford complex in the high desert of 

southeastern Washington, a project made more daunting with an 

accelerated timetable that slashed cleanup projections to 35 years 

from 70. The quicker pace has led to charges among some doctors, 

experts and lawmakers that speed has taken priority over worker 

health and safety. And some warn that, in its dormancy, the vast 

wasteland may pose even more danger to the cleanup workers than it 

did to those who built the nation's arsenal here when the complex was 

in full operation.   



"Cleanup is a dangerous job," said Dr. Tim K. Takaro, a clinical 

assistant professor at the University of Washington who treats 

workers monthly at Hanford. Those at risk, he said, are the large 

numbers of workers who "enter the dark corners of these buildings 

that have not been touched for years."  



The State of Washington has just begun a new investigation into 

accusations by an advocacy group that the federal Department of 

Energy and its on-site contractors are ignoring some of the risks

associated with the cleanup. The state attorney general, Christine O.

Gregoire, started the review after trying, her office said, without

success, to get Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to look into the

charges.



Federal energy officials and the Hanford cleanup contractors say they

have made every effort to protect the workers, asserting that the new

timetable did not result in hazardous conditions. A spokesman for the

Energy Department said the number of cases involving loss of work

because of injury has declined every year since 1998. And Jessie H.

Roberson, the assistant secretary of energy for environmental

management, said the department was approaching the cleanup with more

caution than before. "You can't even compare it to 10 years ago."



But, she added, "I don't know if there is more or less risk."



At the post-nuclear Hanford, the cleanup is tangled in legal battles 

over workers' health, dangers to the environment and disputes among 

government agencies about oversight of safety. Hanford's biggest 

nuclear reactor closed in 1986, and the giant chemical processing 

complex that handled some of the world's most hazardous materials was 

mostly shut by 1988. But court battles continue between the federal 

government, states and environmental groups over how the nuclear 

waste will be handled and where it will be stored. Along with the 

reactors, Hanford's 177 underground tanks hold 53 million gallons of 

radioactive waste, and there are 270 billion gallons of contaminated 

groundwater near the banks of the Columbia River.   



For the thousands of workers assigned to the cleanup, the specter of 

debilitating illness has resurfaced as the cleanup moves forward. 

Because some former plant workers have become cleanup workers, it is 

difficult to determine when they were exposed to the toxic 

substances. Still, experts say some of the cleanup workers are 

exhibiting illnesses like asbestos-related problems that are 

different from the obvious radiation illness.  



Dr. Takaro says he has found that the project brings workers into

closer contact with hazardous materials used to make bombs, like

beryllium, a metal with various uses that can cause incurable lung

disease if particles are inhaled.



The allegations under review by the state attorney general's office 

stem from a report by the Government Accountability Project, a 

nonprofit group that represents some Hanford workers in legal 

actions. The report said that from 2002 through the middle of last 

year, there were 45 incidents in which 67 workers required medical 

attention because they were exposed to toxic vapors from the 

underground tanks.  



"Hanford is in the process of creating a new generation of sick and

injured workers," the report said.



Tom Peterson, 51, an ironworker rigger who has worked at Hanford for 

25 years, is one of 21 workers with chronic beryllium disease, an 

illness unknown at the height of the cold war. Dr. Takaro said 84 

more have been "sensitized," to beryllium, which means they are at 

high risk of contracting the full-blown disease.  



"I went to work out there figuring I was going to support my family," 

Mr. Peterson said. "I didn't expect to go out there and be poisoned 

and nobody fess up to anything. If they would have told me ahead of 

time what I was getting into, maybe I wouldn't have taken the job."  



Electricians, a group not generally thought at high risk, are among

those showing symptoms of exposure to asbestos and other hazards, as

well as health physics technicians, who help monitor workers'

radiation exposure.



Last June, 12 workers inhaled radioactive gas and two also tested 

positive for skin contamination when they were working on the "tank 

farms," according to a report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities 

Safety Board, an oversight panel established by Congress.  



The report said that a health physics technician had "unsuccessfully

tried to stop the work." The job, on a moveable pipe used to pump

waste between tanks, had been downgraded by contractors from a "high

radiological risk work," to a medium one, the report said.



Joel A. Eacker, a vice president at CH2M Hill, the contractor on the

tank project, said those workers were exposed to a minimal amount of

radiation. He called the June incident "unfortunate," and said

procedures were changed.



Some newly sickened workers have been exposed to metal tools made of 

beryllium alloys. These are favored at the tank farms because there 

is a danger of hydrogen in the air, and the beryllium tools do not 

create sparks, experts say.  



Some of these workers argued that on-site doctors under contract were 

reluctant to diagnose illnesses that could be related to their work. 

A diagnosis of beryllium sensitivity, for example, would be important 

because workers who have it, or whose blood tests show they have been 

sensitized, are supposed to be transferred to prevent further 

exposure. In addition, their chances for compensation depend on the 

disease being work-related.  



Mr. Peterson and two other workers with chronic beryllium disease 

said in interviews that outside doctors issued their diagnoses, years 

after Hanford site doctors said other lung problems caused their 

symptoms. Those included primarily fatigue and shortness of breath, 

and abnormal lung X-rays.  



The three men refer to themselves as the "Hanford Hemorrhoids," 

because they have organized with other workers and loudly criticized

the Energy Department and its medical contractor, the Hanford

Environmental Health Foundation.



The foundation has held the contract for treating workers at Hanford

for 38 years, but in January lost a competition for renewal; its

contract expires in March.



Craig Hall, 51, an electrician at Hanford for 23 years, says he was

the first to receive the chronic beryllium disease diagnosis.

Foundation doctors, he said, told him in 1991 that X-rays showed

possibly lung cancer, tuberculosis or sarcoidosis, a fibrotic lung

disease. "If you have an injury or something, I honestly believe they

do everything in the world they can to do you under," Mr. Hall said.



The sick workers have various ailments: persistent cough, night 

sweats, extreme fatigue, and Mr. Hall, who learned he had the disease

in 1996, said he had gout and had been hospitalized because of

blockage of his salivary glands caused by the beryllium in his 

system.



In an e-mail message, Lee T. Ashjian, the president and chief 

executive of the Hanford health foundation, defended the nonprofit

medical group's approach.



Beryllium screening and case management, Mr. Ashjian said, were 

"managed according to the highest standard of care." Workers can

volunteer for blood tests, he said, and those who test positive are

"assured timely referral for diagnosis and treatment."



Geoff T. Tyree, a spokesman for Fluor Hanford, one of the major 

contractors at the site, said that the Energy Department instituted a

beryllium disease prevention program in the late 1990's. All

contractors must identify places where beryllium may be present and

notify employees.



Mr. Tyree acknowledged, however, that contractors were still 

identifying buildings where workers could come into contact with the

metal.



"We believe the program is protective of employees," he said. 

"Certainly there is room for improvement. It's a developing program

and a developing health issue."



Some members of Congress have been urging the department to exert 

more authority over the site contractors. And the oversight panel set 

up by Congress does not want to see safety rules relaxed. It has 

taken issue with a plan by the Energy Department that would allow 

Hanford contractors and other sites to draw up their own plans for 

meeting safety rules.  



John Conway, chairman of the oversight panel, said the panel objected 

to the agency's plan because it would mean that many rules and 

requirements would be softened, or considered merely guidance, 

without enforcement teeth.  



Ms. Roberson, of the Energy Department, disagreed, saying the agency

would still control safety standards. But Representative John D.

Dingell, Democrat of Michigan and the ranking minority member of the

House Energy and Commerce Committee, complained in a recent letter to

Secretary Abraham that "there has been very little evidence that

D.O.E. contractors have made the interest of their workers a foremost

concern."



Mr. Dingell added, "In the past, weapons production took priority 

over

health and safety; currently, accelerated cleanup schedules and

reduced cleanup budgets are taking priority."



The contractors are on notice that they must ensure safe working 

conditions, said Joseph Davis a spokesman for the Energy Department. 

"We will not put at any risk any of our workers for the benefit of a 

faster cleanup," Mr. Davis said. "We can terminate them any time if 

we think they're doing something really stupid." 

-------------------  



Kazakhstan Probes Nuclear Black Market



ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Feb. 20) - Kazakhstan has opened an investigation

into the nuclear black market that helped Iran, Libya and North 

Korea,

exploring suspected ties in the country that housed much of the 

Soviet

Union's atomic arsenal, officials told The Associated Press.



Kazakhstan's intelligence agency is examining the Almaty office of a

Dubai company linked by President Bush to the market headed by the

father of Pakistan's nuclear program, the officials said.



The black market's potential connection to Kazakhstan - which served

as a nuclear testing ground until it disarmed after its 1991

independence - has raised concern about the proliferation of remnants

of the Soviet weapons program. Kazakh officials strongly deny any

highly enriched uranium - the form used in weapons - has leaked out 

of

the country.



Bush accused Sri Lankan businessman Bukhary Syed Abu Tahir of 

brokering black-market deals for nuclear technology using his Dubai-

based company SMB Computers as a front. That firm also has an office

in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty.



The Kazakh intelligence agency, the National Security Committee, is

investigating allegations that SMB Computers' affiliate was dealing

with highly enriched uranium, spokesman Kenzhebulat Beknazarov said

Thursday.



SMB Computers' office in Almaty was closed Thursday.



According to a receptionist in the building where the company rents a

room, the only person who staffed the office hasn't shown up there 

for

a week. The receptionist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he

had been planning to "wrap up business" and move out.



The Dubai headquarters of SMB identified the head of its Almaty 

office as Shaul Hameed, but said they didn't have any further contact

details for him. A receptionist there, who didn't give her name, said

"our company has nothing to do with this," regarding allegations of

nuclear smuggling.



Bush named SMB Computers' owner Tahir as a key link in a clandestine

network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear

program who has confessed to leaking nuclear technology to Iran, 

Libya

and North Korea. Tahir was described as the network's chief financial

officer, money launderer and shipping agent - using the firm as a

cover to ship parts for centrifuges, used to enrich uranium.



Kazakhstan transferred all its Soviet nuclear warheads to Russia by 

April 1995, and destroyed its nuclear testing infrastructure at the 

major Semipalatinsk weapons test site by July 2000. About 1,320 

pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium was removed to the 

United States from the Ulba Metallurgy Plant in 1994.  



Yet the Central Asian nation still holds weapons-grade nuclear 

material, including 3.3 tons of plutonium at a mothballed breeder

reactor in the country's west, and small amounts of highly enriched

uranium at two nuclear research institutes, according to the Web site

of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based foundation.



Still, Kazakh nuclear officials denied the chance of any weapons-

grade uranium leaks.



"It is impossible to illegally take any uranium out of Kazakhstan,"

said Shinar Zhanibekova, spokeswoman for Kazakhstan's national atomic

energy company, KazAtomProm.



The Atomic Energy Committee, which grants licenses for the export of

nuclear materials, said it had never done any business with SMB

Computers and never granted it a license.



Kazakhstan has 30 percent of the world's uranium reserves and is the

fourth biggest uranium producer, according to KazAtomProm.



Zhanibekova said the country now produces only low-enriched uranium

tablets for nuclear power plants, which require a maximum 3 percent

enrichment. Weapons-grade uranium has to be enriched to at least 98

percent.



She said all uranium exports from the country were monitored by the

International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and

tightly controlled by Kazakh nuclear and security agencies. All

shipments are accompanied by armed guards, Zhanibekova said.



A Europe-based Western diplomat working on issues of nuclear 

proliferation questioned the reliability of Kazakh safeguards for its

nuclear assets.



"Nobody can pretend that everything is perfectly secure," the 

diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, he had no

further information on SMB Computers' possible activities in

Kazakhstan.



Beknazarov, the intelligence agency spokesman, said there had never

been leaks of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan.



However, huge amounts of unguarded nuclear waste - material that 

could potentially be used by terrorists to create a "dirty bomb," 

combining conventional explosives with radioactive materials - are 

scattered around the country and are unguarded.  



------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.globaldosimetry.com/



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