RICHLAND — A worker died Wednesday after collapsing in the early afternoon at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The woman’s death appeared to be from natural causes, officials say.
The worker was at the Plutonium Finishing Plant in central Hanford, where work is underway to tear down the building.
Co-workers and emergency responders reacted quickly, but the worker could not be saved, said Ty Blackford, president of Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation, in a message to employees.
CH2M is in charge of demolition and other work at the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
Grief counseling is available to workers, Blackford said.
The name of the worker was not released Wednesday.
It was the second death of a worker in recent days, after an industrial-hygiene-program supervisor died in a car accident on the portion of Hanford closed to the public Oct. 10.
The 580-square-mile site near Richland was used to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear-weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.
Environmental cleanup of radioactive and other hazardous chemical contamination now is underway.