Hanford workers to stay home for a 7th week. No timeline to return

Most Hanford nuclear reservation workers will stay home for a seventh week to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Only essential work to maintain safe conditions is being done on the site, with about 10 to 15 percent of Hanford’s 11,000 workers reporting to the 580-square-mile nuclear reservation.

“As we begin planning for a return to full operations, the health and safety of our employees will remain our first priority,” said the Department of Energy’s Hanford manager, Brian Vance, in a message to employees.

“No timelines have been set, and Hanford will adapt its plans for a return to full operations based on the developing situation,” he said.

About 60 percent of workers are telecommuting to support on-site activities.

Two Hanford employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, although only one had been onsite recently before being diagnosed.

That employee, who tested positive at least a week ago, worked in a office at a Hanford fire station near the reactors that line the Columbia River.

Parts of the building were being disinfected on Wednesday, as another employee there was being tested for COVID-19.

Nearly all Hanford workers are getting paid for 40 hours a week, even if they cannot telework, after Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., made provisions for federal contracts to be revised in the economic stimulus bill signed by President Trump in March.

This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 10:47 AM.