On the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode in 1976 and Harold McCluskey was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from the chemical element americium ever recorded — 500 times the occupational standard.
McCluskey
had to be removed by remote control and transported to a steel-and-concrete isolation tank. Doctors then spent 5 months removing glass and metal from his skin while he was scrubbed and shaved every day. He lived for another 11 years, known as the "Atomic Man".
What happened to all that radioactive waste? There was no safe, scientifically validated Yucca Mountain storage facility. Hanford is one of the reasons Yucca Mountain was extensively studied by scientists and verified numerous times - it is one of over 100 sites of varying quality and security where nuclear waste is stored.
The feds want to take the whole facility down by 2016 but Hanford contains the nation's greatest collection of nuclear waste so they are taking their time. The accident location inside the closed Plutonium Finishing Plant is now called the McCluskey and is schedule to be cleaned up this summer.
