quote:

Foxnews.com



Hundreds of workers were warned to take cover after a tunnel collapsed Tuesday in a shuttered Washington plutonium uranium extraction plant that was previously used in nuclear weapons production.

The tunnel at the Hanford plant near Richland was full of contaminated particles, including radioactive trains that transport fuel rods, KING5 reported.

Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, told Fox News there had been no release of radiation and no workers were injured.

"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.

< snip >

The U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office activated the Hanford Emergency Operations Center at 8:26 a.m. local time, after an alert was declared, according to the official Hanford site.

“There are concerns about subsidence in the soil covering railroad tunnels near a former chemical processing facility,” a statement on the Hanford site said. “The tunnels contain contaminated materials.”

A text message sent to all personnel and obtained by KING5 told workers to “secure ventilation in your building” and “refrain from eating or drinking.”

quote:

http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/purex

The workhorse of the 200-Area processing facilities used to extract the plutonium from the irradiated fuel rods was the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, more commonly referred to as PUREX. As with the four other processing facilities called “canyons” at Hanford, PUREX chemically processed irradiated fuel rods to recover the plutonium contained within them. It was the fifth and final processing canyon built at Hanford and was easily the most efficient in that it produced significantly less liquid waste during processing than the other canyons on the Site. PUREX is located in the 200-East Area of the Hanford Site.

The Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant is massive. It is longer than three football fields, stands 64 feet above the ground, and extends another 40 feet below ground. Concrete walls up to six feet thick were used in the plant to shield workers from the radiation of the building. PUREX also contains more than thirty-three miles of piping.

< snip >

The rail cars buried next to the facility will also be decontaminated, removed, and permanently buried. Although, the option of grouting the rail cars in-place within the tunnel is being evaluated since removal of the cars would entail extreme worker safety hazards and would be more costly than grouting in-place.

• Fission. Not happening.
  
• Fusion. Not happening.
  
• Time. Lots and lots of time. Like millions of years.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Foxnews.com



Hundreds of workers were warned to take cover after a tunnel collapsed Tuesday in a shuttered Washington plutonium uranium extraction plant that was previously used in nuclear weapons production.

The tunnel at the Hanford plant near Richland was full of contaminated particles, including radioactive trains that transport fuel rods, KING5 reported.

Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, told Fox News there had been no release of radiation and no workers were injured.

"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.

< snip >

The U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office activated the Hanford Emergency Operations Center at 8:26 a.m. local time, after an alert was declared, according to the official Hanford site.

“There are concerns about subsidence in the soil covering railroad tunnels near a former chemical processing facility,” a statement on the Hanford site said. “The tunnels contain contaminated materials.”

A text message sent to all personnel and obtained by KING5 told workers to “secure ventilation in your building” and “refrain from eating or drinking.”

Hanford Area 200 (the most likely place for this to have occurred) is at 46°32'56.22"N 119°31'20.43"W.

quote:

http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/purex

The workhorse of the 200-Area processing facilities used to extract the plutonium from the irradiated fuel rods was the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, more commonly referred to as PUREX. As with the four other processing facilities called “canyons” at Hanford, PUREX chemically processed irradiated fuel rods to recover the plutonium contained within them. It was the fifth and final processing canyon built at Hanford and was easily the most efficient in that it produced significantly less liquid waste during processing than the other canyons on the Site. PUREX is located in the 200-East Area of the Hanford Site.

The Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant is massive. It is longer than three football fields, stands 64 feet above the ground, and extends another 40 feet below ground. Concrete walls up to six feet thick were used in the plant to shield workers from the radiation of the building. PUREX also contains more than thirty-three miles of piping.

< snip >

The rail cars buried next to the facility will also be decontaminated, removed, and permanently buried. Although, the option of grouting the rail cars in-place within the tunnel is being evaluated since removal of the cars would entail extreme worker safety hazards and would be more costly than grouting in-place.

I've worked on environmental restoration projects at Hanford. What people forget is that the long-life radioactive component of the problem (e.g., 239Pu) has exactly three solutions to render it safe:

• Fission. Not happening.
  
• Fusion. Not happening.
  
• Time. Lots and lots of time. Like millions of years.

I hope everyone is safe and the radioactive material is contained.

BTW: If you ever go there they have warning sirens for these types of emergency events. The only one you need to know is "RUN LIKE HELL" as all the rest involve shelter in place.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:

I'm guessing RUN LIKE HELL is probably pointless given the panic running speed and distance the average person can cover before dropping...

quote:

But I can tell the guy who posted " Looks flatter than Twiggie's chest out there." is old like many of us.