Hanford tunnel breach confirmed in emergency at nuclear reservation

Hanford tunnel breach confirmed in emergency at nuclear reservation
By Annette Cary
acary@tricityherald.com


An emergency has been declared in central Hanford after a tunnel used to store highly radioactively contaminated waste collapsed.
An aerial survey midmorning Tuesday showed an opening about 20 feet by 20 feet into one of two tunnel, which had been covered with about eight feet of soil.
The breach at the defunct Purex processing plant could expose the highly radioactive material disposed of in the tunnel to the atmosphere.
No airborne radiation had been detected as of about 10:30 a.m. Radiological surveys were continuing.
The tunnels are about 25 miles northwest of the center of Richland in the Hanford nuclear reservation’s 200 East Area.
Instructions for people to shelter in place were expanded from central Hanford to most of Hanford, including LIGO and the reactor areas along the Columbia River, after the aerial survey. No one is being allowed to enter the site beyond the security barricades.
Earlier in the morning workers near Purex had noticed a 4-foot-by-4-foot depression that was 2 to 4 feet deep over the tunnel.
Workers in Purex were evacuated when the depression was noticed.
About 3,000 workers in central Hanford initially were told to take shelter indoors, including about 1,000 workers at the vitrification plant construction site. Ventilation systems at the vit plant were turned off as part of the emergency procedure and equipment that could generate heat were powered down.
All workers have been accounted for and none was injured, according to the Department of Energy.
The Hanford emergency center was activated at 8:26 a.m. and the Hanford Fire Department was on scene in central Hanford.
Franklin and Benton counties each activated their emergency operations centers, but said the public did not need to take any protective actions.
The Richland School District told parents and others who were concerned that there was no danger that any radioactive contamination could reach its schools and that they were not affected in any way by the incident.
Work continued at the commercial nuclear power plant on leased land at Hanford outside the security barricades. Workers at the plant, the Columbia Generating Station, were not told to shelter indoors. The plant is about 12 miles from Purex, according to Energy Northwest, which operates the plant.
Private pilots in the area have been told to avoid flying over Hanford. The Hanford Patrol is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to put a formal air restriction in place until the FAA can confirm there is no danger.
Railcars full of highly contaminated materials and equipment from the plant were backed into waste disposal tunnels at the plant and left there as a disposal method. The material was so radioactive that several empty cars were placed between the railcar holding waste and the locomotive to protect the driver from radiation.
The last radioactive material was placed in the tunnels in the early 1990s.
Last year a new legal deadline was set requiring the DOE to start some work toward assessing the the waste disposal tunnels by September of this year.
The massive plant, formally called the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, was used to chemically process irradiated fuel rods to remove plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
It was built in the 1950s and operated from 1956 to 1972 and again from 1983 to 1988.
PUREX processed about 70,000 tons of uranium fuel rods to produce about 75 percent of Hanford’s production.
Plans call for eventually decontaminating and demolishing PUREX. The option of grouting the rail cars in place — encasing them in concrete — has been considered.
Removal of the cars would entail extreme worker safety hazards, DOE has said.
Hanford, a 580-square-mile site in Eastern Washington, near Richland, Wash., produced plutonium from World War II through the Cold War. Parts of the site remain heavily contaminated with radioactive and hazardous chemical waste.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said DOE had notified him of the emergency, which was followed by a call from the White House to alert him to the emergency, as well.
“This is a serious situation, and ensuring the safety of the workers and the community is the top priority,” he said. “We will continue to monitor this situation and assist the federal government in its response.”
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