July 29, 2010
Turned Down Survivors Searching for Data on Huntington’s “Bomb” Making Plant
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – A survivor of a man who worked at the former uranium and nickel processing plant in Huntington seeks assistance on a denied claim. She described the now deceased worker coming home from the “bomb making” plant with burns on his hands and body. His gloves were supposed to protect him, but they did not prevent these injuries.
The Atomic Energy Commission plant had been located on about three acres of the INCO (now Special Metals) property . Since the plant processed radioactive items from Oakridge and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants, workers at the Huntington plant were exposed to uranium, plutonium , Neptunian , and nickel carbonyl among others.
“He worked [at INCO] for 20 some years and he did work in the pilot plant. He died of mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the lung linings),” the surviving family member explained. “He would come home numerous times and his pants would have burned out places on them.” When asked ‘what did you do,’ the employee told his family, “I had on gloves [but the stuff] ate you hands and clothes up. It burned the gloves up.”
According to his daughter , the HPP employee was handling “materials that they used to build bombs.” The man wore gloves but “when he wiped his hands off on his pants, ” it caused burned spots, “just like they were burned out.”
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Turned Down Survivors Searching for Data on Huntington’s “Bomb” Making Plant
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – A survivor of a man who worked at the former uranium and nickel processing plant in Huntington seeks assistance on a denied claim. She described the now deceased worker coming home from the “bomb making” plant with burns on his hands and body. His gloves were supposed to protect him, but they did not prevent these injuries.
The Atomic Energy Commission plant had been located on about three acres of the INCO (now Special Metals) property . Since the plant processed radioactive items from Oakridge and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants, workers at the Huntington plant were exposed to uranium, plutonium , Neptunian , and nickel carbonyl among others.
“He worked [at INCO] for 20 some years and he did work in the pilot plant. He died of mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the lung linings),” the surviving family member explained. “He would come home numerous times and his pants would have burned out places on them.” When asked ‘what did you do,’ the employee told his family, “I had on gloves [but the stuff] ate you hands and clothes up. It burned the gloves up.”
According to his daughter , the HPP employee was handling “materials that they used to build bombs.” The man wore gloves but “when he wiped his hands off on his pants, ” it caused burned spots, “just like they were burned out.”
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Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
