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His death was ruled 'natural' only because a county ME did not find 'significant' organ damage attributable to radiation damage. The cause of death was not released, however. McCluskey remained a supporter of nuclear power since he believed there were no alternatives.
ETA: More on this here:
http://frederickleatherman.com/2014/...ccluskey-room/
http://web.archive.org/web/201002102...ory/11403.html
Workers enter dangerous 'Atomic Man' room at Hanford Nuclear Reservation
The Associated Press By The Associated Press
on September 10, 2014 at 4:25 PM, updated September 10, 2014 at 4:26 PM
SPOKANE, Wash. ? Workers have entered one of the most dangerous rooms at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The so-called McCluskey Room in the Plutonium Finishing Plant is named after worker Harold McCluskey.
He was covered with radioactive material in 1976 when a glove box exploded. McCluskey, who was 64 at the time, lived for 11 more years and died from causes not related to the accident. He became known as the Atomic Man.
The room has largely been closed since the accident because of radioactivity.
...
McCluskey was working in the room when a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode. He was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from americium ever recorded ? 500 times the occupational standard.
Covered with blood, McCluskey was dragged from the room and put into an ambulance headed for the decontamination center. Because he was too hot to handle, he was removed by remote control and transported to a steel-and-concrete isolation tank....
The Associated Press By The Associated Press
on September 10, 2014 at 4:25 PM, updated September 10, 2014 at 4:26 PM
SPOKANE, Wash. ? Workers have entered one of the most dangerous rooms at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The so-called McCluskey Room in the Plutonium Finishing Plant is named after worker Harold McCluskey.
He was covered with radioactive material in 1976 when a glove box exploded. McCluskey, who was 64 at the time, lived for 11 more years and died from causes not related to the accident. He became known as the Atomic Man.
The room has largely been closed since the accident because of radioactivity.
...
McCluskey was working in the room when a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode. He was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from americium ever recorded ? 500 times the occupational standard.
Covered with blood, McCluskey was dragged from the room and put into an ambulance headed for the decontamination center. Because he was too hot to handle, he was removed by remote control and transported to a steel-and-concrete isolation tank....
- He received ~600 shots of zinc DTPA
- Was scrubbed down 3x per day and all his hair was shaved 1x per day by nurses. (Towels, water and hair were nuclear waste.)
http://www.people.com/people/archive...089304,00.html
December 03, 1984 Vol. 22 No. 23
Blasted in a Radiation Accident Eight Years Ago, Harold McCluskey Is Still the Hottest Human Alive
By Margaret Mahar
...
On that late summer night McCluskey, then 64, had celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with wife Ella before checking in for the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift at Hanford's waste-recovery facility. There was another reason for his good mood: A five-month strike at the plant had just ended. McCluskey was to resume his job as a $16,000-a-year worker, producing a plutonium by-product called americium 241, a highly radioactive substance.
Americium, which is used in ionization smoke detectors, was extracted within an airtight steel "glove box," with McCluskey manipulating the controls from the outside. However, the vessel containing the active ingredient for the extraction process, americium-soaked resin, had remained in the cabinet throughout the strike.
McCluskey was uneasy about adding nitric acid to begin the extraction process. "They warned us when they built the plant," he recalls. "If we tried the process when the resin was even three months old, it would blow up." He called his boss and protested. "But when the boss called the powers that be, they said, 'Go ahead.' " McCluskey, a soft-spoken, thoughtful man, did not walk out the door. "I'm not a gambler. When you've only got a 12th-grade education and you've put nearly 30 years in a job, and you're facing retirement...."
Blasted in a Radiation Accident Eight Years Ago, Harold McCluskey Is Still the Hottest Human Alive
By Margaret Mahar
...
On that late summer night McCluskey, then 64, had celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with wife Ella before checking in for the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift at Hanford's waste-recovery facility. There was another reason for his good mood: A five-month strike at the plant had just ended. McCluskey was to resume his job as a $16,000-a-year worker, producing a plutonium by-product called americium 241, a highly radioactive substance.
Americium, which is used in ionization smoke detectors, was extracted within an airtight steel "glove box," with McCluskey manipulating the controls from the outside. However, the vessel containing the active ingredient for the extraction process, americium-soaked resin, had remained in the cabinet throughout the strike.
McCluskey was uneasy about adding nitric acid to begin the extraction process. "They warned us when they built the plant," he recalls. "If we tried the process when the resin was even three months old, it would blow up." He called his boss and protested. "But when the boss called the powers that be, they said, 'Go ahead.' " McCluskey, a soft-spoken, thoughtful man, did not walk out the door. "I'm not a gambler. When you've only got a 12th-grade education and you've put nearly 30 years in a job, and you're facing retirement...."
ETA: More on this here:
http://frederickleatherman.com/2014/...ccluskey-room/
http://web.archive.org/web/201002102...ory/11403.html