SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Workers are preparing to enter one
of the most dangerous rooms on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation — the
site of a 1976 blast that exposed a technician to a massive dose of
radiation, leading to him being nicknamed the "Atomic Man."
Harold
McCluskey was working in the room when a chemical reaction caused a
glass glove box to explode. He was exposed to the highest dose of
radiation from the chemical element americium ever recorded — 500 times
the occupational standard.
Hanford, located in central Washington
state, made plutonium for nuclear weapons for decades. The room was used
to recover radioactive americium, a byproduct of plutonium.
McCluskey,
then 64, was placed in isolation in a decontamination facility for five
months. Within a year, his body’s radiation count had fallen by about
80 percent and he was allowed to return home.
Friends at first
avoided him until his minister told people it was safe to be around him.
He died of coronary artery disease — unrelated to the accident — in
1987 at the age of 75.
Hanford contains the nation’s greatest
collection of nuclear waste, and for more than two decades has been
engaged in the dangerous work of cleaning up that waste. The space now
dubbed the McCluskey Room is located inside the closed Plutonium
Finishing Plant and is scheduled for cleanup this summer.
"It’s
been largely closed up since the accident," Geoff Tyree, a spokesman for
the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland, said Wednesday. "It was
restricted for the potential for airborne radiation contamination."
Since
2008, the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau
Remediation Company have been preparing the plant for demolition.
"About
two-thirds of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is deactivated — cleaned
out and ready for demolition," said Jon Peschong, an assistant DOE
manager in Richland. "Cleaning out the McCluskey Room will be a major
step forward."
When specially trained and equipped workers enter
the room this summer, they will encounter airborne radioactivity,
surface contamination, confined spaces and poor ventilation, the DOE
said.
They will be wearing abrasion-resistant suits that protect
them from surface contamination and chemicals. A dual-purpose air system
will provide cool air for breathing and cool air throughout the suit
for worker comfort, allowing them to work for longer periods of time.
The suits are pressurized, to prevent workers from coming into contact
with airborne contaminants.
The McCluskey Room "is going to be the
toughest work ahead of us as we finish cleaning the plant and getting
it ready for demolition by the end of September 2016," Tyree said.
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— A DOE video about the McCluskey Room:
http://youtu.be/K-6bTvzBVA4