December 18, 2000
Source of fluorine leak unknown; employees back at K-25
http://www.oakridger.com/
by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff

Although the cause of a reported fluorine leak at the Oak Ridge K-25 site last week was still unknown as of this morning, officials are no longer considering the incident an emergency situation and employees are back to work.

"We never found the leak," Department of Energy spokesman Steven Wyatt said this morning.

However, some officials speculate that the leak could have come from a gasket on a pipe going into a fluorine storage tank.

Normal site work activities have resumed at K-25 and those buildings closed due to the reported leak have been opened. The 1,000-foot boundary around the building has been reduced to the facility's boundary.

Site workers first reported the leak Wednesday afternoon, saying an odor was emanating from building K-1302. K-1302 is a currently unused building that was formerly a fluorine storage and distribution facility.

Fluorine was used at K-25 to refine fuel for nuclear power plants when the gaseous diffusion facility was operational from the 1940s to mid-1980s. It is a toxic gas, and exposures can result in a variety of symptoms, ranging from irritation of mucous membranes to severe burns.

DOE established emergency teams and began investigating the leak shortly after it was reported. Their efforts consisted of establishing a 1,000-foot boundary around K-1302, sending home more than 200 possibly "at risk" site workers and taking numerous samples from inside and outside the building.

On Friday afternoon, two hazardous materials specialists entered K-1302 in protective suits for the first time since the leak was reported.

The specialists took samples, set up air monitoring equipment and looked for leaks in piping and other equipment associated with the five fluorine storage tanks in K-1302.

The storage tanks were reportedly emptied years ago, but DOE officials said they could still contain small amounts of fluorine.

Officials said the monitoring efforts Friday afternoon showed levels of hydrogen fluoride exceeding 50 parts per million, which could irritate the eyes, nose and throat of an unprotected individual. Hydrogen fluoride is formed when fluorine combines with moisture in the air.

The interior of K-1302 was fogged with water Friday evening to reduce airborne levels of hydrogen fluoride. Samples were again taken and no measurable levels of hydrogen fluoride were detected inside the building. Follow-up sampling produced similar results.

Officials continued to monitor K-1302 throughout the weekend. Bechtel Jacobs LLC spokesman Mark Musolf said this morning that no levels were reported during that time period. Bechtel Jacobs manages K-25 for DOE.

    While the DOE PR persons are beginning to admit there were thousands of UF-6 and associated HF leaks into the regions air, and even quoting a few of the accident types, they omit some of the more huge releases associated with purge cascade breakdown for days and huge releases going all the way to Ohio. Many other releases dumped truckloads onto roofs, lost entire enriched cylinders, etc.  Its a chemical plant disaster, and a slow Bhopal.

   The OR PR crew is also playing games with HF symptoms.   HF is a cumulative chemical poison and it was monitored in worker uranlaysis programs.   Urine excretion is only part of the fluorine as typically more than half is retained.   Long term cumulative effects of fluorine associate with arthritis, asthma, fatigue, neurological problems, thyroid damage, parathyorid damage, and so on.

   The Wyatt PR crew is not telling all the story, typical spin and play down the connections to the mysterious illness that affect the workers and downwind communities, sometimes all the way to Ohio.