Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the Hanford plant in the United States covers some 880 square kilometers of land and
was selected for its remote location and proximity to the Columbia River, which could be used to supply power and refrigeration.
Hanford would eventually produce about two-thirds of the plutonium used in the US nuclear arsenal,
including the material used in the Trinity nuclear weapons tests and in Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
There the story of "The Atomic Man" took place.
Suits at the Hanford plant.
Atomic Man and the Cold War
During the Cold War, the site continued to grow, adding several nuclear reactors and plutonium processing facilities.
In the 1960s, when parts of the facilities began to be dismantled, they numbered thousands of buildings.
At the heart of the site, and its complicated demolition,
was the Plutonium Finishing Plant, where fissile material was mined, refined, and prepared for use.
The sleeves and gloves that failed and contaminated Harold McCluskey.
This central complex of four main buildings, plus dozens of smaller support structures, was also
the site of one of the most infamous incidents in Hanford's history.
In August 1976, a technician named Harold McCluskey was working with a plutonium byproduct
known as americium when a chemical reaction occurred that blew up the glove box he was working in, showering
McCluskey with shards of glass, metal, and material. radioactive
.
Doctors eventually determined that McCluskey had been exposed to radiation levels 500 times the safe level
, an exposure level no human had ever survived.
He was quickly isolated, cleaned, and treated.
Miraculously, the radiation in McCluskey's body eventually dissipated to safe levels, but
until his death in 1987 he was known as "Atomic Man" and often had to convince people it was safe to be around him.
Harold McCluskey during his recovery.
The McCluskey Room: the memory of "The Atomic Man"
After the explosion, the Americium Recovery Facility was closed and renamed the "McCluskey Room".
As one of the most iconic and dangerous spaces at the Hanford site, it is a wonderful case study in the challenges inherent in demolition and cleanup throughout the facility.
"It was highly contaminated, and plutonium is a volatile material," specialist Arthur Heeter said in an interview with local media.
"The biggest threat it poses is air pollution."
Hanford Nuclear Plant.
That means just entering the McCluskey room required everyone to be outfitted with full anti-radiation suits.
According to Heeter, workers first had to remove all contaminated equipment from the facility,
including huge metal glove boxes like the one that exploded at McCluskey.
Then they had to spray a special type of fixative that helped adhere the radioactive material to surfaces.
Only after taking all these precautions could the demolition begin.
Today the place is in ruins.
In August 1976, a technician named Harold McCluskey had an accident and was bathed in this substance.
look also
Orgies with French women and homosexuality: the sexual scandals of the presidents of the United States
The NASA astronaut who breaks flight records in space and who will reach the Moon after 50 years
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/RZNWLUSDGFEOJOTT3K3MWGXE3E.jpg)
