RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Parties in a lawsuit over employee concerns about exposure to chemical vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are headed to mediation.
The Tri-City Herald reported Wednesday (https://bit.ly/2jj3g7k ) that both plaintiffs and defendants have asked a federal judge to move back the lawsuit’s trial date in order to allow them to pursue a resolution out of court.
Dozens of Hanford workers have been sickened by vapors escaping from underground nuclear waste storage tanks. The tanks contain wastes left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Workers who smell the vapors are told to leave the area and are offered medical checks. Nearly all workers are medically cleared to return to work the same day.
Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons, and the site near Richland in southeastern Washington is now engaged in a massive cleanup of the resulting radioactive wastes.
The wastes are stored in 177 massive underground tanks, and it is vapors escaping from some of those tanks that are thought to be making workers sick. The vapors are invisible and are not radioactive. Their exact content is not known because the exact contents of the tanks, some dating back to World War II, are not known.
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Information from: Tri-City Herald, https://www.tri-cityherald.com
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