Nov. 1, 2010
Huntington Landfill Accepted Hot Portions of Top Secret Uranium Processing Plant
By Tony Rutherford
Huntigtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When looking back at the history of the secret Huntington atomic weapons processing plant (Huntington Pilot/Reduction Pilot Plant) leased by the Atomic Energy Commission on the soil of INCO, the contaminated plant sat on “cold stand by” from 1962 until 1979. In 1979, the dismantling of the plant began.
An outreach worker for the Buildings and Trades National Medical Screening Program has confirmed to HNN, along with at least two official sources, that the Huntington Landfill (Dietz Hollow) contains scrap from the radioactively contaminated then “secret” atomic weapons manufacturer. In fact, the contamination was so “hot” that a decision to place debris at Dietz Hollow was overruled and authorities decided to truck most of the debris from the contaminated dismantled building to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio. It was buried, trucks , tools and debris, in a classified landfill.
When the plant began operation in 1951-1952 , it was “top secret.” However, the existence and contamination HPP/RPP is no longer classified, The exact details of how to operate some of the processes performed in Huntington do remain secret. Still, workers and/or survivors may be eligible for $150,000 in compensation for illness and deaths from occupational exposure.
Ron Bush, a representative of the Building and Trades National Medical Screening Program, told HNN in Piketon, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 29 that “scrap metal came out of the plant and went into the city landfill. When officials caught that they stopped it and shut the landfill down. They started bringing the scrap metal and [contaminated materials] to the Piketon plant. As I understand, the last two trucks were semi-dump trucks. The driver’s drove them into the pit, then walked out. Railcars were pushed in the hole, [after which the materials were ] buried and capped.”
LET THE FEDS PAY TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS AT OUR LANDFILL
Should the revelations about buried radioactive or other contaminants at the Huntington landfill from the DOE/AEC plant be accurate, then, the City of Huntington should be asking the DOE and other federal agencies for money for the clean up, not relying upon raising sewer and garbage rates of its citizens. In other areas, the federal government (i.e. DOE/DOD) have undertaken the financial responsibilities of the remediation.
Although the HPP/RPP has been added to the federal compensation for those suffering illness and/or death from their work in Huntington, Bush said, the building and trades screen program “has not been too successful getting many of the people who worked there [to participate in screenings].
HPP CONTRACTORS, WORKERS ASKED TO CONTACT MEDICAL OUTREACH
(Editor’s Note: The DOE webpage to contact Mr. Bush is: http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/FWSP/formerworkermed/coveredsites/portsmouth_cw.html. This council is emphasizing too construction workers, such as Cleveland Wrecking workers who helped take down the HPP who should contact the Portsmouth, Ohio office for a screening. Call toll free 1-800-866-9663.)
Coincidentally, Bush had been trying to find HNN to publicize the program for cold war veterans that worked at the Huntington plant.
EXPOSURES RANGE FROM RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS TO ASBESTOS, SILICA, SOLVENTS
An article appearing in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2009) titled “Mortality of Older Construction and Craft Workers Employed at DOE Nuclear Sites” stated construction workers “have potential exposures to a number of hazards, including known carcinogenic agents during facility construction, maintenance and renovation. In addition to external and internal radiation sources, construction and trade workers are exposed to asbestos, silica, solvents, metals, welding/cutting gases and fumes while conducting work tasks in the vicinity of other crafts. Little data exists concerning mortality among construction and trade workers.” http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/2009/092009doecancer.pdf
Bush told HNN that all of his information has come “from the workers who worked there. They left documents in part of a storeroom . It was a block building.” Informed sources tell HNN that the paper contents of this storeroom have since been burned.
The building and trades interviewer has knowledge that the Huntington site received materials from all three gaseous diffusion plants --- Paducah, Oak Ridge and Portsmouth. “They took the nickel out of [materials received from these sites] and crushed it into a powder, then, it was returned to the three respective [diffusion plants.] and use in the uranium enrichment process,” Bush said.
At least one former HPP employee has told Bush (and HNN has conducted interviews too that lend credence to an allegation) “[workers] would take contaminated stuff out of that pilot plant and use it over in the specialties metal plant , also. Bush could not name the source due to Privacy Act restrictions, but the former worker told Bush, “the stuff was process here and used over in the special metals end of the plant so a lot of people all over the [full] INCO plant were exposed too.”
(Editor’s Note: Bush stated that he has “no documentation” of the former workers allegations; however, HNN has also interviewed former workers who have made the same allegations about materials from the HPP/RPP being disbursed outside of that facility and thus mixed with other types of production.)
Normally, we do not interview in-plant (i.e. the non-DOE/AEP/AWE portion of the INCO venue) and get them examined . This guy was at the end of his rope and contacted one of the program administers, Sue Boone, in Seattle, Washington.” Boone had recommended that Bush get in contact with HNN.
In addition to interviewees from Huntington, the regional project from Portsmouth interviews formers workers at the Fernald plant, the Mound, Paducah , all Oak Ridge and Portsmouth employees.
TAKING HOT STUFF HOME TO MOM AND THE KIDS
Reacting to some “pretty old people” at the Remembrance Ceremony in Piketon, Bush differentiated between , “a high rate of people dying of lung cancer --- and cancer period ---“ and the 90-year-old survivor who spoke at the ceremony. “He drove a cab [at the plant] so he must not have been out there too much. The people working in the control room they did not get as much [exposure]. Those that worked out on the line , they got [the largest] exposures. The bad part about that is these people used to drive to the parking gate, check in , wore ordinary work clothes, and wear the same clothes home. The wives and children were exposed almost as much as the workers. Yet they are not covered,” Bush explained. “That’s sad. We don’t know how many [family members] passed away that [contacted exposure] from worker’s taking it home with them.”
The building and trades medical representation related circumstances where former atomic employees asked, “Can I have that pile of old sheet metal out there. I’m building a barn. Or I’ll put it on my roof.” But the “pile” of metal was radioactively contaminated. “All of this stuff is hot,” yet he recalled a Jackson, Ohio scrap dealer receiving 400 tons of radioactive scrap.
“They are also contaminated so how can the federal government keep on doing this. People that work at the [yards] are the same as average folks that worked at the Piketon plant,” Bush explained. “Looks like they would qualify for the program too.”
Asked about the radiation impacting neighborhoods surrounding these atomic plants, Bush said, “It’s in the drinking water. The ground water. It’s in the air. It’s on their automobiles. It’s in their garden.”
Speaking of wildlife seen by others in Piketon, he described “a deer with horns on one side” from the compound at Piketon or “a rabbit with five legs. I haven’t seen them, but that’s what workers have told me. There are a lot of deformed animals in that compound out there [in Piketon]. I hear about things like that most every time I interview a person.”
Bush, spent 33 years as a boilermaker (18 in the office as union business manager) and never worked at the Piketon plant. He worked at atomic power plants and at the Nickel plant in Huntington. After taking the outreach position due to his familiarity with construction processes, he stressed the unfairness and inequities in the compensation decision process, too.
“This guy applied for [compensation] for Prostate Cancer [acquired in Piketon]. I got him talking to the ombudsman in Washington, D.C. to try to get something straightened out. This has been going on for years. They also have leukemia , yet there is no compensation for that., but they sent him a medical card for his lung problems. He even alluded to “fired” workers “still on the payroll” because “they know too much.”
“I don’t understand a lot of it,” he concluded with a sense of bureaucratic disgust.
(Permission granted to quote with attribution.)
© 2010 Tony E. Rutherford and Huntingtonnews.net
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Huntington Landfill Accepted Hot Portions of Top Secret Uranium Processing Plant
By Tony Rutherford
Huntigtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When looking back at the history of the secret Huntington atomic weapons processing plant (Huntington Pilot/Reduction Pilot Plant) leased by the Atomic Energy Commission on the soil of INCO, the contaminated plant sat on “cold stand by” from 1962 until 1979. In 1979, the dismantling of the plant began.
An outreach worker for the Buildings and Trades National Medical Screening Program has confirmed to HNN, along with at least two official sources, that the Huntington Landfill (Dietz Hollow) contains scrap from the radioactively contaminated then “secret” atomic weapons manufacturer. In fact, the contamination was so “hot” that a decision to place debris at Dietz Hollow was overruled and authorities decided to truck most of the debris from the contaminated dismantled building to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio. It was buried, trucks , tools and debris, in a classified landfill.
When the plant began operation in 1951-1952 , it was “top secret.” However, the existence and contamination HPP/RPP is no longer classified, The exact details of how to operate some of the processes performed in Huntington do remain secret. Still, workers and/or survivors may be eligible for $150,000 in compensation for illness and deaths from occupational exposure.
Ron Bush, a representative of the Building and Trades National Medical Screening Program, told HNN in Piketon, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 29 that “scrap metal came out of the plant and went into the city landfill. When officials caught that they stopped it and shut the landfill down. They started bringing the scrap metal and [contaminated materials] to the Piketon plant. As I understand, the last two trucks were semi-dump trucks. The driver’s drove them into the pit, then walked out. Railcars were pushed in the hole, [after which the materials were ] buried and capped.”
LET THE FEDS PAY TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS AT OUR LANDFILL
Should the revelations about buried radioactive or other contaminants at the Huntington landfill from the DOE/AEC plant be accurate, then, the City of Huntington should be asking the DOE and other federal agencies for money for the clean up, not relying upon raising sewer and garbage rates of its citizens. In other areas, the federal government (i.e. DOE/DOD) have undertaken the financial responsibilities of the remediation.
Although the HPP/RPP has been added to the federal compensation for those suffering illness and/or death from their work in Huntington, Bush said, the building and trades screen program “has not been too successful getting many of the people who worked there [to participate in screenings].
HPP CONTRACTORS, WORKERS ASKED TO CONTACT MEDICAL OUTREACH
(Editor’s Note: The DOE webpage to contact Mr. Bush is: http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/FWSP/formerworkermed/coveredsites/portsmouth_cw.html. This council is emphasizing too construction workers, such as Cleveland Wrecking workers who helped take down the HPP who should contact the Portsmouth, Ohio office for a screening. Call toll free 1-800-866-9663.)
Coincidentally, Bush had been trying to find HNN to publicize the program for cold war veterans that worked at the Huntington plant.
EXPOSURES RANGE FROM RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS TO ASBESTOS, SILICA, SOLVENTS
An article appearing in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2009) titled “Mortality of Older Construction and Craft Workers Employed at DOE Nuclear Sites” stated construction workers “have potential exposures to a number of hazards, including known carcinogenic agents during facility construction, maintenance and renovation. In addition to external and internal radiation sources, construction and trade workers are exposed to asbestos, silica, solvents, metals, welding/cutting gases and fumes while conducting work tasks in the vicinity of other crafts. Little data exists concerning mortality among construction and trade workers.” http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/2009/092009doecancer.pdf
Bush told HNN that all of his information has come “from the workers who worked there. They left documents in part of a storeroom . It was a block building.” Informed sources tell HNN that the paper contents of this storeroom have since been burned.
The building and trades interviewer has knowledge that the Huntington site received materials from all three gaseous diffusion plants --- Paducah, Oak Ridge and Portsmouth. “They took the nickel out of [materials received from these sites] and crushed it into a powder, then, it was returned to the three respective [diffusion plants.] and use in the uranium enrichment process,” Bush said.
At least one former HPP employee has told Bush (and HNN has conducted interviews too that lend credence to an allegation) “[workers] would take contaminated stuff out of that pilot plant and use it over in the specialties metal plant , also. Bush could not name the source due to Privacy Act restrictions, but the former worker told Bush, “the stuff was process here and used over in the special metals end of the plant so a lot of people all over the [full] INCO plant were exposed too.”
(Editor’s Note: Bush stated that he has “no documentation” of the former workers allegations; however, HNN has also interviewed former workers who have made the same allegations about materials from the HPP/RPP being disbursed outside of that facility and thus mixed with other types of production.)
Normally, we do not interview in-plant (i.e. the non-DOE/AEP/AWE portion of the INCO venue) and get them examined . This guy was at the end of his rope and contacted one of the program administers, Sue Boone, in Seattle, Washington.” Boone had recommended that Bush get in contact with HNN.
In addition to interviewees from Huntington, the regional project from Portsmouth interviews formers workers at the Fernald plant, the Mound, Paducah , all Oak Ridge and Portsmouth employees.
TAKING HOT STUFF HOME TO MOM AND THE KIDS
Reacting to some “pretty old people” at the Remembrance Ceremony in Piketon, Bush differentiated between , “a high rate of people dying of lung cancer --- and cancer period ---“ and the 90-year-old survivor who spoke at the ceremony. “He drove a cab [at the plant] so he must not have been out there too much. The people working in the control room they did not get as much [exposure]. Those that worked out on the line , they got [the largest] exposures. The bad part about that is these people used to drive to the parking gate, check in , wore ordinary work clothes, and wear the same clothes home. The wives and children were exposed almost as much as the workers. Yet they are not covered,” Bush explained. “That’s sad. We don’t know how many [family members] passed away that [contacted exposure] from worker’s taking it home with them.”
The building and trades medical representation related circumstances where former atomic employees asked, “Can I have that pile of old sheet metal out there. I’m building a barn. Or I’ll put it on my roof.” But the “pile” of metal was radioactively contaminated. “All of this stuff is hot,” yet he recalled a Jackson, Ohio scrap dealer receiving 400 tons of radioactive scrap.
“They are also contaminated so how can the federal government keep on doing this. People that work at the [yards] are the same as average folks that worked at the Piketon plant,” Bush explained. “Looks like they would qualify for the program too.”
Asked about the radiation impacting neighborhoods surrounding these atomic plants, Bush said, “It’s in the drinking water. The ground water. It’s in the air. It’s on their automobiles. It’s in their garden.”
Speaking of wildlife seen by others in Piketon, he described “a deer with horns on one side” from the compound at Piketon or “a rabbit with five legs. I haven’t seen them, but that’s what workers have told me. There are a lot of deformed animals in that compound out there [in Piketon]. I hear about things like that most every time I interview a person.”
Bush, spent 33 years as a boilermaker (18 in the office as union business manager) and never worked at the Piketon plant. He worked at atomic power plants and at the Nickel plant in Huntington. After taking the outreach position due to his familiarity with construction processes, he stressed the unfairness and inequities in the compensation decision process, too.
“This guy applied for [compensation] for Prostate Cancer [acquired in Piketon]. I got him talking to the ombudsman in Washington, D.C. to try to get something straightened out. This has been going on for years. They also have leukemia , yet there is no compensation for that., but they sent him a medical card for his lung problems. He even alluded to “fired” workers “still on the payroll” because “they know too much.”
“I don’t understand a lot of it,” he concluded with a sense of bureaucratic disgust.
(Permission granted to quote with attribution.)
© 2010 Tony E. Rutherford and Huntingtonnews.net
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Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
