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- RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- It sounds like the plot of a 1950s horror film:
Bugs may be spreading radiation at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
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- Thirteen spots on the former nuclear
weapons production site have been contaminated. The source has not been
determined, but fruit flies, gnats and ants are believed to be part of
the problem.
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- What's more, 35 tons of trash must be
taken from the Richland city landfill back to Hanford because it is contaminated
with radiation.
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- "Any contamination outside a controlled
radiation area is unacceptable," Robert Shoup, vice president of environment,
safety and health for Fluor Daniel Hanford, the reservation's prime contractor,
said Wednesday.
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- A search of the landfill Wednesday turned
up 10 tainted items, which Hanford officials said were mostly wet garbage,
such as apple cores, that would have attracted contaminated flies and gnats.
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- The most radioactive item found at the
landfill had low-level contamination, giving off 2.5 millirads an hour.
A chest X-ray gives a dose of 10 to 12 millirads.
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- No workers are believed to have received
a dose of radiation from the contamination. An ironworker was found to
have radiation on a boot and socks in his laundry hamper at home.
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- About 10 acres with office buildings
and trailers have been closed to workers because of spot contamination.
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- Additionally, wet garbage in bins and
garbage cans tested positive for radiation Tuesday. The worst spot found
Tuesday was inside the roped-off area in wet garbage where flies and gnats
had been. It measured 10 to 12 millirads per hour.
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- Hanford for more than 40 years made plutonium
for nuclear weapons. The 560-square-mile reservation now contains the nation's
largest volume of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons.
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