Hanford fire put plutonium into the air

The fire that raged across the Hanford Nuclear Reservation released plutonium and other radioactive components into the air, raising concerns about human exposure and health risks.

Earlier reports indicated no radiation releases from the fire, which began June 27 and burned across three old radioactive waste-disposal sites -- a trench and two dried-up ponds. Yesterday, federal Department of Energy officials downplayed any health risks from the releases.

But others disagreed.

Plutonium "is extremely toxic . . .," said Dr. Tim Takaro a professor in the University of Washington's occupational and environmental medicine program. "If you get plutonium in the wrong place in the lung, that can cause cancer."

The plutonium particles turned up in an air sample from the eastern boundary of the 200 West area, near the central part of the 560-square-mile reservation, where some of Hanford's most dangerous waste is stored. The exact source of the plutonium is not known.

The measurement was "well below the level of concern" set by the federal government and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and did not pose a risk to firefighters or the public, Harry Boston, the federal Department of Energy's deputy manager at Hanford, said at a news conference yesterday.

The fire broke out after a fatal car accident and burned 191,000 acres before being contained several days later.

Expressed in technical terms, the plutonium detected measured 6 X 10 to the power of minus-4 picocuries per cubic meter. The federal standard is 2 X 10 to the power of minus-2 picocuries per cubic meter.

If someone were to breathe the higher amount of plutonium for a year, he or she would be exposed to 3 millirem of radiation. The average exposure from an X-ray is 10 to 15 millirem, and the limit of exposure for Hanford workers is 100 millirem a year.

But this was not reassuring for many.

"The point is that there is an exposure," said Takaro, who is also a member of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, an organization promoting nuclear waste cleanup.

"This fire is sort of a wake up for us to get the site cleaned up."

By taking air samples after the fire, "it's difficult to say what the real exposure is. We have some measurement below the federal standard, but we don't know what people are exposed to," he said. "We have an incomplete picture."

Wayne Glines, senior technical adviser for the DOE, said authorities do not believe firefighters at the scene of the fire were exposed to radiation.

Urine samples have been collected and are being examined for radioactivity. Results will be available in six to eight weeks.

Alpha particles -- indicators of radioactive substances -- of a still-undetermined origin also showed up in 34 of 76 other samples, primarily from around the 200 East and West areas.

"This is a major admission of a threat to the health of the region and the firefighters who were there," said Gerald Pollet, director of the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

The Environmental Protection Agency regional headquarters said it was unable to comment on the DOE findings.

"We weren't notified and haven't had a chance to see their data," said Bill Dunbar, an agency spokesman. "And frankly, we're quite unhappy about finding this out hours after DOE made their finding public."

Nevertheless, EPA is waiting on its own test results.

Fourteen EPA emergency response specialists were flown in from Montgomery, Ala., and Las Vegas during the fire to assist regional radiation experts.

The EPA did extensive testing of "population centers, and sensitive ecological and agricultural areas" off the Hanford Reservation. Those results should be available later this week, Dunbar said.

"Our primary concern was to determine whether people in the communities off-site had been exposed to any radiation being carried by the smoke," said Jerry Leitch, EPA's radiation program manager in Seattle.

A network of 24 high-volume air samplers were set up as far away as Yakima and Walla Walla, Leitch said.

Analysis of those samples are being conducted at an EPA laboratory in Alabama.

Fire, wind and firefighting efforts could have stirred up surface contaminants at Hanford, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation after 40 years of making plutonium for the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We fully expect to see radioactivity. We fully expect it to be far below the levels of concern," the DOE's Boston said.

And Glines of the DOE said it's "very difficult to say" what the exact source of the plutonium was and that the department would not try to pinpoint it.

"This is a very small amount that was stirred up," he said.

However, a possible source of radioactive material is a plant common to Hanford's desert environment, the Russian thistle. The plant has a very deep root that "can draw contaminants out of the soil," Takaro said.

"We know there is a lot of buried waste at Hanford," he said, adding that the contaminants end up in the leaves of the plants, which burn well.

Initial tests that found no radioactivity were described as "quick and dirty" by Debra McBaugh of the state Department of Health, meaning portable field equipment used at the time was designed to show whether there was an imminent health risk.

The new results came from subsequent testing with more sophisticated equipment in a laboratory designed to test for even lower levels of radiation. Boston noted that even these results are preliminary and many more tests and analyses were to be conducted.

McBaugh said it was unlikely the contaminants would move off site because the particles are heavier than air and fall to the ground.

The wind-driven fire, which at times moved as fast as 20 miles in 90 minutes, came within a half-mile of the high-level radioactive and chemical waste buried in the 200 West area.

Additional monitoring is planned on and around Hanford, McBaugh said.

"I'm confident there's not going to be a health risk problem," she said.

The Energy Department plans regular updates on the air, soil and vegetation monitoring, Boston said.

P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler
can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattle-pi.com

P-I reporter Andrew Schneider contributed to this report, which also includes material from The Associated Press.