Hanford fire all but out; Richardson says no radiation released

RICHLAND, Wash. - The wildfire that charred nearly half of the Hanford nuclear reservation was all but extinguished Friday, and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was on site to personally attest to safety there.

The blaze, which exploded from a roadside annoyance to a 30-mph inferno in less than a day, was the second fire to sweep a federal nuclear site in two months. Hanford was the primary producer of plutonium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal for 40 years and stores some of the most lethal wastes on the planet.

''There does not appear to be any contamination whatsoever,'' Richardson told reporters Friday.

Was he absolutely certain?

''I never say 'absolutely' any more. We are satisfied at this time there are no radiation releases,'' Richardson said.

''I don't have any reason to doubt that,'' said David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass. He said early monitoring would have turned up any ''tremendous concentrations.''

The U.S. Energy Department and state health officials will continue to watch the site and firefighters, Richardson said.

It is critical to have independent monitoring, he noted: ''You don't want to be the one giving out the data because public acceptance is the key.''

Lessons learned in the disastrous May wildfire at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico helped firefighters here, Richardson said. Brush was cleared and gravel spread at sensitive sites. Roads and plowed firebreaks were sprayed with water or flame retardant to stymie the blaze.

At the Fast Flux Test Facility's inactive research reactor, for example, blackened wasteland extends right up to the road surrounding the site, and stops.

Near the reactor, unscathed grass and sagebrush rustled in a gentle breeze as Richardson toured the site Friday under a cloudless - and smokeless - sky.

Citing other Los Alamos lessons, he added: ''We locked up all the plutonium.''

DOE personnel said earlier that all sensitive documents - also an issue in New Mexico - had been locked in fire-safe and secure areas when the fire became a threat.

The Los Alamos fire, set to clear brush near the lab, destroyed more than 200 homes when it raged out of control.

The 190,000-acre Hanford blaze was sparked by a fatal car crash Tuesday. That evening, federal and local firefighters, backed by two firefighting planes, were working to contain a 1,000-acre fire.

By the time Richardson declared the wildfire contained early Friday, it had burned 45 percent of the 560-square-mile reservation, plus 30,000 acres and 70 buildings - including 20 homes - in and around the towns of Benton City and West Richland just south of Hanford's borders.

Fifteen people were injured, most suffering smoke inhalation. Robert Pierce, 46, of Benton City - burned when he tried in vain to save his home - remained in serious condition Friday at a Seattle hospital.

Richardson said his agency would start a fire-recovery fund, as it did at Los Alamos, for those who had lost homes and property here.

About 7,000 people fled the blaze Wednesday as high winds fanned it tinder-dry sagebrush, grass and scrub trees. Such fires die quickly when the wind turns or fuel is consumed, and evacuees were allowed back into their homes Thursday.

Some of the 850 firefighters summoned here were expected to head home Friday, but those who stay behind must be prepared for the possibility that hot spots could re-ignite, said Dale Warriner, a spokesman for the interagency firefighting effort.

The Hanford fire burned across three old radioactive-waste disposal sites - a trench and two dried up ponds. It also burned near some excavated drums containing uranium wastes, but was diverted by firefighters.

Monitoring so far has turned up no sign of radiation releases, but more tests are planned on vegetation and air-monitoring filters, said Debra McBaugh, a state Health Department spokeswoman.

Tests came back Friday on 54 samples taken Thursday on and off the nuclear reservation, and from the three old disposal sites. None showed any sign of radiation releases, McBaugh said.

The state's role as a Hanford watchdog is not new. In recent years it has threatened to sue the Energy Department over missed deadlines set by the 1989 cleanup pact between the state, DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA is helping the state here this week, setting up nine monitors around the perimeter of the reservation. Results from the devices could be available by the middle of next week.

''We're going to be looking for any offsite migration - first at populated areas, the way the wind was blowing, and then natural resources, like agricultural products and trees,'' said Mark MacIntyre, a spokesman from the agency's Seattle office.

''We're treating this as an emergency response, much like a tanker accident.''

Lochbaum, with the public-interest scientists' group, said he knew of no formal studies of ''secondary transportation'' of radiation from recent range and forest fires at Chernobyl, Los Alamos and Hanford.

''Now that we've had three fires, maybe somebody should study it,'' he said in a telephone interview.

Hanford was created by the Manhattan Project during World War II to make plutonium for nuclear weapons - a purpose it pursued for decades, generating the nation's biggest volume of radioactive wastes. Its primary mission now is cleanup.

The most lethal waste is in 177 storage tanks buried six feet underground that could explode if a spark were introduced inside. Flames got within two miles of the tanks late Thursday, DOE spokesman Julie Erickson said.

About 8,000 Hanford workers were told to stay home Thursday and Friday, leaving 400 to 500 at the site.

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On the Net:

National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov

Hanford: http://www.hanford.gov