Dr. Silver Participates in Federal Advisory Board

Clean-up of the asbestos-laden Plutonium Finishing Plant was the focus 
of a presentation on the tour of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation

Dr. Ken Silver, Associate Professor of Environmental Health, participated in the meeting of the federal Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health held in Richland, Washington on April 18 and 19.  The 15-member Board advises the U.S. Department of Labor on implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act’s toxic chemical provisions (“Part E”)

The visit included a day-long tour of the historic Hanford Nuclear Reservation where the federal Manhattan Project produced plutonium in the war effort of World War II.  Tour sites included B-Reactor, now a National Park Service facility, a state-of-the-art groundwater treatment facility, and a presentation on the technically difficult decommissioning of the Plutonium Finishing Plant.  “Drive by” sites included some of the 177 underground tanks where mixed chemical and radioactive wastes were disposed of during the Cold War, and workers are currently exposed to poorly characterized vapors and gases.  They also saw Hanford’s vitrification (glassification) plant intended to encapsulate long-lived plutonium isotopes.

The Board conducted two days of public deliberations in a hotel conference room on issues that included simplified criteria for processing occupational disease claims on asbestos and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  Silver serves on the Board’s Subcommittee on Weighing Medical Evidence and the Working Group on Medical Presumptions, both intended to expedite DOL’s processing of workers’ claims

The board is composed of academic researchers, physicians, advocates, and former DOE workers.