Authorities declared an emergency for most of the day at the Hanford Site in Washington state after the roof of one waste disposal tunnel was discovered to be breached. No airborne contamination was detected and no workers were injured, but radiation monitoring was continuing Tuesday evening, according to the Department of Energy.
Workers in the 200 East Area of central Hanford Tuesday morning noticed what appeared at a distance to be a depression in the soil over a tunnel for the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant. About six workers who were at PUREX were immediately evacuated. Roughly 3,000 other workers in the Hanford 200 East Area were told to shelter in place inside buildings with ventilation systems shut off. The Hanford emergency center was activated at 8:26 a.m. and the Hanford Fire Department reported to PUREX.
A midmorning flight over the tunnel revealed a 20-by-20-foot hole in the 8 feet of soil covering the tunnel. The hole breached the top of the tunnel, potentially exposing highly radioactive equipment disposed of there in the 1960s. The discovery prompted officials to extend the shelter in place order to all Hanford workers north of the Wye Barricade entrance to the site north of Richland. The area includes most Hanford work areas, with the exception of the 300 Area and the 618-10 Burial Ground.
The shelter-in-place order was lifted for some personnel around noon and all nonessential Hanford workers north of the Wye Barricade were sent home at about 1:30 p.m. Swing shift was canceled for nonessential workers and no decision had been made Tuesday evening about whether nonessential workers would report to jobs north of the Wye Barricade on Wednesday. Late Tuesday afternoon, the incident was transitioning from an emergency phase to a recovery phase, according to the DOE press secretary in Washington, D.C. A Hanford spokeswoman said the best option to fix the hole was being considered.
PUREX has two waste disposal tunnels accessed by a rail spur. The breach was at the oldest and less robust of the two. It was built of creosoted timbers arranged side by side and also some concrete, according to DOE. Between June 1960 and January 1965, eight rail cars loaded with highly contaminated equipment from the PUREX plant were pushed into the tunnel and left. The doors to the tunnel were sealed closed in the 1990s.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry was at the Idaho National Laboratory on Tuesday and was being kept up to date on the emergency, according to DOE. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he had been contacted by both DOE and the White House. “This is a serious situation, and ensuring the safety of the workers and the community is the top priority,” Inslee said.
