Oct. 13, 2010
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Described Private and Government Leased Huntington Uranium and Weapons Facilities
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – HNN has discovered a 2001 publication that appears to designate two atomic energy related facilities as having operated on the INCO venue, as either (or both) the Huntington Pilot Plant or Reduction Pilot Plant. This research confirms some verbal interviews with former workers who also designated two facilities, including one that contained “nastier” contaminants than the other.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 2001) defines the HPP as two types of facilities based on a list of sites covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000.
Historic data has previously focused on a leased DOE (Energy Department facility) at the East Huntington nickel plant. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists defines these as “any building, structure, or premise at which radioactive materials and beryllium were handled and over which [the Department of ] Energy has or had a proprietary interest --- including universities and private companies for which Energy contracted an outside entity to provide management, environmental remediation, construction or maintenance services.
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant are all categorized as “DOE” facilities.
DOUBLE CLASSIFICATION: ATOMIC WEAPONS/ DEPT OF ENERGY
But, Huntington’s plant has a double designation: AWE/DOE.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists defined AWE as an Atomic Weapons Employer that were/are “privately owned plants that processed or produced radioactive materials for nuclear weapons.”
For example, similar designations are given to Ohio’s Painesville Site (Diamond Magnesium); Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus); General Electric Evendale (Cincinnati); Aliquippa Forge (Aliquippa, Pa.); Sylvania Corning Nuclear Corp. (Hicksville, NY); Ashland Oil (Tonawanda, NY); University of Chicago (Chicago); D.C. Naval Research Lab (Washington, D.C.); Shpack Landfill (Norton, Mass.); St. Louis Airport Site (St. Louis, Mo.); and Middlesex Municipal Landfill (Middlesex, NJ). http://bos.sagepub.com/content/57/4/55.full.pdf
The “Mass Balance” subheading of “Making It Work, Will the Legislation to the Job” explained that the Energy Department had released a study of the “movement of recycled uranium through the nuclear weapons complex during the past 50 years. It revealed one of the last largely unknown flow sheet of the U.S. nuclear arms industry, in which uranium was reused for nuclear explosives and component production.”
The “mass balance” study became public after 1999 news reports that workers at the Energy Department’s three gaseous diffusion plants “handled uranium contaminated with plutonium and neptunium,” suggesting “many more workers and members of the public than previously thought.”
ATOMIC WEAPONS PLANTS LOCATED NEAR RESIDENTIAL AREAS
According to the author Robert Alvarez, then a scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and a former DOE policy adviser, 250,000 tons of uranium contaminated with plutonium 239, neptunium 237, technetium 99, and other fission products were recycled and processed between 1952 and 1999 at more than two dozen facilities.” The article continued, “the uranium was sent to private facilities, universities and military bases throughout the world.” Most of the facilities lacked “proper worker or environmental standards” for handling these contaminated materials.
As an example, the Harshaw Chemical Company (Cleveland, Ohio) processed recycled uranium from the Hanford weapons production reactors to “reduce the plutonium content so that it could be accepted at the government’s uranium enrichment plants, where stricter standards were in place. Several of these facilities, like the Sylvania-Corning processing plant in Hicksville, NY were located in or near residential areas.”
The Huntington Pilot Plant, which existed in the city from about 1951 until its dismantling in 1979, processed nickel , nickel carbonyl, and recycled uranium from one or more gaseous diffusion plants. Although shut down in 1962, the facility remained on “cold stand by” until 1978-1979, when it was demolished and taken by rail and truck for burial in a classified section of the Piketon, Ohio site.
Huntington’s facilities was near residences like the Hicksville, N.Y. Sylvania-Corning facility . The New York Department of Environmental Control and the company that owned the site in 2001 announced then “excavation of four large areas on the property to put in monitoring wells to see if the radioactive plume is traveling off site. The NY State health department will assess whether the number of cancer cases in the nearby neighborhood has been excessive,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists article stated.
CLARIFICATION: DOL STATISTICS HUNTINGTON
Based on the October 11, 2010 report of compensation payments to HPP workers, 542 unique individual workers (821 cases) are represented in the summary. However, only 49 claims (from 41 cases) have received payments, which total $5,385,539.
Of Cancer Cases (Part B, NIOSH/SEC statistics), 27 out of 72 (includes Special Exposure Cohort) were awarded compensation.
Some employees who worked at the HPP site were awarded benefits and their employment at other sites may have contributed to this award.
http://www.dol.gov/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/statistics/WebPages/HUNTINGTON_PLT.htm
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Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Described Private and Government Leased Huntington Uranium and Weapons Facilities
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – HNN has discovered a 2001 publication that appears to designate two atomic energy related facilities as having operated on the INCO venue, as either (or both) the Huntington Pilot Plant or Reduction Pilot Plant. This research confirms some verbal interviews with former workers who also designated two facilities, including one that contained “nastier” contaminants than the other.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 2001) defines the HPP as two types of facilities based on a list of sites covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000.
Historic data has previously focused on a leased DOE (Energy Department facility) at the East Huntington nickel plant. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists defines these as “any building, structure, or premise at which radioactive materials and beryllium were handled and over which [the Department of ] Energy has or had a proprietary interest --- including universities and private companies for which Energy contracted an outside entity to provide management, environmental remediation, construction or maintenance services.
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant are all categorized as “DOE” facilities.
DOUBLE CLASSIFICATION: ATOMIC WEAPONS/ DEPT OF ENERGY
But, Huntington’s plant has a double designation: AWE/DOE.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists defined AWE as an Atomic Weapons Employer that were/are “privately owned plants that processed or produced radioactive materials for nuclear weapons.”
For example, similar designations are given to Ohio’s Painesville Site (Diamond Magnesium); Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus); General Electric Evendale (Cincinnati); Aliquippa Forge (Aliquippa, Pa.); Sylvania Corning Nuclear Corp. (Hicksville, NY); Ashland Oil (Tonawanda, NY); University of Chicago (Chicago); D.C. Naval Research Lab (Washington, D.C.); Shpack Landfill (Norton, Mass.); St. Louis Airport Site (St. Louis, Mo.); and Middlesex Municipal Landfill (Middlesex, NJ). http://bos.sagepub.com/content/57/4/55.full.pdf
The “Mass Balance” subheading of “Making It Work, Will the Legislation to the Job” explained that the Energy Department had released a study of the “movement of recycled uranium through the nuclear weapons complex during the past 50 years. It revealed one of the last largely unknown flow sheet of the U.S. nuclear arms industry, in which uranium was reused for nuclear explosives and component production.”
The “mass balance” study became public after 1999 news reports that workers at the Energy Department’s three gaseous diffusion plants “handled uranium contaminated with plutonium and neptunium,” suggesting “many more workers and members of the public than previously thought.”
ATOMIC WEAPONS PLANTS LOCATED NEAR RESIDENTIAL AREAS
According to the author Robert Alvarez, then a scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and a former DOE policy adviser, 250,000 tons of uranium contaminated with plutonium 239, neptunium 237, technetium 99, and other fission products were recycled and processed between 1952 and 1999 at more than two dozen facilities.” The article continued, “the uranium was sent to private facilities, universities and military bases throughout the world.” Most of the facilities lacked “proper worker or environmental standards” for handling these contaminated materials.
As an example, the Harshaw Chemical Company (Cleveland, Ohio) processed recycled uranium from the Hanford weapons production reactors to “reduce the plutonium content so that it could be accepted at the government’s uranium enrichment plants, where stricter standards were in place. Several of these facilities, like the Sylvania-Corning processing plant in Hicksville, NY were located in or near residential areas.”
The Huntington Pilot Plant, which existed in the city from about 1951 until its dismantling in 1979, processed nickel , nickel carbonyl, and recycled uranium from one or more gaseous diffusion plants. Although shut down in 1962, the facility remained on “cold stand by” until 1978-1979, when it was demolished and taken by rail and truck for burial in a classified section of the Piketon, Ohio site.
Huntington’s facilities was near residences like the Hicksville, N.Y. Sylvania-Corning facility . The New York Department of Environmental Control and the company that owned the site in 2001 announced then “excavation of four large areas on the property to put in monitoring wells to see if the radioactive plume is traveling off site. The NY State health department will assess whether the number of cancer cases in the nearby neighborhood has been excessive,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists article stated.
CLARIFICATION: DOL STATISTICS HUNTINGTON
Based on the October 11, 2010 report of compensation payments to HPP workers, 542 unique individual workers (821 cases) are represented in the summary. However, only 49 claims (from 41 cases) have received payments, which total $5,385,539.
Of Cancer Cases (Part B, NIOSH/SEC statistics), 27 out of 72 (includes Special Exposure Cohort) were awarded compensation.
Some employees who worked at the HPP site were awarded benefits and their employment at other sites may have contributed to this award.
http://www.dol.gov/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/statistics/WebPages/HUNTINGTON_PLT.htm
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
