Whistle-blower fired from US nuclear site

February 19, 2014 09:09

A whistle-blower who raised safety concerns at the most polluted nuclear weapons production site in the US has been fired from her job at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Donna Busche's complaints are part of a string of whistle-blower and other claims related to the design and safety of an unfinished waste treatment plant at Hanford, created by the federal government in the 1940s as part of the top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, where cleanup costs about $2 billion each year.

Busche, 50, said she was called into the office yesterday morning and told she was being fired for cause.

"I turned in my key and turned in my badge and left the building," Busche told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Richland, where Hanford is located.

Busche worked for URS Corp., which is helping build a $12 billion plant to turn Hanford's most dangerous wastes into glass. Construction of the plant has been halted over safety concerns. Busche has filed complaints with the federal government, alleging she has suffered retaliation since filing her original safety complaint in 2011.

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