Traces of Plutonium Were Released in May Blast at Washington Nuclear Site

SPOKANE, Wash. (July 9, 1997 8:45 p.m. EDT) -- After two months of denying radiation was released in a May explosion at the Hanford nuclear reservation, federal officials acknowledged Wednesday that traces of plutonium leaked after the accident.

Only a tiny amount of the deadly nuclear-weapons material escaped the Plutonium Reclamation Facility after the May 14 explosion there, said Ron Gerton, who led the U.S. Department of Energy team investigating the blast.

The explosion in a 400-gallon chemical tank severed a water line, which flooded the building before flowing through a door, Gerton said.

Some of the flooding happened around plutonium-processing equipment and washed traces of plutonium out of the building, he said.

"It was very, very low levels," Gerton said in a conference call with reporters.

The plutonium only got 15 to 20 feet beyond the door of the plant, and has either been removed or immobilized, he said.

"It no longer can be spread about," Gerton said.

Hanford spokesman Guy Schein said the escaped plutonium was not enough to cause medical problems.

"They dealt with that right after it happened," Schein said.

Hanford, which made plutonium for nuclear weapons for four decades ending in the late 1980s, is in southcentral Washington, about 150 miles west of Spokane.

Energy Department officials had repeatedly denied that any radiation escaped after the blast.

Schein said those denials involved the smokestack or the roof of the building where the explosion occurred.

"There was no release of any radioactivity from the facility through the stack or anything like that," he said.

Radiation monitors on the roof of the plant have not detected any airborne traces of plutonium, Gerton said.

Wednesday's disclosure is proof that an outside agency must investigate the blast, said Gerald Pollet of the Seattle-based watchdog group Heart of America Northwest.

"It's very clear that after this explosion the Department of Energy lied about whether or not there was any potential plutonium contamination outside and to workers," Pollet said.

"There is a very good likelihood significant amounts of plutonium may have gone out of holes in the roof," he said. Pollet contends the plutonium may have been propelled out of the range of the monitors by the force of the blast.

Separate reports are due later on the health of eight workers possibly exposed to dangerous gases after the blast, and on why it took so long to notify off-site emergency and law officers.

Some of the workers are complaining of medical problems, said Sandy Matheson, head of the Hanford Environmental Health Foundation. But doctors have not linked their symptoms to exposure to chemicals at Hanford, she said.

--By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press