Worst Hanford tank may be leaking into soil

[Buzz Clik]

40. Thanks for tidying up my errors.

I've been away from all this for awhile and, apparently, have missed a number of developments.

The WIPP site completely slipped my mind because it was off our radar when I was at Hanford.

When I was at Hanford, two workers received sizable, internal doses of alpha emitters. One was a worker removing an old fume hood. He was not wearing a breathing apparatus (or it was ill-fitting), and he inhaled a significant quantity of plutonium oxide powder that was trapped in the seams of the hood. The other was a technician and friend of mine. He received a direct injection into his blood stream when he accidentally crushed a vial in his hands. The broken vial pierced the two layers of gloves he was wearing, and the dose he received but the detectors off. He immediately received an experimental treatment of chelating agents that apparently saved his life -- he's still alive today and should not be (some decades later).

I will grant you that enormous vats of nitric acid are terrifying, too.

Again, thanks for putting my information back on track.

Oh, and by the way, is WIPP is the only functioning salt dome repository? Two others have closed.