The legacy of weapons grade plutonium production: Health status of Hanford complex workers who manage the waste

2021 ◽  
pp. 074823372199655
Author(s):  
Debra Cherry ◽  
Elizabeth Friedman ◽  
Melissa Vincent ◽  
Andrew Maier
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Occupational Disease ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Underground Storage ◽  
Storage Tanks ◽  
Tank Farm ◽  
Underground Storage Tanks ◽  
Evidence Review

The extent and etiology of health effects in workers who maintain underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (Hanford) have been subjects of controversy and concern for several decades. Hanford is a decommissioned nuclear production complex managed by the US Department of Energy in southeast Washington State. This integration-of-evidence review evaluates the relationship between exposure to vapors from mixed chemical and radioactive waste stored in underground storage tanks at Hanford and worker health. Hanford workers’ health information was gathered from technical reports, media reports, and published literature, including the systematic search of seven databases. This review describes the health status and health concerns of Hanford tank farm workers based on the integration of the available health effects data from disparate sources. In interviews with external groups, Hanford workers reported both irritant-type symptoms and diseases that they believe are attributable to tank farm vapors. However, the results of this integration-of-evidence review indicated that no pervasive pattern of occupational disease was identified that can be associated with exposure to tank farm vapors. Inhalation exposure to asbestos and beryllium is associated with lung disease from various types of nuclear industry work but not from work on tank farms. This review concluded that while irritant-type symptoms and isolated cases of occupational disease are plausible under certain conditions, the currently available data do not support a pervasive pattern of occupational disease associated with vapor exposure.

Developing a Borehole Miner Extendible-Nozzle Sluicer for Radioactive Waste Dislodging and Retrieval From Underground Storage Tanks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Ann Bamberger ◽  
Leonard F. Pease ◽  
Carl W. Enderlin
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Radioactive Waste ◽  
Underground Mining ◽  
Small Diameter ◽  
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Standoff Distance ◽  
Underground Storage ◽  
Storage Tanks ◽  
Underground Storage Tanks

Radioactive waste resulting from production of weapons is stored at five U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) locations. The waste characteristics range from fluid to sludge to granular salts with radiation levels exceeding 10,000 rad/h. Innovative tools are used to remotely remove the solidified radioactive waste from underground storage tanks. When available, commercial systems are evaluated for waste dislodging and retrieval applications. A waste dislodging and sluicing system developed to dislodge and fracture deposits of ore in underground mining, called a borehole miner, was evaluated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Waterjet Technology, Inc., for removing solidified nuclear waste stored in underground tanks. This compact system may be installed in tanks via small diameter risers and has the capability to both dislodge and retrieve in a single unit. The borehole miner arm includes an extendible nozzle that operates at high pressure using either water or slurry as the dislodging fluid, while providing a focused high-pressure jet to dislodge solidified material. The sluicer nozzle is attached to a retractable arm that can extend and angle to enhance dislodging in specific areas of the tank by changing the standoff distance. This paper describes the borehole miner system and presents results of experiments to evaluate its ability to dislodge solidified saltcake and sludge materials. Tests were conducted with a stationary jet to evaluate the potential to develop an extendible-nozzle borehole miner system for deployment to dislodge radioactive saltcake and sludge wastes stored in underground storage tanks. The tests were successful and identified ranges of parameters for jet diameter and standoff distance applicable for waste remediation. For saltcake simulants, erosion models were developed that represent the data.

Anthropology and Environmental Problems in the U.S.: The Case of Groundwater Contamination

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 5-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Fitchen
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Underground Storage ◽  
Chemical Contamination ◽  
Storage Tanks ◽  
Agricultural Chemicals ◽  
Underground Storage Tanks ◽  
Industrial Operations ◽  
Improper Use ◽  
The U.S

Chemical contamination of groundwater has become increasingly prevalent in the U.S. Once thought to be safe from pollution, the underground aquifers that supply drinking water to about half of the U.S. population are now known to be vulnerable to contamination from leaking landfills, waste lagoons, underground storage tanks, improper use of agricultural chemicals, and various industrial operations. Manufactured chemical compounds, including industrial degreasers and solvents, as well as gasoline, pesticides and fertilizers (in all, over 700 synthetic organic chemicals) have seeped down through the soil to the aquifers and been detected in ground water. Nearly every state has identified cases of contamination serious enough to require closing of some public or private supply wells.

Investigating the Effective Resistivity of Reinforced Concrete Waste Storage Tanks at the Hanford Site

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Allan Haas ◽  
Dale F. Rucker ◽  
Marc T. Levitt
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Geophysical Methods ◽  
Underground Storage ◽  
Storage Tanks ◽  
Hanford Site ◽  
Underground Storage Tanks ◽  
Effective Resistivity ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Wide Range

Industrialized sites pose challenges for conducting electrical resistivity geophysical surveys, as the sites typically contain metallic infrastructure that can mask electrolytic-based soil and groundwater contamination. The Hanford site in eastern Washington State, USA, is an industrialized site with underground storage tanks, piping networks, steel fencing, and other potentially interfering infrastructure that could inhibit the effectiveness of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to map historical and monitor current waste releases. The underground storage tanks are the largest contributor by volume to subsurface infrastructure and can be classified as reinforced concrete structures with an internal steel liner. Directly measuring the effective value for the electrical resistivity of the tank, i.e., the combination of individual components that comprise the tank’s shell, is not reasonably possible because they are buried and dangerously radioactive. Therefore, we indirectly assess the general resistivity of the tanks and surrounding infrastructure by developing synthetic ERT models with a parametric forward modeling study using a wide range of resistivity values from 1×10−6 to 1×104 ohm-m, which are equivalent to steel and dry rock, respectively. The synthetic models used the long-electrode ERT method (LE-ERT), whereby steel cased metallic wells surrounding the tanks are used as electrodes. The patterns and values of the synthetic tomographic models were then compared to LE-ERT field data from the AX tank farm at the Hanford site. This indirect method of assessing the effective resistivity revealed that the reinforced concrete tanks are electrically resistive and the accompanying piping infrastructure has little influence on the overall resistivity distribution when using electrically based geophysical methods for characterizing or monitoring waste releases. Our findings are consistent with nondestructive testing literature that also shows reinforced concrete to be generally resistive.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document