A three-person military bomb squad blew up a segment of an anti-aircraft shell after midnight Tuesday at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
The artillery fuse did appear to pose an explosion risk, but was blown up as a precautionary move in keeping with standard procedures by a team from the Army’s 53rd Ordnance Company, said the Army spokesperson. The 53rd came to Hanford at the request of the Richland Police Department.
After blowing up the military device, the 53rd cleared the affected portion of the Hanford Site for a return to normal operations around 1:25 a.m. Tuesday, said the Army spokesperson. The spokesperson did not know exactly when the device was detonated.
The artillery fuse, or detonation cap, for an anti-aircraft shell was discovered Monday afternoon by Hanford cleanup workers, the Tri-City Herald reported Tuesday. The Hanford Emergency Center dispatched a patrol unit with a dog and soon determined there were no explosives with the fuse.
DOE officials declined comment and referred press inquires to the Army and Benton County Fire District. The Benton fire chief confirmed a bomb squad was sent to Hanford.
The 53rd Ordnance Company deployed from the Army’s Yakima Training Center, located an hour northwest of the Hanford Site. The 53rd Ordnance Company provides explosive expertise to military and civilian entities, according to its website. While based at Yakima Training Center, the 53rd is part of the Joint Base Lewis McChord 3rd Ordnance Battalion, the Army spokesperson said.
Camp Hanford, as it was known in 1950, had a military compound and anti-aircraft artillery, to protect the nuclear facilities from aerial attack, according to a DOE spokesperson.
The 53rd, the Richland Police Department, Benton Fire District 1 and the Hanford Emergency Center all collaborated on the incident, the Army spokesperson said.
