Posts
Emergency declared at US Hanford nuclear waste site after tunnel collapse
RT,
9
May, 2017
The
US Department of Energy has declared an emergency at the Hanford,
Washington nuclear waste storage site, after a cave-in of a tunnel
used to store radioactive materials and Бequipment.
About
3,000 workers have taken cover at the 200 East Area of the sprawling
complex, local media reported. By 10:30 am local time, the “take
cover” orders have been expanded to the entire site, which is about
half the size of Rhode Island.
A
portion of a tunnel near the plutonium-uranium extraction plant
(PUREX) collapsed early Tuesday morning local time, most likely from
vibrations produced by nearby road work, KING-TV reported.
Initial
reports spoke of a 4-foot (1.2 meter) hole, which was later expanded
to 20 feet (6 meters) across, at the junction of two tunnels used in
the 1960s to store highly radioactive materials and equipment, such
as trains used to transport nuclear fuel rods.
This robot is being used at Hanford right now to sample contamination in the air and on the ground.
The
PUREX facility was built in the 1950s and used until 1988 to extract
plutonium from around 70,000 fuel rods in total. The building has
been vacant for nearly twenty years and “remains highly
contaminated,”according to the Hanford website. Rail cars used to
transport the fuel rods from the nuclear reactors to the processing
facility are buried inside the nearby tunnels.
Press release from Department of Energy on Hanford Site Emergency. We're still monitoring the situation. http://www.hanford.gov/c.cfm/eoc/?page=290 …
#hanford
No
workers were injured in the collapse, and officials have detected no
release of radiation, Washington state Department of Ecology
spokesman Randy Bradbury told AP.
“In
the ‘60s, spent fuel rods were put in railroad cars and, once
filled, the railroad cars were wheeled into a tunnel dug into the
side of a hill,” Bradbury said. “Twenty-eight rail cars in all
fill this particular tunnel. A worker today noticed a collapse of
dirt above the tunnel today, triggering the evacuation.”
Workers
at the complex have been ordered to stay indoors and refrain from
eating and drinking, according to text alerts seen by local media.
Emergency crews are organizing the evacuation.
Photo of massive plutonium finishing plant at Hanford. Tunnel that collapsed led to this building.
Emergency
measures were put in place due to “concerns about subsidence in the
soil covering railroad tunnels,” says a statement posted on the
Hanford facility website.
Residents
of the nearby Benton and Franklin counties do not need to take any
action, the facility said.
Hanford
is located on the Columbia River in eastern Washington, near the
border with Oregon. Built during World War Two as part of the
Manhattan Project to develop the nuclear bomb, it still contains
roughly 53 million gallons – over 2,600 rail cars – worth of
high-level nuclear waste, left from the production of plutonium for
the US nuclear weapons program.
A
number of current and former Hanford workers suffer from serious
medical conditions as a result of exposure to toxic waste leaks and
“burps” of radiation at the complex, RT America reported in April
2016.
‘I thought I was dying’: Ex-Hanford worker gravely ill after inhaling toxic fumes [VIDEO]
http://on.rt.com/7bwh
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.