May 5, 2010
CONTINUING SERIES: Huntington’s Secret Cold War Nuclear Weapons Plant
FBI Agent or Secret Service Escorted Shipments to Oak Ridge in 1950s
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – On April 19, 2001, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, announced she would take charge of administering compensation to job injured nuclear plant workers. She had tried to shift the program’s administration to the Justice Department.
The benefits are offered to those whose health was ruined by radiation, beryllium or silica exposure.
Other, equally sick workers may have contracted cancer because of exposure in the weapons plants to PCBs or other dangerous chemicals, but they will not be eligible to apply for the federal benefits.
The new program offered lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the nuclear weapons complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada. It covered workers at the Huntington Pilot Plant in Huntington, W.Va., an AP story in the Charleston Gazette stated.
BARBOUR AND WORKERS
Richard Barbour, a Willow Wood, Ohio, worker told the Herald Dispatch that he “sealed, tagged and shipped containers of fine nickel powder. Herman Fisher, of Point Pleasant, WV, vacuumed trucks returning from deliveries to the uranium enrichment plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn.” (At the time both suffered from asbestosis, which was not attributed to radiation exposure.)
Barbour told the H-D in 2001 that “nickel came into the plant in clumps the size of gravel or cinders. At some point in the production process, it was a liquid but not a molten liquid.” Working on the ground floor, the “nearly pure powder came down from an upper floor through a tube.” From 1952 to 1958, he filled 20 gallon containers with the power, sealed them, and put them on a truck bound for Oak Ridge.
Two workers said they were not told of the dangers at the HPP/RPP. Only after the FBI gave them a security clearance did they learn what went on inside the plant.
Milton’s Johnny Chapman ran reactors. “I filled the reactors up. We shipped out all those containers to Oak Ridge. There would always be a Secret Service or FBI agent escort it to Tennessee,” Chapman said in the 2001 interview. Herman Fisher applied for a guard job but was placed inside working with nickel powder.
Actually , the plant processed Nickel carbonyl, also known as nickel tetracarbonyl, a highly toxic material that is fatal if inhaled. It is used to produce high-purity nickel and to deposit nickel coatings on other materials. However, documents revealed that government contracts to recycle nickel and uranium from spent fuel cartridges left other contaminants --- plutonium, neptunium and technetium too.
Chapman and Fisher both “quit” after learning about the dangers from radiation.
Barbour said he worked in the plant from 1952 through 1958.
PLANT HAD CONTAMINATION PROBLEMS
The HPP/RPP had been such a secret that INCO in the 60s twice printed maps of their facility which left out the location of the former HPP/RPP. Thus, it’s no wonder, that T. Grant John, president of Special Metals, sent a letter to the Herald Dispatch in May 2001 informing the paper that his company did not know when it bought INCO in 1998 that it once had a nuclear fuel preparation factory.
The HPP/RPP had been put on standby in the early 60s. Memos state that while officially closed, workers still went in and out of the facility.
A January 1975 memo led to the decision to demolish and bury the contaminated plant.
“Based upon the radiation survey, the presence or potential presence of classified material, and the potential presence of nickel carbonyl, it was decided that the process equipment and piping were unsuitable for conventional disposal and consequently scheduled for disposal in the classified burial ground at the Portsmouth , Ohio, Gaseous Diffusion plant.” The memo continued that the residue unloading system , building walls, floors, and structural members were also slightly contaminated and contained classified material.
After demolition, the location had been twice checked by Oak Ridge National Laboratories for residual radiation. The site retained an “unrestricted use” classification after both radiological inspections.
THE SECOND RADIOLOGICAL SURVEY
Despite placing the location of the former Huntington Pilot Plant on an “unrestricted release” in 1979, a second radiological study was completed after the removal of contaminated materials, Oak Ridge National Laboratory requested further investigation.
A radiological study conducted by ORNL in August 1980 showed “several locations of residual uranium in surface soil and elevated gamma radiation in the remains of an elevator shaft and inside the compression building. High concentrations of nickel were noted in some surface soil samples.”
ORNL asked for the follow up study which was done November 17-19 and December 3, 1980 at the facility.
Exterior locations tested for gamma radiation were not elevated with the exception of three “spots near the edge of the loading pad, and a small area on the outside east wall of the compressor building.”
Maximum levels were 33 u R/hr, 45 u R/hr and 18 uR/HR. Debris from the elevator shaft removed with a backhoe had a maximum reading of 22 u R/hr. “A sample of debris had concentrations of 238U, 235U and 226 Ra, slightly above the baseline ranges.”
An area of “elevated ground surface radiation near the concrete pad is believed to be contamination originating from equipment stored in this location during the 1978-79 demolition activities.
Elevated region then measured up to 25 uR/hr in excavated; gravel under concrete pad 2.5 pCi/gm of radium 226.
For instance, one surface soil sample from a river flood plain about 1.5 km from the plant site contained 1.3 x 1o4 ppm --- substantially higher than many on-site samples. “This suggests that general nickel contamination of surface soil may exist throughout this area as a result of past International Nickel Company operations.”
CLICK HERE to download pdf of 37 page RADIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FORMER REDUCTION PILOT PLANT, APRIL 7, 1981.
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CONTINUING SERIES: Huntington’s Secret Cold War Nuclear Weapons Plant
FBI Agent or Secret Service Escorted Shipments to Oak Ridge in 1950s
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – On April 19, 2001, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, announced she would take charge of administering compensation to job injured nuclear plant workers. She had tried to shift the program’s administration to the Justice Department.
The benefits are offered to those whose health was ruined by radiation, beryllium or silica exposure.
Other, equally sick workers may have contracted cancer because of exposure in the weapons plants to PCBs or other dangerous chemicals, but they will not be eligible to apply for the federal benefits.
The new program offered lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the nuclear weapons complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada. It covered workers at the Huntington Pilot Plant in Huntington, W.Va., an AP story in the Charleston Gazette stated.
BARBOUR AND WORKERS
Richard Barbour, a Willow Wood, Ohio, worker told the Herald Dispatch that he “sealed, tagged and shipped containers of fine nickel powder. Herman Fisher, of Point Pleasant, WV, vacuumed trucks returning from deliveries to the uranium enrichment plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn.” (At the time both suffered from asbestosis, which was not attributed to radiation exposure.)
Barbour told the H-D in 2001 that “nickel came into the plant in clumps the size of gravel or cinders. At some point in the production process, it was a liquid but not a molten liquid.” Working on the ground floor, the “nearly pure powder came down from an upper floor through a tube.” From 1952 to 1958, he filled 20 gallon containers with the power, sealed them, and put them on a truck bound for Oak Ridge.
Two workers said they were not told of the dangers at the HPP/RPP. Only after the FBI gave them a security clearance did they learn what went on inside the plant.
Milton’s Johnny Chapman ran reactors. “I filled the reactors up. We shipped out all those containers to Oak Ridge. There would always be a Secret Service or FBI agent escort it to Tennessee,” Chapman said in the 2001 interview. Herman Fisher applied for a guard job but was placed inside working with nickel powder.
Actually , the plant processed Nickel carbonyl, also known as nickel tetracarbonyl, a highly toxic material that is fatal if inhaled. It is used to produce high-purity nickel and to deposit nickel coatings on other materials. However, documents revealed that government contracts to recycle nickel and uranium from spent fuel cartridges left other contaminants --- plutonium, neptunium and technetium too.
Chapman and Fisher both “quit” after learning about the dangers from radiation.
Barbour said he worked in the plant from 1952 through 1958.
PLANT HAD CONTAMINATION PROBLEMS
The HPP/RPP had been such a secret that INCO in the 60s twice printed maps of their facility which left out the location of the former HPP/RPP. Thus, it’s no wonder, that T. Grant John, president of Special Metals, sent a letter to the Herald Dispatch in May 2001 informing the paper that his company did not know when it bought INCO in 1998 that it once had a nuclear fuel preparation factory.
The HPP/RPP had been put on standby in the early 60s. Memos state that while officially closed, workers still went in and out of the facility.
A January 1975 memo led to the decision to demolish and bury the contaminated plant.
“Based upon the radiation survey, the presence or potential presence of classified material, and the potential presence of nickel carbonyl, it was decided that the process equipment and piping were unsuitable for conventional disposal and consequently scheduled for disposal in the classified burial ground at the Portsmouth , Ohio, Gaseous Diffusion plant.” The memo continued that the residue unloading system , building walls, floors, and structural members were also slightly contaminated and contained classified material.
After demolition, the location had been twice checked by Oak Ridge National Laboratories for residual radiation. The site retained an “unrestricted use” classification after both radiological inspections.
THE SECOND RADIOLOGICAL SURVEY
Despite placing the location of the former Huntington Pilot Plant on an “unrestricted release” in 1979, a second radiological study was completed after the removal of contaminated materials, Oak Ridge National Laboratory requested further investigation.
A radiological study conducted by ORNL in August 1980 showed “several locations of residual uranium in surface soil and elevated gamma radiation in the remains of an elevator shaft and inside the compression building. High concentrations of nickel were noted in some surface soil samples.”
ORNL asked for the follow up study which was done November 17-19 and December 3, 1980 at the facility.
Exterior locations tested for gamma radiation were not elevated with the exception of three “spots near the edge of the loading pad, and a small area on the outside east wall of the compressor building.”
Maximum levels were 33 u R/hr, 45 u R/hr and 18 uR/HR. Debris from the elevator shaft removed with a backhoe had a maximum reading of 22 u R/hr. “A sample of debris had concentrations of 238U, 235U and 226 Ra, slightly above the baseline ranges.”
An area of “elevated ground surface radiation near the concrete pad is believed to be contamination originating from equipment stored in this location during the 1978-79 demolition activities.
Elevated region then measured up to 25 uR/hr in excavated; gravel under concrete pad 2.5 pCi/gm of radium 226.
For instance, one surface soil sample from a river flood plain about 1.5 km from the plant site contained 1.3 x 1o4 ppm --- substantially higher than many on-site samples. “This suggests that general nickel contamination of surface soil may exist throughout this area as a result of past International Nickel Company operations.”
CLICK HERE to download pdf of 37 page RADIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FORMER REDUCTION PILOT PLANT, APRIL 7, 1981.
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Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
