Harold Ralph McCluskey (July 12, 1912 – August 17, 1987) was a chemical operations technician at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant located in Washington State; he is known for having survived exposure to the highest dose of radiation from americium ever recorded.
As nitric acid was added to a column containing an ion-exchange resin and americium, the chemicals exploded, blowing out "pieces of glass and plastic" (plexiglass[1]) from the glove box.
[3] McCluskey was hit on the right side by a mixture of nitric acid, broken glass, americium and ion exchange resin, which led to him suffering an exposure of at least 37 MBq of radioactivity.
Because of risk of exposure to other individuals, McCluskey was placed in isolation in the Hanford Emergency Decontamination Facility for five months and underwent chelation therapy using DTPA by Dr. Bryce Breitenstein.
Several times after the explosion, McCluskey spoke in favor of developing nuclear power, saying he saw his injuries as the result of "purely an industrial accident."