Posts
I
shall add to this as more information comes to hand. There is some
good discussion at the Facebook page of Mimi German, some of which I
have included
Hundreds
of workers were told to take cover at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
after a tunnel full of highly contaminated materials collapsed
Tuesday morning. But officials say no radiation was released and no
workers were hurt.
Officials
say a collapsed patch of ground above the tunnel was larger than
first believed. The U.S. Department of Energy said the collapse
covered about 400 square feet (37.1 square meters) instead of the 16
square feet (1.4 square meters) first reported.
Hundreds
of workers were told to go into a "take cover" position
after the tunnel in a plutonium uranium extraction (PUREX) plant
collapsed.
The
agency says the rail tunnels are hundreds of feet long, with about
eight feet (2.4 meters) of soil covering them. The U.S. Department of
Energy says the incident caused the soil above the tunnel to sink
between 2 and 4 feet (half to 1.2 meters).
"I
would underscore this is confined to a small area of the Hanford
site," Destry Henderson, deputy news manager for the Hanford
Joint Information Center, told NBC News. "The facility does have
radiological contamination right now but there is no indication of a
radiological release," Henderson said.
A
manager sent a message to all personnel telling them to "secure
ventilation in your building" and "refrain from eating or
drinking."
A
source said "take cover" status was expanded to the entire
site at 10:35 a.m. The source also said that crews doing road work
nearby may have created enough vibration to cause the collapse, and
that Vit Plant employees were in cover mode as well.
Robots
were being used to determine possible air contamination.
Responding
agencies include the U.S. Department of Energy; Richland, West
Richland, and Kennewick city fire and police; Benton, Franklin, and
Grant County fire and police officials; Washington state patrol; and
Oregon and Washington state officials.
The
Statesman Journal reports the Oregon Department of Energy has
activated its emergency operation center in response to the Hanford
emergency, which is 35 miles away from Oregon.
Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee said the Department of Energy and The White House
reached out to his office after the incident.
“This
is a serious situation, and ensuring the safety of the workers and
the community is the top priority. Our understanding is that the site
went into immediate lockdown, in which workers were told to seek
shelter, and all access to the area has been closed," Inslee
said in a statement.
Hanford,
which is roughly half the size of Rhode Island, spent decades making
plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.
Photo from source: Here is another view of the PUREX tunnel at Hanford. Hole from collapse seen under orange flag.
Hanford
Nuclear Storage Facilty tunnel collapses after earthquake swarm
Hanford
infoan
explanation of Hanford's threat to Portland with Mimi German from No
Nukes Northwest#fightchurchmedia
HANFORD EMERGENCY: EVACUATATION - Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Tunnel collapses at Hanford nuclear site; emergency declared
On
May 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland declared
an emergency at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington after a
portion of a storage tunnel that contained rail cars used to
store nuclear waste collapsed. The 200 East Area of the Hanford
nuclear site is pictured on Google Earth. (Google Earth Image)
The
U.S. Department of Energy in Richland declared an emergency at the
Hanford nuclear site in Washington on Tuesday morning after a
portion of a storage tunnel that contained rail cars used to store
nuclear waste collapsed.
There
apparently has been no release of radiation and no workers were
injured, said Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state
Department of Ecology.
An
emergency alert was declared at 8:26 a.m. after employees noticed a
ground collapse in the 200 East Area, Hanford Emergency Center
spokesman Destry Henderson said.
The
ground collapse, about 400 square feet in size, occurred in an area
where two underground tunnels join, according to an 11 a.m. online
update by the Department of Energy. The tunnels, one 360 feet in
length and the other 1,700 feet, were originally used in the 1950s
to store contaminated equipment. The underground tunnels are have
eight feet of soil covering them.
A
20-foot section of the tunnel’s roof caved in, Henderson said.
No
workers were in the tunnel.
Six
employees at the site of the tunnel collapse were evacuated,
Henderson said. All employees in the Hanford site told to take cover
after inspectors found the tunnel’s roof had collapsed.
Employees
north of the site’s Wye Barricade and outside the 200 East Area
were sent home from work at noon as a precaution, according to an
update at 12:08 p.m. Employees in the 200 East Area remained
sheltered at the site.
At
noon, there were no indications of contamination, the update said.
It’s
still unclear why the tunnel collapsed, Henderson said.
“Responders
are getting closer to the area where the soil has subsided for
further visual inspection,” according to an online update. “The
subsidence of soil was discovered during a routine surveillance of
the area by workers.”
Officials
are using a robot to get closer, up to a ½ mile, that monitors
“radiological and industrial hygiene” from up to a half-mile way.
The
Northwest News Network reported about 3,000 employees work in the
200 East Area.
“At
the moment we’re focusing on the safety of workers and making sure
there’s no release beyond immediate site,” Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee told reporters at the scene.
Everyone
is accounted for and there is no initial indiction of worker
exposure or airborne radiation, the Department of Energy said in
a statement
on Twitter.
Officials
have not evacuated any employees from nearby buildings, said Lori
A., a spokeswoman who would give only her first name. She said she
did not know how many employees were asked to stay put while crews
investigate the damage.
Employees
were asked to take cover in trailers and other designated areas, and
they have not been evacuated from the property.
Nearby
roads have not been affected, Lori A. said. She had no other
information to share and said updates would be posted on the Hanford
Emergency Information website.
Residents
of Benton and Franklin counties are not required to take any action,
the energy department said.
The
Oregon Department of Energy activated its emergency operations
center in response to the accident as a precaution, the
department said
in a tweet.
Nuclear
experts at the department said the incident does not affect Oregon.
“While
there are special precautions being taken on-site at Hanford,
Oregonians do not need to take any special precautions or protective
actions,” said the department director Michael Kaplan said in
a statement. “We want people to be aware that we’re closely
monitoring the incident at Hanford and will continue to provide more
information as soon as it becomes available.”
The
sprawling Hanford site is near Richland and is half the size of
Rhode Island.
The
tunnel collapsed near the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, a
facility built in the 1950s that is no longer used today, according
to the Department
of Energy.
The plant processed plutonium from 1956 to 1972, and again from 1983
to 1988.
During
those years, the plant processed more than 70,000 tons of uranium
fuel rods, about 75 percent of the plutonium at Hanford.
Some
scientists believe no other building on the planet processed more
plutonium, according to the website. The building has been
vacant for more than two decades but remains highly contaminated,
according to the website.
Hanford
is the largest depository of radioactive defense waste that must be
cleaned.
It
contains about 56 million gallons of radioactive waste, most of it
in 177 underground tanks.
Several
rail cars used to transport the fuel rods are buried inside the
tunnel near the plant.
“Several
rail cars used to transport the irradiated fuel rods from the
Hanford nuclear reactors to the processing canyons are temporarily
buried inside a tunnel near PUREX as a result of becoming
contaminated,” according to the website.
Reporter
Susannah Frame with KING 5 in Seattle is tweeting from the site.
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