Radioactive waste shipments sent to landfill with incorrect signage
- September 6, 2013
- By Jennifer Kalish
As many as 5,618 shipments of radioactive waste were made to a nuclear landfill in Washington state without the correct radioactive waste signage required on shipping containers, the Tri-City Herald reported.
The containers were not marked with the required state Department of Transportation magnetic placards indicating the radioactivity of each load.
Each container used at the central Hanford landfill typically hold 18-23 tons of waste and most of the shipments were made between January and November 2012, the report said.
The mistake, which dated back to a single incorrect calculation in 2011, was discovered by the Washington Closure Co., an agency contracted by the U.S. Department of Energy to help accelerate cleanup efforts at the Hanford site.
Because the paperwork was done once for all shipments, the error carried through until it was discovered last week, the report said.
No workers were injured as a result of the error, and Washington Closure will review similar calculations used for other shipments to confirm the mistake had not been repeated, according to the report.
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