February 17, 1967
Rare Glimpse of Fermi Site Cleanup
More than four months after the Fermi meltdown, officials have granted reporters a glance inside the evacuation zone around the Fermi plant. Activity at the site has been rather secretive, and few reporters have been permitted to enter the evacuation zone.
The site of the disaster has been greatly transformed. Since November, several thousand tons of radioactive debris have been removed from the Fermi site. Most of this material was disposed nearby, but the more severely contaminated items were taken to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina. Millions of gallons of contaminated liquid have been collected and disposed of disposed of in sanitary trenches around the site. Soil with high radioactive contamination levels has been placed in drums and shipped to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina for burial. About 500 acres, or nearly one square mile around the plant, has been decontaminated by this technique, producing 600,000 barrels of soil. [1]
The site is a veritable hive of activity at all hours of the day. The reactor itself is now covered in a large concrete “sarcophagus” intended to prevent further release of radioactive material. The demolition of about 1,000 houses along Goddard Road, the northern border of the evacuation zone, has been completed. Immediately south of this line, soil has been piled up into a mound 10 feet high topped with a barbed wire fence. Similar reinforcements exist on the mostly-rural western and southern borders of the evacuation zone. Within the evacuation zone, most houses and other buildings remain standing.
We visited a base camp of temporary housing for workers, which has been built at the southern end of the evacuation zone, just north of Toledo. After being cleared through the checkpoint, we were escorted to a parking lot at the edge of the base. From this staging area, cleanup workers suit up and are transported on buses to the Fermi site. They travel up a now-deserted I-75 [2], before making an exit just north of the abandoned city of Monroe. Our reporters were denied access to the site, which is restricted only to site workers.
Over 2,000 people – mostly soldiers – are working at the site at any given time. To avoid excessive absorption of radiation, shifts at the site are limited to just two hours per day. Soldiers recruited for this effort are generally volunteers who are given a choice of cleanup or a 12-month tour in Vietnam. [3] Unsurprisingly, there is no shortage of volunteers for cleanup duty. Rotations at the Fermi site last one month, as longer deployments are considered too risky.
Safety is of utmost importance at the Fermi site. Upon their return to the staging area, the buses are hosed down. The workers take special decontamination showers to remove any traces of radioactive particles. Onsite personnel undergo regular contamination monitoring through nasal swabs and urinalysis to ensure that radiation doses are kept within safe levels. Workers who are injured or show signs of exposure to radiation receive treatment from medical doctors at the base camp. [4]
Despite the great progress made, there is much work to be done. Cleanup is expected to last until the end of 1969.