Hanford Nuclear Site: Tunnel Collapse Causes Workers to Take Cover

[Perrine]

[quote]Some 200 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state were ordered to "take cover" Tuesday after a 20-foot section of tunnel containing "contaminated materials" collapsed.

The alert was declared at 8:26 a.m. local time after the cave-in covered "railroad tunnels near a former chemical processing plant," the U.S. Department of Energy reported.

"There are no reports of injuries, no reports of radiological release," Destry Henderson, deputy news manager for the Hanford Joint Information Center, told NBC News. "I would underscore this is confined to a small area of the Hanford site."

Nor was there any danger to communities outside the sprawling 580 square-mile site on the Columbia River, officials said.

"I can confirm we are investigating a small area of soil that had sunken," Henderson added. "This soil covers a tunnel used to access a former chemical processing facility."

The tunnel is located next to the massive Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX, which is located in the center of the Hanford Site in an area known as the 200 East Area. It has not been occupied in 20 years and remains contaminated by radioactivity.

Citing a source, the Seattle NBC affiliate reported road crews working nearby might have created enough vibration to cause the collapse.

"The Department of Energy informed us this morning that a tunnel was breached that was used to bury radioactive waste from the production of plutonium at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation," Gov. Jay Inslee said.

The Seattle Times reported that "a tunnel near the site contains several rail cars that have been temporarily buried because they were used to transport irradiated fuel rods and remain contaminated."

Hanford was dubbed the "Most Toxic Place in America" last year in an NBC News expose.[/quote]
[url]http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hanford-nuclear-site-tunnel-collapse-causes-workers-take-cover-n756896[/url]

[Pretender]

My dad works at the site and was 1.5 miles from the collapse. They were in lock down for a couple hours, but were let go once no radiation was found in the air. The tunnel is really old and as far as I know, isn't in use. My dad described it as being constructed out of wood, which if true would explain the collapse.

This is probably going to be the next big thing they'll have to deal with in terms of cleanup. That and the 324 building which has rooms that haven't been entered in 15 years due to high radiation levels. These incidents are caused by the poor waste disposal methods used in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Even after all the effort we've put into a more effective clean-up lately, we're still feeling the affects of the poor decisions enacted decades ago.

[Reagy]

[QUOTE=The Pretender;52207746]My dad works at the site and was 1.5 miles from the collapse. They were in lock down for a couple hours, but were let go once no radiation was found in the air. The tunnel is really old and as far as I know, isn't in use. My dad described it as being constructed out of wood, which if true would explain the collapse.

This is probably going to be the next big thing they'll have to deal with in terms of cleanup. That and the 324 building which has rooms that haven't been entered in 15 years due to high radiation levels. These incidents are caused by the poor waste disposal methods used in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Even after all the effort we've put into a more effective clean-up lately, we're still feeling the affects of the poor decisions enacted decades ago.[/QUOTE]

Radiation is quite an annoyance with how long it can stick around for, I'm actually kinda surprised they didn't just fill the tunnel and call it a day though as that comes as pretty much the common solution as of late, I'd assume its likely because they actually do want to remove the material in there eventually but its still quite unsafe.

[pentium]

Having visited the Hanford site in 2015 (there are annual tours but as a foreigner I had to go through an amazing amount of security to be allowed on the tour) I can concur that the tunnel collapse poses no risk even though every media outlet in North America is blowing it clean out of proportion because no sensationalism sells better than nuclear accident sensationalism and FYI, the site has been more or less inert since the 90's. Most of what remains now is just ridiculous amounts of process waste and given previous accidents and the public idea that tipping over a can of contaminated dirt equates to how Chernobyl started they are giving it the full treatment.
If anything this should be a wake up call that the cleanup project needs a serious funding boost. Ever since the site stopped producing plutonium the cleanup has been severely underfunded. Some projects are decades behind schedule and maintenance on remaining infrastructure not already in permanent storage is lapsing rather badly. Any incidents at this point are either due to contamination of new material or the discovery of MORE undocumented waste dumps. (because proper surveying of over 500 square miles of site costs money....which they can't get)