The state has conditionally forgiven a $57,800 fine against Hanford for losing track of hazardous chemicals -- provided site operators avoid a repeat offense.

Washington's Department of Ecology has signed a legal settlement with the Department of Energy and Fluor Hanford that suspends the fine for mislabeling and losing track of a potentially explosive chemical called collodion.

The state levied the fine in March 2001, two months after a Fluor employee reported a suspicious solution of collodion.

Collodion is a liquid, usually 75 percent ether or alcohol, commonly used in radiological chemistry. If left alone for a few years, the chemical can partially crystallize and become shock-sensitive.

It could explode with at least the intensity of a firecracker -- breaking its glass container and shooting shards of glass -- if bumped or jostled. If the chemical crystallizes in the threads that hold the cap on a vial or bottle, unscrewing the cap could trigger an explosion.

Investigators found more than 2 quarts of years-old collodion that were mislabeled and stored in the 222-S lab. They also found 2 ounces of collodion in another central Hanford lab, with no one apparently knowing the vial was there for the past five years.

And 4 1/2 ounces of collodion were found improperly stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, even though it had been more than 10 years since the PFP last used that chemical.

The state decided to fine DOE and Fluor $57,800 because those discoveries were the latest in a long series of Hanford violations in storing hazardous chemicals.

Before the $57,800 collodion penalty, Hanford had been fined more than $650,000 for chemical storage violations over the past five years.

Forgotten and aging chemicals were responsible for a 1997 explosion at PFP, and several other chemical violations were discovered in 1997 and 1998 at Hanford.

DOE and Fluor appealed the collodion fine to the state's pollution controls hearing board. But both sides wanted to avoid a long and expensive legal battle.

The result was an agreement that the state will forgive the fine if DOE reinforces proper hazardous waste disposal policies at all Hanford prime contractors within 45 days, and conducts up to four hours of classroom training on the issue for all Fluor Hanford employees within six months.

DOE also is supposed to offer the same training to all Battelle and Bechtel Hanford employees who are involved with hazardous wastes.

However, the $57,800 fine will be reinstated on top of any new fine if Hanford violates another state hazardous waste storage regulation in the next year, said Bob Wilson, a state Ecology Department inspector.

If a violation occurs within 12 to 18 months, $37,800 of the original fine will be added to the new fine. Any violation within 18 months to 24 months will see $17,800 of the original fine reinstated.

"We think this settlement is equitable, beneficial and fair to all parties," said DOE spokeswoman Andrea Powell.

Wilson said the state hopes the settlement's provisions for new training will correct Hanford's poor record for storing hazardous chemicals.