Security Cut Back at HanfordPosted 5/23/01
By LINDA ASHTON, Associated Press Writer
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The union representing guards at the Hanford nuclear reservation claims eliminating 24-hour security at two pools holding lethal spent fuel could put the public and environment at risk.
The new security plan, which took effect last week, replaces the round-the-clock staffing at the 1.1 million-gallon basins with roving surveillance guards who cover a much larger area.
The U.S. Energy Department and Fluor Hanford, the contractor managing the nuclear reservation, called the move a thrifty business decision that will make operations more efficient.
The union's contention that the plan poses risks to the public is ``flat-out wrong,'' said Mike Talbot, an Energy Department spokesman. The federal agency has no security scenario that would result in the draining of the two K Basins by terrorists or saboteurs, he said.
``All of the scenarios that we've worked up show that we're doing the right thing. We're trying to be efficient with taxpayer dollars,'' Talbot said.
Most of Hanford is closed to the public, with fences and the Columbia River limiting access to the 560-square-mile reservation in south-central Washington, and security barricades are set up at the two roads leading inside.
The K Basins contain about one-third of the radiation at Hanford, the most-contaminated nuclear site in the country.
If either of the pools were ruptured by a terrorist attack or internal sabotage, it would ``make Chernobyl look like a Girl Scout campfire,'' said Darryl Sybouts, a former business agent for Local 21 of the International Guards Union of America.
About 2,100 tons of spent fuel, including 4 tons of plutonium, have been stored underwater in the basins, which were built in the 1950s.
Most of the deadly radioactive rods there came from a reactor that was used to make plutonium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and were originally intended to be reprocessed.
The existing collection represents about 80 percent of the nation's inventory of irradiated fuel left over from that era.
The plutonium in the basins is not weapons-grade, one of the reasons constant, on-site security is unnecessary, said Michael Turner, a Fluor Hanford spokesman.
Unprotected exposure to the fuel would be deadly, but he said it would take an elaborate plan to safely retrieve the fuel because it is underwater.
But Charles Nelson, the local union's current business agent, said the real danger would be someone damaging the basins and allowing the contamination to escape into the environment, including the Columbia River, about 400 yards away.
The K Basins and associated facilities are a hub of activity these days, as the DOE and its contractors move the spent nuclear fuel out of the pools for drying, packaging and storage. One of the pools has leaked, and moving the fuel out of the basins is a top priority.
Without the 24-hour guard, the extra workers brought on board for the spent nuclear fuel project are no longer checked routinely for prohibited items, such as drugs, firearms and transmitters, Nelson said.
Everyone wears a badge, and access is limited based on security standards determined by DOE, Turner said.
Although it has been suggested that the union is sounding the alarm because it fears potential job cuts or lost overtime, that is not the case, Nelson said. No jobs have been eliminated, only reassigned, he said.
``Our concern is security,'' he said.
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