Health fears have workers at Hanford seeking answers

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

R. Phil Williams talks about working conditions at the Hanford vitrification construction project.

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A half-dozen other workers at the 68-acre Hanford job site managed by Bechtel National also told The Seattle Times of odors and medical problems. They join an expanding number of Hanford workers who fear that vapors vented from 177 tanks containing more than 50 million gallons of radioactive and chemical wastes may be posing short-term and long-term health risks that include cancer.

These wastes, a fraction of which already have leaked into the ground, are the toxic legacy of the U.S. Cold War effort to build nuclear weapons. Contract officials say they have yet to detect harmful levels of vapors and have made worker safety a top priority.

But at the tank farms, dozens of workers in the past two years have sought medical care because of exposure from vapors. And the contractor, CH2M Hill, last month decided to invest in expanded chemical monitoring and to require use of respirators with supplied air for close-in duty.

Hanford's history The 586-square-mile Hanford site was acquired by the U.S. government in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project that built World War II atom bombs. Plutonium production continued there until 1988. For years, health concerns have been raised by those who worked at Hanford or lived nearby.

The Bechtel construction site for the waste-treatment plant is located about 1,500 feet east of the closest venting tank. March weather-gauge readings analyzed by The Seattle Times indicated that at least 45 percent of the time prevailing winds blew from the tank farm toward the Bechtel construction site.

Bechtel officials have not required workers to wear any special protective gear. But Bechtel recently decided to install a new network of chemical monitors on the site. Those monitors will test for ammonia, nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds and also include a portable infrared unit to test for 150 other chemicals.

"We have thought that we were protected by distance and have no evidence of any harmful tank vapors," said John Britton a Bechtel spokesman. "But we are taking employee concerns seriously."

Waste very hazardous

The waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation is among the most hazardous in the world and includes a complex melange of liquids, thick slurries and saltlike cakes.

The waste-treatment project managed by Bechtel broke ground in October 2001. Employing more than 1,500 workers, this is the largest federal construction project in the United States and is expected to take 10 years to complete.

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Inside the Hanford vitrification pretreatment facility, a carpenter constructs scaffolding. The pretreatment separates the high-level radioactive waste from the low-activity waste, which is located now in tank farms near the facility.

The project uses massive amounts of concrete and rebar to build thick-walled facilities that will sort high-level radioactive wastes from low-level wastes. The wastes will be blended with glass to produce stabilized materials, a process known as vitrification. Stuffed inside stainless-steel canisters, these materials could then be safely stored for thousands of years, say scientists.

Bechtel workers said they have no complaints about the pay or the pace of the work. Some said they often have slow periods that should allow them ample time to catch their breath, even in a 10-hour day. But last month, some 30 workers who attended an evening meeting in Kennewick said they feared that the chemical vapors from the tank farms might be creating serious health risks.

"We just don't know what we're being exposed to," said Fandrich, an ironworker who has complained of fatigue that included a brief lapse into sleep while driving home from the job.

"I want to know what's going on, and whether this is going to mess with my life."

Another six workers, who declined to be identified by name, spoke of foul, at times fruity, odors that appear to occasionally float in from the tank farm. They described symptoms that included bloody noses, headaches, chest pains and severe fatigue that sometimes made it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Several said that the fatigue symptoms eased if they got a few days away from the job, and then returned as they went back to work.

"I kind of describe it like having flu pains, just sore and drained and no motivation," said one worker.

"It's a big thing, and people have left the job and gone to others because of it," said one ironworker.

Problems started in March

Most of the workers said the health problems started in March. That was roughly the same time that the tank farm, which employs more than 800 workers, had a series of incidents while transferring liquid wastes from single-shelled tanks to more secure double-hulled tanks. The transfers stir up the chemicals and can sometimes increase the venting of vapors.

By March 24, at least 10 tank-farm workers had been exposed to vapors, with six seeking medical evaluation, according to Tom Carpenter, a Seattle-based representative of the Government Accountability Project.

Carpenter has researched worker safety at Hanford for years and has helped to spur state and federal investigations of the safety concerns of the tank-farm employees.

"What we have seen is everything from nose bleeds to reduced lung capacity," Carpenter said. "And of course the long-term fear is cancer."

Dale Allen, a senior vice president of CH2M Hill, said that none of the tank-farm monitoring indicated any hazardous releases of vapors above federal regulatory levels. But by March 25, worker concerns had prompted CH2M Hill to issue a temporary stop-work order and then change policies to require respirators.

Allen said his company already has some chemical monitors that test for ammonia in the tank farm. But CH2M Hill will install new monitors to test for nitrogen oxides as well.

Some workers have urged that the company also install chemical filters to the venting system in addition to the radiation filters already in place.

Allen said that would be a difficult task.

"It's not a matter of costs but would be technically very challenging," he said.

Communication an issue

The March problems at the tank farm were not conveyed to the Bechtel workers until days later. That lack of communication was a sensitive issue among the workers.

"When everything can blow toward us, we have a right to know what is happening," said one worker. "It's our lives, and we have the right to make a decision on whether we stay and finish out the day, or go."

"That's a legitimate concern," said Bechtel's Britton. "I'm not sure how we are going to address that, but we are going to have to figure something out."

Seattle Times staff reporter Justin Mayo contributed to this report.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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