Dec. 3, 2009
Informant Provides Peek Into the Hazards Up Close and Personal
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Having gained additional historical insight into the activities and contamination left by the former so called Huntington Pilot Plant, HNN will explain some of the now public issues, which could explain the high nickel concentration noted in the USA Today Smokestack series.
(NOTE: After extensive internet research, we will use assessment allegations by an unnamed whistle blower who has been contributing to discussions such as these since at least the year 2000. We emphasize that reliance on available published internet analysis appears to verify his scientific theories; however, we retain only his word as a former self described “insider” and a “former site investigator” at the Paducah site. Several illustrations have been retrieved and should be viewed as generic in nature.)
Let me simply state our objectives and concerns in the exploration of the unresolved unclassified mysteries. In fact, we ponder these questions based on conduct 30, 40, or 50 years ago when the dangerousness to workers and others were just becoming known. Prior to then, was contaminated waste, just thrown away as ordinary garbage?
A. The Huntington Pilot (Reduction) Plant was transported and buried in a classified radioactive section on the property of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Under a catastrophic circumstance, what would be the impact on the people in Portsmouth, Huntington, or even Columbus and Cincinnati?
B. At the 2006 discussion with workers in Huntington, allegations of continued contamination were asserted. Are the concerns meant for workers closely interacting within a close proximity of the former plant, or could there be any concerns for those living in Altizer, traveling on Route 60, and attending a new school on a hill directly across from the former atomic plant?
C. Are the workers and/or their survivors who by federal law have been authorized for compensation for their patriotic sacrifices during the Cold War (and thereafter) adequately and properly compensated ?
INSPECTOR TALKS
Following an article published in the Paducah Sun, this insider became concerned that it might have inadvertently “misled readers…. I don’t hold the Sun accountable for the information was probably based on information forwarded by individuals at the site.”
The former inspector admits that his “real concern” is that former workers had/have not been given the whole story on the conditions where they worked. For instance, many items have been regarded as harmless. Yet, this former inspector related a “pretty obvious” breach of environmental contamination when he observed “slag spheres being used for decoration on a desk in the smelter office.”
According to “Nickel” by Peter H. Kuck (usgs.gov/minerals), the US has been exploring way to reuse nickel metal scrap contaminated with trace amount of natural and manmade radioactive isotopes. Most of the scrap and wastes, mostly shredded nickel scrap, are stored at the closed DOE uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Ongoing demolition was expected to yield 2,400 tons from Oak Ridge, about 21,000 tons of shredded nickel scrap from Paducah and Portsmouth.
The principal contaminants in the Oak Ridge and Paducah nickel are technetium-99 (a low-energy beta-emitter with a half-life of 211,000 years) and uranium-235. Trace quantities of neptunium (atomic number 93), plutonium (94), and americium (95) also are present in much of the scrap (Marley, 2002; U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Operations, 2002§)
During the exploration, research revealed potential decontamination methods could remove uranium and several transuranic elements from the nickel, but no method.
was able to significantly reduce the technetium-99 (Tc99) contamination. However, these clean up goal were costly and reevaluated. The American Iron and Steel Institute and the Metals Industry Recycling Coalition determined that the public would misconstrue radiation safety levels and CONFUSE SAFE STAINLESS STEEL made from decontaminated nickel with hazardous steels contaminated with Cobalt 60 or other radioisotopes.
On January 12, 2000 the DOE placed a moratorium on the free release of any volumetrically contaminated material from DOE facilities to recyclers due to concern from consumer protection groups and Congress. On July 13, 2000, the moratorium was expanded to include all radioactively contaminated materials, although the Manufacturing Sciences Corp (MSC) was allowed to continue investigation of alternative uses of radioactive scrap. One of those uses was nickel bearing stainless steel sheet containers within containers which would store high level radioactive waste.
BURIAL GROUND SAFETY
The inspector in the 2000 article noted that the desk ornament emitted Plutonium and gamma Np radiation. “The barrier cleaning process also dumped a lot of this material into ponds on sites. HP oversite at DOE,” the inspector asked. But, the Paducah site also dismantled nuclear bomb to reclaim gold and platinum , but elements such as beryllium must be removed.
The inspector worried that releases of Tc99 and Ni alloys as well as PCB’s and uranium chips pale in comparison to HF (hafnium ) emissions. He then adds, “No wonder these gas diffusion plants had air space banned … a crash into an operating UF-6 ( compound used in the uranium enrichment process which produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons) process could have released tons of UF-6, which would form extremely toxic and volatile HF which would serious (sic) damage a wide area almost like the Bopal situation.”
Presumably, nickel ingots are one of the items buried in both Paducah and Piketon. The 2000 article mislead the public about the so-called “trace amounts of transuranics and technetium. Based on internal studies, the former inspector wrote, “all of the ingots contain technetium, some with levels in the 50,000 parts per billion range. Reporting that the ingots had only trace amounts of contamination implies that these materials and the processes that generated them were largely benign and present no tangible risk. Nothing could be further from the truth as indicated by "the rest of the story."
HUNTINGTON PLANT RAN MATERIAL FROM HANFORD REACTORS
The same former inspector has expounded on some background basics. “You know that these
DOE plans ran re-cycled low enriched uranium from Hanford’s reactors. That means that these
Hanford return materials had isotopes like Tc-99 and even Pu-239 which were entrained in the
barrier materials. This came back to INCO to make a new nickel power using the nickel carbonyl
process and from that new barriers by the sintering process in molds.”
He explained that fluoride contamination occurs from trapped uranium and with heating “the barrier nickel returns from DOE’s gas diffusion plants there were a lot of toxic fluoride exposures. HF tends to come off this process and that is extremely cumulative via skin and breathing and low exposures cause long term illness similar to that seen in K-25 gas diffusion workers.”
Based on a Toxicological Profile for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (US Dept. of Health and Human Services, August 1995) on contaminated nickel emissions, on page 276, under “water,” a brief mention is made regarding Huntington in a study:
Basu and Saxena (1978a) reported concentrations of selected PAHs in surface waters used as drinking water sources in four U.S. cities (Huntington, West Virginia; Buffalo, New York; and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Total concentrations of PAHs ranged from 4.7 ng/L in Buffalo to 600 ng/L in Pittsburgh. Mean concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene in the Great Lakes have been detected at levels between 0.03 and 0.7 ppt (ng/L) (Environment Canada 1991)
The report did not contain the level for Huntington. It would be assumed to be somewhere between Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
The inspector referred to technetium-99 (a low-energy beta-emitter with a half-life of 211,000 years) as an isotope that went through the buried Huntington plant. Fortunately, Trichloroethane was not detected in composite samples of the water supplies of Philadelphia, PA and Huntington, WV, both of which are derived from surface sources (Dreisch et al. 1980).However, of seven samples from two Ohio River tributaries , three tested positive. However, only 4% of the samples from the Ohio mainstream were positive and the compound was not found in 88 additional stations (Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission 1980).
REUSING CONTAMINANTS AND COSMIC DUST HAZARD
What about those burial landfills? The former inspector said, there were locations of classified burial areas where a burial manager told him not to dig. No explanation; national security at issue. However, other locations did not warrant cautions like this. Thus, the inspector’s team drilled in a different landfill and went right through a drum of PCB’s, solvents, and uranium metal shavings. No one raised an eyebrow.
As for the contaminated nickel and aluminum ingots, they represent a final form of scrap from diffusion plant materials and the bulk of them come from replacements of compressor and converter units. “Prior to the rebuild, several studies noted that a grayish material that accumulated in these units contained, among other things, high levels of transuranics and technetium. This material (called "cosmic dust" by some at the PGDP), represented one of the greatest exposure risks to workers who disassembled and cleaned the units and handled the resultant materials.”
STEP BY STEP
“After the initial tear down and shredding of scrap materials (so it would fit in drums), more studies were conducted on how the material, that now resembled fingernail-sized potato chips, could be melted and, hopefully, sold. It was found from numerous tests that although the raw nickel chips contained plutonium and significant amounts of neptunium, technetium, uranium and thorium; only technetium was found at high levels in the ingots. So, anyone with sense would ask, where did the other contaminants go,” the former inspector wrote?
“ Pre-smelting tests showed that the more toxic and radioactive materials were concentrated in slag that formed at the top of the melt with lesser quantities adhering to the liner of the melting unit. The slag and most furnace liners were buried in unlined pits in the classified landfill. Oh, I should have mentioned, much of the scrap (from Portsmouth and Oak Ridge) would have been contaminated with enriched uranium. Placing the somewhat porous slag where it would be exposed to ground water would have resulted in leaching of contamination at a minimum (I will leave it for those of you with a background in radiation to imagine other potential concerns).”
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Informant Provides Peek Into the Hazards Up Close and Personal
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – Having gained additional historical insight into the activities and contamination left by the former so called Huntington Pilot Plant, HNN will explain some of the now public issues, which could explain the high nickel concentration noted in the USA Today Smokestack series.
(NOTE: After extensive internet research, we will use assessment allegations by an unnamed whistle blower who has been contributing to discussions such as these since at least the year 2000. We emphasize that reliance on available published internet analysis appears to verify his scientific theories; however, we retain only his word as a former self described “insider” and a “former site investigator” at the Paducah site. Several illustrations have been retrieved and should be viewed as generic in nature.)
Let me simply state our objectives and concerns in the exploration of the unresolved unclassified mysteries. In fact, we ponder these questions based on conduct 30, 40, or 50 years ago when the dangerousness to workers and others were just becoming known. Prior to then, was contaminated waste, just thrown away as ordinary garbage?
A. The Huntington Pilot (Reduction) Plant was transported and buried in a classified radioactive section on the property of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Under a catastrophic circumstance, what would be the impact on the people in Portsmouth, Huntington, or even Columbus and Cincinnati?
B. At the 2006 discussion with workers in Huntington, allegations of continued contamination were asserted. Are the concerns meant for workers closely interacting within a close proximity of the former plant, or could there be any concerns for those living in Altizer, traveling on Route 60, and attending a new school on a hill directly across from the former atomic plant?
C. Are the workers and/or their survivors who by federal law have been authorized for compensation for their patriotic sacrifices during the Cold War (and thereafter) adequately and properly compensated ?
INSPECTOR TALKS
Following an article published in the Paducah Sun, this insider became concerned that it might have inadvertently “misled readers…. I don’t hold the Sun accountable for the information was probably based on information forwarded by individuals at the site.”
The former inspector admits that his “real concern” is that former workers had/have not been given the whole story on the conditions where they worked. For instance, many items have been regarded as harmless. Yet, this former inspector related a “pretty obvious” breach of environmental contamination when he observed “slag spheres being used for decoration on a desk in the smelter office.”
According to “Nickel” by Peter H. Kuck (usgs.gov/minerals), the US has been exploring way to reuse nickel metal scrap contaminated with trace amount of natural and manmade radioactive isotopes. Most of the scrap and wastes, mostly shredded nickel scrap, are stored at the closed DOE uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Ongoing demolition was expected to yield 2,400 tons from Oak Ridge, about 21,000 tons of shredded nickel scrap from Paducah and Portsmouth.
The principal contaminants in the Oak Ridge and Paducah nickel are technetium-99 (a low-energy beta-emitter with a half-life of 211,000 years) and uranium-235. Trace quantities of neptunium (atomic number 93), plutonium (94), and americium (95) also are present in much of the scrap (Marley, 2002; U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Operations, 2002§)
During the exploration, research revealed potential decontamination methods could remove uranium and several transuranic elements from the nickel, but no method.
was able to significantly reduce the technetium-99 (Tc99) contamination. However, these clean up goal were costly and reevaluated. The American Iron and Steel Institute and the Metals Industry Recycling Coalition determined that the public would misconstrue radiation safety levels and CONFUSE SAFE STAINLESS STEEL made from decontaminated nickel with hazardous steels contaminated with Cobalt 60 or other radioisotopes.
On January 12, 2000 the DOE placed a moratorium on the free release of any volumetrically contaminated material from DOE facilities to recyclers due to concern from consumer protection groups and Congress. On July 13, 2000, the moratorium was expanded to include all radioactively contaminated materials, although the Manufacturing Sciences Corp (MSC) was allowed to continue investigation of alternative uses of radioactive scrap. One of those uses was nickel bearing stainless steel sheet containers within containers which would store high level radioactive waste.
BURIAL GROUND SAFETY
The inspector in the 2000 article noted that the desk ornament emitted Plutonium and gamma Np radiation. “The barrier cleaning process also dumped a lot of this material into ponds on sites. HP oversite at DOE,” the inspector asked. But, the Paducah site also dismantled nuclear bomb to reclaim gold and platinum , but elements such as beryllium must be removed.
The inspector worried that releases of Tc99 and Ni alloys as well as PCB’s and uranium chips pale in comparison to HF (hafnium ) emissions. He then adds, “No wonder these gas diffusion plants had air space banned … a crash into an operating UF-6 ( compound used in the uranium enrichment process which produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons) process could have released tons of UF-6, which would form extremely toxic and volatile HF which would serious (sic) damage a wide area almost like the Bopal situation.”
Presumably, nickel ingots are one of the items buried in both Paducah and Piketon. The 2000 article mislead the public about the so-called “trace amounts of transuranics and technetium. Based on internal studies, the former inspector wrote, “all of the ingots contain technetium, some with levels in the 50,000 parts per billion range. Reporting that the ingots had only trace amounts of contamination implies that these materials and the processes that generated them were largely benign and present no tangible risk. Nothing could be further from the truth as indicated by "the rest of the story."
HUNTINGTON PLANT RAN MATERIAL FROM HANFORD REACTORS
The same former inspector has expounded on some background basics. “You know that these
DOE plans ran re-cycled low enriched uranium from Hanford’s reactors. That means that these
Hanford return materials had isotopes like Tc-99 and even Pu-239 which were entrained in the
barrier materials. This came back to INCO to make a new nickel power using the nickel carbonyl
process and from that new barriers by the sintering process in molds.”
He explained that fluoride contamination occurs from trapped uranium and with heating “the barrier nickel returns from DOE’s gas diffusion plants there were a lot of toxic fluoride exposures. HF tends to come off this process and that is extremely cumulative via skin and breathing and low exposures cause long term illness similar to that seen in K-25 gas diffusion workers.”
Based on a Toxicological Profile for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (US Dept. of Health and Human Services, August 1995) on contaminated nickel emissions, on page 276, under “water,” a brief mention is made regarding Huntington in a study:
Basu and Saxena (1978a) reported concentrations of selected PAHs in surface waters used as drinking water sources in four U.S. cities (Huntington, West Virginia; Buffalo, New York; and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Total concentrations of PAHs ranged from 4.7 ng/L in Buffalo to 600 ng/L in Pittsburgh. Mean concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene in the Great Lakes have been detected at levels between 0.03 and 0.7 ppt (ng/L) (Environment Canada 1991)
The report did not contain the level for Huntington. It would be assumed to be somewhere between Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
The inspector referred to technetium-99 (a low-energy beta-emitter with a half-life of 211,000 years) as an isotope that went through the buried Huntington plant. Fortunately, Trichloroethane was not detected in composite samples of the water supplies of Philadelphia, PA and Huntington, WV, both of which are derived from surface sources (Dreisch et al. 1980).However, of seven samples from two Ohio River tributaries , three tested positive. However, only 4% of the samples from the Ohio mainstream were positive and the compound was not found in 88 additional stations (Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission 1980).
REUSING CONTAMINANTS AND COSMIC DUST HAZARD
What about those burial landfills? The former inspector said, there were locations of classified burial areas where a burial manager told him not to dig. No explanation; national security at issue. However, other locations did not warrant cautions like this. Thus, the inspector’s team drilled in a different landfill and went right through a drum of PCB’s, solvents, and uranium metal shavings. No one raised an eyebrow.
As for the contaminated nickel and aluminum ingots, they represent a final form of scrap from diffusion plant materials and the bulk of them come from replacements of compressor and converter units. “Prior to the rebuild, several studies noted that a grayish material that accumulated in these units contained, among other things, high levels of transuranics and technetium. This material (called "cosmic dust" by some at the PGDP), represented one of the greatest exposure risks to workers who disassembled and cleaned the units and handled the resultant materials.”
STEP BY STEP
“After the initial tear down and shredding of scrap materials (so it would fit in drums), more studies were conducted on how the material, that now resembled fingernail-sized potato chips, could be melted and, hopefully, sold. It was found from numerous tests that although the raw nickel chips contained plutonium and significant amounts of neptunium, technetium, uranium and thorium; only technetium was found at high levels in the ingots. So, anyone with sense would ask, where did the other contaminants go,” the former inspector wrote?
“ Pre-smelting tests showed that the more toxic and radioactive materials were concentrated in slag that formed at the top of the melt with lesser quantities adhering to the liner of the melting unit. The slag and most furnace liners were buried in unlined pits in the classified landfill. Oh, I should have mentioned, much of the scrap (from Portsmouth and Oak Ridge) would have been contaminated with enriched uranium. Placing the somewhat porous slag where it would be exposed to ground water would have resulted in leaching of contamination at a minimum (I will leave it for those of you with a background in radiation to imagine other potential concerns).”
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