5-10-17

Hundreds of workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site in Washington state had to “take cover” Tuesday morning after the collapse of 20-foot-long portion of a tunnel used to store contaminated radioactive materials.

The Energy Department said it activated its emergency operations protocol after reports of a “cave-in” at the 200 East Area in Hanford, a sprawling complex about 200 miles from Seattle where the government has been working to clean up radioactive materials left over from the country’s nuclear weapons program.

The tunnel is a prime example of the sort of temporary methods to store radioactive waste that abound in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. The government has been working since the late 1980s to clean up Hanford, and the work is expected to last until 2060 and cost another $100 billion.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a frequent Hanford critic, said the cave-in shows that the temporary solutions the Energy Department has used for decades are starting to fail.

“The longer it takes to clean up Hanford, the higher the risk will be to workers, the public and the environment,” Wyden said.

From The Daily Sheeple

Environmental Damage Catastophic at Hannaford, WA Site

Because government…. because government…..

From Protect Mother Earth

Tunnel collapses at Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington state

The agency said in a statement that the 20-foot section is part of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long and is “used to store contaminated materials.” The tunnel is one of two that run into the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX. The section that collapsed was “in an area where the two tunnels join together,” the department said.

From Paul Begley

“Urgent Nuclear Tunnel Collapse Hartford Site In Washington State”

Tunnel collapse latest safety issue at Washington state nuclear site

A 400-square foot section of the tunnel roof was discovered to have collapsed Tuesday morning, forcing thousands of workers to shelter-in-place for several hours.

Officials have detected no release of radiation and no workers were injured in the collapse of the unoccupied tunnel, Henderson said.

The rail tunnel was built in 1956 out of timber, concrete and steel, and topped by eight feet of dirt. It was 360 feet long.

Radioactive materials were brought into the tunnel by rail cars for about a decade. The tunnel was sealed in 1965, with eight rail cars loaded with nuclear waste stored inside.

The tunnel is a prime example of the sort of temporary methods to store radioactive waste that abound in the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. The government has been working since the late 1980s to clean up Hanford, and the work is expected to last until 2060 and cost another $100 billion.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a frequent Hanford critic, said the cave-in shows that the temporary solutions the Energy Department has used for decades are starting to fail.

“The longer it takes to clean up Hanford, the higher the risk will be to workers, the public and the environment,” Wyden said.

Hanford, built by the Manhattan Project in World War II, contains the nation’s greatest volume of radioactive waste left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. The most dangerous are 56 million gallons of waste stored in 177 aging underground storage tanks, some of which have leaked.

The tunnel roof collapse caused soil on the surface above to sink 2 to 4 feet (half to 1.2 meters) over a 400 square foot (37 square meters) area, officials said.

The anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear said the incident helped show “radioactive waste management is out of control.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington said worker safety must be the priority.

“My thoughts are with the first responders who are working to assess the situation on the ground,” she said.

Worker safety has long been a concern at Hanford, which is located about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Seattle.   READ MORE

Critical Situation! Nuclear Emergency Declared Hanford Nuke Waste Site Washington (Video) click here

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