Workers Exposed to Plutonium, Neptunium

Feb. 1, 2010

Workers at Former Huntington Plants Exposed to Plutonium, Neptunium
Buried Slurry in Piketon Leaking

By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter

© 2010 BY TONY RUTHERFORD & HUNTINGTONNEWS.NET

Huntington, WV (HNN) – HNN has confirmed through publicly available, unclassified documents that the workers at the formerly ‘secret’ Huntington Pilot Plant/Reduction Pilot Plant (HPP/RPP) on the INCO campus were exposed to [at least] “trace quantities” of Neptunium and Plutonium. The Huntington facility received nickel from reactors at Hansford and Savannah River, as well as the Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants. The Portsmouth, Ohio, plant is located in Piketon, Ohio.

Vina Colley, a compensated Portsmouth (Piketon) Diffusion Plant former atomic worker and activist for compensation of workers, believes that plutonium and other residue on materials sent to Huntington for recycling and decontamination eventually made the Huntington plant contaminated beyond clean up.

The material that the Huntington plant received had been used at these various atomic energy plants as part of the chemical flow. Huntington’s job was to reduce/remove the radioactivity and separate the compounds. For instance, once process separated nickel carbonyl and enriched uranium.

In the early periods of attempting to attain an economic and safe recycling, HNN has seen documents that show still partially radioactive materials went to a second Huntington manufacturer for reuse. The workers at that plant have not yet been deemed eligible for atomic worker benefits, but they have petitioned for that status, HNN has learned.

RECYCLING RADOPACTIVELY CONTAMINATED PARTS?

Previously, there have been veiled and partial reports that have all but nailed governmental recycling in conjunction with commercial entities. The participation of companies such as Goodyear (which ran the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant), General Electric, and others related back to the military awarding different aspects of The Manhattan Project to private contractors.

However, the Energy Research Development Administration, Department of Energy and Atomic Energy Commission were not bound by OSHA and NIOSH exposure laws of private companies. These agencies, based on unclassified documents, worked to officiate the truth. Legally, the government has immunity from civil liability unless it consents to suit. The uproar by sick workers eventually led to government consent, but the award process is not necessarily a fair medical determination of a worker’s illness.

Even as the DOE issued a draft request to sell approximately 15,300 tons of radiologically-contaminated nickel scrap recovered from uranium enrichment process equipment at the Department’s Paducah, Ky. & Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facilities (http://www.emcbc.doe.gov/files/news/NR%20NICKEL%20Jul212009.pdf), serious concerns arise about how much radioactive recycled materials have already been marketed?

For instance, Dr. Cliff Honicker in a March 28, 2000 paper speculated and wisely surmised that nickel powder and nickel scrap recycling occurred in the 50s and 60s based on unaccounted for amounts (200 million pounds) of scrap. He correctly determined (as have interviews with former workers that so-called “decontaminated” scrap had been melted into ingots and commercially sold by the plant in Huntington, W.Va.

CLASSIFIED MEANT MANY NAMES

Gaps exist. This relates to the 50 year declassification rule. As additional time periods pass, more material becomes available. One of the gaps opening involve the relationships between plutonium and nickel.

The five story (by most reports) building once located on the INCO campus had several names. From 1951 to 1963, the Huntington Pilot Plant (HPP) performed work under contract to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). During the SAME time period, the facility was also referred to as the Reduction Pilot Plant because of the special nickel processing operations the facility performed on behalf of the government which involved handling and processing of material contaminated with enriched uranium.

(See: Report to Advisory Board on Radiation & Worker Health, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Audit of Case PIID from HPP, John Mauro, Cohen & Associates, February 2005, hereinafter, Report to Advisory Board, http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/OCAS/pdfs/abrwh/drreview/scadrr02.pdf)

Actually, during the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, did not “exist” on maps. It was known as a part of the Clinton Engineering Works (C.E.W.) and Happy Valley was located next to the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant.

NICKEL CARBONYL AND GASEOUS DIFFUSION

“The AEC work at Huntington involved the processing of scrap nickel to produce refined nickel powder for use in the manufacture of gaseous diffusion barriers for gaseous diffusion plants. The feedstock for producing the nickel powder was uranium –contaminated nickel that originated from the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP). The contaminated nickel scrap metal was offloaded by rail at Huntington , weighed and placed in buckets, while it was still in the steel cartons, [then] the nickel was loaded into a furnace, and melt refined, and in the process, the uranium contamination was separated from the nickel through a special step in the process involving the application of carbon monoxide, referred to as the nickel carbonyl process. After the scrap was melted, it was transferred to the nickel carbonyl chamber , where the carbon monoxide gas (CO) was added, forming two separate streams, nickel carbonyl gas and enriched uranium.” (Since the contaminated nickel remained in shipping cartons until melting, it had been concluded worker exposure was low prior to the melt.)

Editor’s Note: HNN would disagree that all of the feedstock for the HPP/RPP came only from one plant i.e. ORGDP. Our interviews suggest that several gaseous diffusion plants sent materials to Huntington.

WHAT IS ENRICHED URANIUM 235?

Enriched uranium has had the composition of Uranium 235 increased through isotope separation. It is critical for nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons. During the Manhattan Project enriched uranium produced at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was called “oralloy,” for Oak Ridge Alloy. It is used too for navel propulsion and small amounts for research. Little Boy, the first uranium bomb, in 1946, used 80% enriched uranium. Plutonium 239, later, replaced U-235 for the primary stage. The U-235 is compressed into a secondary stage. (Wikipedia.org)

(The gaseous diffusion process requires pathways for uranium hexafluoride --- which is solid at room temperature --- to be in vapor form and due to its reactions with common metals leak tight nickel or austenitic stainless steel are utilized.)



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