Safety Third:
Some time in the early 1990's I moved to a new city and needed a job badly. So I applied at several temp agencies. After working 2 or 3 truly shity jobs, the temp agency called and said, "because you showed up to work on time and worked hard at each assignment, we have a very special long term placement for you", (by the way, if you work temp jobs, and someone says this to you, run, don't walk away).
So come to find out that this new job, was cleaning, and dismantling a large industrial plant, that had used radioactive isotopes as part of their manufacturing process. So before I could start, I had to take a 4 week long state (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) run course on handling radioactive waste.
I actually enjoyed the course. Learned a lot. But the fun time ended and I had to start working. What this job really consisted of was working with a crew in an isolated and sealed temperature controlled 30,000 sq. foot room. With an on going industrial process.
This was a plant that did titanium casting, by the lost wax process. These were very large castings, on the order of 1 meter sq. used to hold the aircraft engine to the wing of an airplane. The huge room we were cleaning and dismantling was the "investment" dept. This is where the large wax molds are covered in layers of silica and binders. After the wax is coated with many layers of this proprietary formula, which up to recently contained Yttrium, and a few other Lanthanides. It is baked in a huge autoclave, the wax melted out, and then molten titanium is poured in.
Why were we cleaning and cutting up huge industrial machines, putting the pieces into double walled 55 gallon drums to be buried in a "low grade radioactive" land fill? While the said "investment" dept. was still running? Why was the company and the workers so hostile to us?
This particular plant was hostile because the state OHSA dept. had fined them for repeatedly mis-handling low level radioactive material. To the tune of several million dollars, and had finally had enough and pulled their permit to use any Yttrium, and other Lanthanides for any reason. So they had to change their proprietary investment formula.
The workers in the investment dept. got hazard pay to work in that dept. so it was a highly coveted job. They had to wear respirators, and "bunny suits", and take a shower before entering and when leaving that room. It was loud and dusty work. Running very large machines that lifted the heavy molds, dipped them into vats of binder, then under a stream of silica, then use large forklifts to place the molds on drying racks. Then to repeat this maybe 25 to 30 times, per mold.
This is the story told to me by the state regulators, and confirmed by a few workers at the plant.
One day, a particular worker was very angry at his boss. Something to do with a women they were both seeing. He had been a long time worker in the investment dept. and certainly knew what he was workin with. He had words with his boss. Things got ballistic. This worker had had enough. So still In his bunny suit, he hit the panic bars on the emergency exit, left the building, got in his pickup, and drove home.
At this time the state OHSA people had an on-site inspector, because the company refused to pay fines, or clean-up.
This OHSA inspector saw the whole incident, called his boss and then local Law Enforcement. Local LE, came and shut the whole plant down. Arrested the worker at his home, evacuated his house, commandeered his truck, and cordoned off the street, and the road he drove home on.
Thus for three days, an emergency hazmat crew decontaminated, this guys house, the street in front, and all the streets he drove on, just to be sure. This all cost the company a very large amount of money, and pissed the state inspectors off. This is when the state pulled the license. And why we were now working.
Lesson: When OSHA tells you to do something, do it right away, don't wait for some yahoo to make things worse.
Six months later, I was hired by OregonOSHA, to be the onsite inspector, and I worked for them for another year. Until this cleanup project was done.
Note:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) limits exposure to yttrium in the workplace to 1 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) is 1 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. At levels of 500 mg/m3, yttrium is immediately dangerous to life and health. Yttrium dust is highly flammable.
Some time in the early 1990's I moved to a new city and needed a job badly. So I applied at several temp agencies. After working 2 or 3 truly shity jobs, the temp agency called and said, "because you showed up to work on time and worked hard at each assignment, we have a very special long term placement for you", (by the way, if you work temp jobs, and someone says this to you, run, don't walk away).
So come to find out that this new job, was cleaning, and dismantling a large industrial plant, that had used radioactive isotopes as part of their manufacturing process. So before I could start, I had to take a 4 week long state (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) run course on handling radioactive waste.
I actually enjoyed the course. Learned a lot. But the fun time ended and I had to start working. What this job really consisted of was working with a crew in an isolated and sealed temperature controlled 30,000 sq. foot room. With an on going industrial process.
This was a plant that did titanium casting, by the lost wax process. These were very large castings, on the order of 1 meter sq. used to hold the aircraft engine to the wing of an airplane. The huge room we were cleaning and dismantling was the "investment" dept. This is where the large wax molds are covered in layers of silica and binders. After the wax is coated with many layers of this proprietary formula, which up to recently contained Yttrium, and a few other Lanthanides. It is baked in a huge autoclave, the wax melted out, and then molten titanium is poured in.
Why were we cleaning and cutting up huge industrial machines, putting the pieces into double walled 55 gallon drums to be buried in a "low grade radioactive" land fill? While the said "investment" dept. was still running? Why was the company and the workers so hostile to us?
This particular plant was hostile because the state OHSA dept. had fined them for repeatedly mis-handling low level radioactive material. To the tune of several million dollars, and had finally had enough and pulled their permit to use any Yttrium, and other Lanthanides for any reason. So they had to change their proprietary investment formula.
The workers in the investment dept. got hazard pay to work in that dept. so it was a highly coveted job. They had to wear respirators, and "bunny suits", and take a shower before entering and when leaving that room. It was loud and dusty work. Running very large machines that lifted the heavy molds, dipped them into vats of binder, then under a stream of silica, then use large forklifts to place the molds on drying racks. Then to repeat this maybe 25 to 30 times, per mold.
This is the story told to me by the state regulators, and confirmed by a few workers at the plant.
One day, a particular worker was very angry at his boss. Something to do with a women they were both seeing. He had been a long time worker in the investment dept. and certainly knew what he was workin with. He had words with his boss. Things got ballistic. This worker had had enough. So still In his bunny suit, he hit the panic bars on the emergency exit, left the building, got in his pickup, and drove home.
At this time the state OHSA people had an on-site inspector, because the company refused to pay fines, or clean-up.
This OHSA inspector saw the whole incident, called his boss and then local Law Enforcement. Local LE, came and shut the whole plant down. Arrested the worker at his home, evacuated his house, commandeered his truck, and cordoned off the street, and the road he drove home on.
Thus for three days, an emergency hazmat crew decontaminated, this guys house, the street in front, and all the streets he drove on, just to be sure. This all cost the company a very large amount of money, and pissed the state inspectors off. This is when the state pulled the license. And why we were now working.
Lesson: When OSHA tells you to do something, do it right away, don't wait for some yahoo to make things worse.
Six months later, I was hired by OregonOSHA, to be the onsite inspector, and I worked for them for another year. Until this cleanup project was done.
Note:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) limits exposure to yttrium in the workplace to 1 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) is 1 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. At levels of 500 mg/m3, yttrium is immediately dangerous to life and health. Yttrium dust is highly flammable.