Tunnel at plutonium finishing plant collapses in Hanford
Source: KING 5 News Seattle
Hundreds of workers were in "take cover" position after a tunnel in a plutonium finishing plant collapsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation early Tuesday morning.
The tunnel was full of highly contaminated materials such as hot radioactive trains that transport fuel rods.
A source said that crews doing road work nearby may have created enough vibration to cause the collapse.
A manager sent a message to all personnel telling them to "secure ventilation in your building" and "refrain from eating or drinking."
Read more: http://www.king5.com/news/local/hanford/breaking-tunnel-at-plutonium-finishing-plant-collapses-in-hanford/438116235
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)I toured the site in 1991, back when Batelle had the contract to run the facility. The Batelle engineers acted like they had everything worked out, but neighbors in the community reported continued pollution, cover-ups, and health problems. Of course, the legacy of pollution and groundwater contamination between the 1950's and then was astounding, and only the supremely arrogant were thinking anything there could be an easy fix. Twenty-six years and several government contracts later, it seems like not much has improved.
k&r,
-app
Javaman
(62,534 posts)you are right on the money.
https://www.amazon.com/Plutopia-Families-American-Plutonium-Disasters/dp/0190233109
Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters
While many transnational histories of the nuclear arms race have been written, Kate Brown provides the first definitive account of the great plutonium disasters of the United States and the Soviet Union.
In Plutopia, Brown draws on official records and dozens of interviews to tell the extraordinary stories of Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia-the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium. To contain secrets, American and Soviet leaders created plutopias--communities of nuclear families living in highly-subsidized, limited-access atomic cities. Fully employed and medically monitored, the residents of Richland and Ozersk enjoyed all the pleasures of consumer society, while nearby, migrants, prisoners, and soldiers were banned from plutopia--they lived in temporary "staging grounds" and often performed the most dangerous work at the plant. Brown shows that the plants' segregation of permanent and temporary workers and of nuclear and non-nuclear zones created a bubble of immunity, where dumps and accidents were glossed over and plant managers freely embezzled and polluted. In four decades, the Hanford plant near Richland and the Maiak plant near Ozersk each issued at least 200 million curies of radioactive isotopes into the surrounding environment--equaling four Chernobyls--laying waste to hundreds of square miles and contaminating rivers, fields, forests, and food supplies. Because of the decades of secrecy, downwind and downriver neighbors of the plutonium plants had difficulty proving what they suspected, that the rash of illnesses, cancers, and birth defects in their communities were caused by the plants' radioactive emissions. Plutopia was successful because in its zoned-off isolation it appeared to deliver the promises of the American dream and Soviet communism; in reality, it concealed disasters that remain highly unstable and threatening today.
An untold and profoundly important piece of Cold War history, Plutopia invites readers to consider the nuclear footprint left by the arms race and the enormous price of paying for it.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)llmart
(15,565 posts)If I remember correctly.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)I live on the opposite side of the country now, so am not up on Richland, WA news, but I think you are right.
-app
enough
(13,268 posts)bathroommonkey76
(3,827 posts)Rick Perry is going to protect us and the people of Hanford. #clusterfuck2017
BumRushDaShow
(129,879 posts)bora13
(860 posts)jpak
(41,760 posts)nope
KT2000
(20,601 posts)from previous years work there. Here are many more to add to the list of nuclear refugees.
This is horrible. I hope they get everyone out of there - now.
C_eh_N_eh_D_eh
(2,205 posts)The entire tunnel didn't cave in, just a 20-foot square section at a junction. There are no signs of anything hazardous being released. Nobody was in the tunnel at the time, and everyone at the plant is staying in on-site shelters.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Material inside.