Prepping to Enter One of Hanford's Most Hazardous Rooms

Equipment never before used on the Hanford Site will improve safety for workers of U.S. Department of Energy contractor CH2M HILL as they enter one of the Site's most hazardous and historic rooms and prepare it for demolition. Building 242-Z, nicknamed the "McCluskey Room" after a 1976 explosion that injured worker Harold McCluskey, is part of the Plutonium Finishing Plant which is being removed to reduce risk on the Hanford Site.

[@orangejjay]

So happy you made these videos and have kept them up on KZbin. This is all such fascinating stuff! It's long before my time but getting to explore your channel is better than a time capsule. Thanks for all you do and still do!

[@lustrevision]

Trying to safely scrub the McCluskey room is like trying to grab a wolverine with garden gloves.

[@deafmusician2]

When it comes down to it, you have to have the attitude of "I can't die."

[@jed-henrywitkowski6470]

And where were items such as gloveboxes disposed at?

[@orangejjay]

MASURE ... this is how my grandfather (an electrical engineer at GM way back when) pronounces 'measure.' Never heard anyone else pronounce it like that before. I know it's petty and simple but that made my night to hear that. I miss that dude often.

[@jasonschlegel4027]

"Safer and more efficient"-- this is good.

[@dsmithereen1]

Way to go Hanford, DOE,and CH2M HILL! Great tech advances. I'm sure Mr. M is smiling.

[@annatheinnotz4901]

dsmithereen1 Looks like they did a GREAT job 😖

[@bobl78]

This room was left untouched and closed since 1976 ??

[@genenelson125]

After you read through the two story links recently provided below by the Hanford Site, a portrait of a stoic and patient Harold McCluskey emerges. Harold had a heart condition before the accident. The damage to his facial and neck skin was caused by concentrated nitric acid burns, which also damaged one eye. The autopsy at his death showed no cancer, despite his 500x lifetime exposure to Americium-241, which is both an alpha and gamma emitter (with a radioactive daughter product, Neptunium-237, which has a low specific activity as a consequence of its 2.14 million year half-life.) web.archive.org/web/20100210232231/www.hanfordnews.com/news/2008/story/11403.html www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/07/02/3047436/hanford-room-where-atomic-man.html

[@ElConquistador24]

+Gene Nelson 2.14 million year half life!? Good gravy! I thought it was just a few thousand years? This stuff is beyond dangerous, its life threatening to humanity. Good thing we're innovating new ways to safely deal with this mess.

[@AaronGilliland]

@@ElConquistador24 a 2.14 million year half-life means it's not very radioactive.

[@TheOnlyDaveB]

Did Mads say "on our next boat"???

[@322mikie]

I have been involved with Chemical Weapons Storage at a facility where i once worked and we used used somewhat like these. I would also think these suits are disposable after use. I wouldn't think decontamination would be something used considering the level of radiation in the facility. Could you give some details how the process would go after leaving the room or facility. Thanks again for making the public aware of how we as a responsible nation are keeping our nation safe and clean.

[@adampetty2121]

there gonna be problems

[@tobyr3]

This is a component of the nation's most expensive cleanup effort that is expected to cost over $100 billion dollars and still leave much buried radioactive contamination. Often the easier cleanup efforts were scheduled first. One must wonder why it took so long to get to this component. The overall cleanup effort is way behind schedule and way over the original budget. As one would expect the entities who were behind making this video have a strong vested interest to putting themselves in the best light possible, as always.

[@HanfordSite]

There was a question about goals for Hanford cleanup. They can be found on p. vi of the Hanford Site Cleanup Completion Framework document: www.hanford.gov/files.cfm/Comp_Framework_Jan_%201-23-13-lfm.pdf

[@thefinalkayakboss]

"We're gonna figure out what to do about the later" *40 years go by*

[@tobyr3]

Americium-241 waste is regarded as transuranic (TRU) waste. The waste tends to be placed in barrels and then those are transported to the only TRU waste repository in the country which is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. That facility may be closed for the next few years due to a serious radioactive leak that took place on February 14, 2014, which appears to have involved an explosion after a barrel unexpectedly ruptured. All shipments of waste from facilities around the country have been suspended due to this accident.

[@genenelson125]

Actually, the WIPP barrel leak was the consequence of chemical reactions, primarily nitric acid with organic kitty litter. The amount of radioactivity that was released was small - and is more a testament to the sensitive WIPP radiation detection systems. The precautions being taken reflect the conservatism of the Department of Energy. Dr. James Conca offers an excellent May 25, 2014 commentary at his Forbes blog: www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/05/25/response-to-nuclear-kitty-litter-is-moving-fast/2/

[@tobyr3]

All the experts involved agree that the breach of the barrel and the gas explosion that followed were due to a chemical reaction. There is no consensus that the breach event was caused as a result of nitric acid reacting with the organic kitty litter type absorbent. The packaging standards call for the acids to be treated with a neutralizing agent. More importantly, no forensic analysis has been done on the ruptured barrel which remains with all the other waste containers that were placed in Room 7 of Panel 7 of WIPP. Various DOE labs have attempted to recreate the conditions that may have led to the breach event, using all the internal knowledge they have of the materials that went into these barrels, but they still have not seen the suspected reaction. The swipe surveys near the breached barrel have read as high as 40,000 disintegrations per minute (DPM) which indicates that the radioactivity releases was not small. It’s going to take at least many months to decontaminate the WIPP underground drifts and shafts before it can be operated again. Initially, WIPP personal thought that the alarm was false and they allowed workers to return. Outside analysis, from a downwind monitoring station, indicated the release was real so some WIPP personal exposure occurred that wouldn’t have happened if the initial alarm was believed. As a former manager at WIPP Dr. James Conca is well known to be a strong supporter of WIPP and nuclear power production despite the rather troublesome findings in the following linked DOE report. Accident Investigation Report energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/Final%20WIPP%20Rad%20Release%20Phase%201%2004%2022%202014_0.pdf I suggest not relying on the public relations spokespeople from DOE for information since it is their job to put the agency in the best possible light using many media tools to reach a public that is often keep in the dark about potentially embarrassing internal operations.

[@genenelson125]

The excellent AP story about the McCluskey Room will be available for a few more days. You may wish to archive it. bigstory.ap.org/article/energy-department-clean-nuclear-accident-site. As a radiation biophysicist who studied Polonium-210, which has (5.304 MeV alpha particle) similarities to Americium-241 (5.485 MeV alpha particle) I'm impressed with McCluskey living until age 75. Polonium-210 was used to assassinate Soviet dissident Alexander Litvinenko in November, 2006. It is estimated that Litvinenko received about 10,000 times the lethal dose. He only lived 23 days. For additional details, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

[@kysorgetovrit]

What an amazing story, i can't believe Mr. McCluskey lived as long as he did even as his quality of life was not what he wanted , he was lucky to be breathing at all.. Just amazing I don't think i would have wanted to live..

[@ezraeprius5355]

+Tamber Bliss Well the incident happened in 1976. He lived until he was age 75. Did you know him? How was his quality of life? Was he paid because of the incident in retirement?

[@tobyMacBallerina]

Awesome video.

[@bobl78]

what is the final Goal for the Hanford Clean up ? Remove everything and leave nothnig but clean soil ? Where is all the waste brought for Long term storage ?

[@movsrus]

Anyone know what the dose rates are in the room?

[@DecommMan]

Nice video.

[@devildog8016]

i hate that more of history is being demiloshed

[@monkeyboy4746]

What are those things that guy has in his ears, some sort of wireless dosimeters?

[@HanfordSite]

These articles provide more information on Mr. McCluskey web.archive.org/web/20100210232231/www.hanfordnews.com/news/2008/story/11403.html www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/07/02/3047436/hanford-room-where-atomic-man.html?sp=/99/177/&ihp=1

[@tobyr3]

Although it's good that Mr. McCluskey's horrendous ordeal deserves to be remembered I feel it's a rather low-blow for his human interest story to be used as part of DOE's effort to promote the decontamination work being done at this final processing facility for the plutonium-239 that went into our vast arsenal of thermonuclear weapons. As has happened at many of these facilities, that generate radioactive waste that remains a potential hazard for eons of time, the cleanup management funds end up going to the agency that was tasked with creating the waste in the first place. Few Americans are aware that the DOE stems from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) Manhattan Project.