Radiation blown onto highway at Hanford ‘alarming’ to EPA

spokesman.com ^ | February 22, 2016 | no byline

[ransomnote]

RICHLAND – The Environmental Protection Agency says the uncontrolled spread of small amounts of radioactive waste at Hanford after a Nov. 17 windstorm is alarming.

The winds pushed specks of contamination beyond Route 4, the public highway from Richland out to the Wye Barricade entrance to Hanford.

The Tri-City Herald reports that tests found no contamination on the public highway. And the Department of Energy concluded that workers and the public are not at risk of exposure.

But the EPA in a letter says the uncontrolled spread of contamination “is a matter that is alarming to EPA and requires further investigation and discussion.”

It has given the Energy Department until the third week of April to prepare a report on its loss of control of radioactive material.

[G Larry]

Uh...this isn’t about a “nuke plant”.

This is about particulate from the clean up of the waste storage.

Where did you get the idea “Nuke plant said all radiation contained.”???

These are trace amounts.

If you’re worried about these levels you’d better stay out of the sun.

[detsaoT]

This is the same nuclear facility that is responsible for the banning of phosphates from detergents coast to coast - because some dingus in eastern Washington assumed that dishwashers and washing machines were responsible for the tons and tons of byproducts that Hanford regularly dumps into the Green River.

[detsaoT]

Further reading:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14738272

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690175/posts

[detsaoT]

(Correction: western Washington. :) )

[ransomnote]

Where there is nuke fuel, there is a history of nuke plant involvement. But yes, I could drop it in this case because it is the incompetent storage of said nuke fuel. As I skimmed web articles, “authorities” claimed all radiation was contained but obviously it wasn’t.

Of course you know that the gamma radiation from the sun does cause skin cancer but it entirely unrelated to particles of refined nuclear fuel blowing around - there’s no comparison (unless you unwittingly ingest part of the sun).