Hanford Launches Outreach Campaign to Deliver Radiation-Safety Education

RICHLAND, Wash. – Providing information on the basics of radiation, and the controls and efforts to reduce radiation risks at the Hanford Site, is the goal of the Hanford Health and Safety Education Campaign.

The EM Office of River Protection (ORP) and Richland Operations Office (RL) launched the campaign recently to share knowledge with stakeholders and community members.

ORP and RL are posting facts about radiation on their social media accounts and the Hanford website, and sharing information through direct outreach. The campaign will increase awareness of safety measures taken at Hanford and provide background on what represents a radiation risk.

“We want to educate the public and our stakeholders about how we manage hazards at Hanford, including the controls we have in place to safeguard workers, the community, and the environment,” said Brian Stickney, RL deputy manager and chief operating officer. “The outreach campaign also provides context on actual versus perceived risks.”

The focus of the Hanford cleanup mission is to remediate the sources of radiation risk by retrieving and treating waste from underground tanks; removing buildings and their contents; remediating waste burial sites; safely storing nuclear and waste materials until they can be dispositioned; and removing contamination from groundwater. Performance of this work is highly regulated, and laws and DOE orders are implemented to establish strict requirements for protecting workers, the public, and the environment from radiation hazards.

The three-phased outreach campaign began in May 2021 and will end in December 2022. The first phase concentrates on radiation and radiation safety basics; the second phase will educate on work controls for current cleanup projects; and the last phase will focus on radiation program monitoring and assessment.