Hanford’s Contaminated Tunnel Nearly Half Full Of Grout
Listen
At the Hanford Site, the job to seal in a tunnel full of radioactive waste is nearly half done according to the federal government. It became a high-priority project when the tunnel partially collapsed this past May, causing an emergency at Hanford.
An artist’s rendition of a cutaway of Tunnel 1. Large equipment from the PUREX plant that had worn out was driven into the tunnel with a remote locomotive.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Workers are doing the job at night so that hundreds of trucks carrying fresh grout can travel without traffic.
But this big job has had some hitches. When workers started pouring the grout earlier this month, some more of the roof of the tunnel collapsed around where they were injecting it. That’s a concern because the tunnel is highly contaminated and officials don’t want any radioactive particles dusting up.
Filling up the tunnel with grout has been criticized by some who question how the government will ever further clean up the tunnel.
The tunnel holds very-large worn-out equipment leftover from processing plutonium for bomb making during World War II and the Cold War.
9(MDAyMTYxNjk3MDEyNzE5NzkyNzY1MDMyYQ004))
Related Stories:
What is Initiative 2117?
Phuong Brown, a retiree in Walla Walla, received a free heat pump through the Climate Commitment Act. Initiative 2117 aims to repeal the act. (Credit: Susan Shain / NWPB) Listen
Billy’s magic: Tribal leader’s fierce fight for fishing rights to be honored with a statue in Washington, D.C.
Nisqually tribal fisher Willie Frank III holds a freshly caught chinook, or king, salmon at the Nisqually River where his family has fished for generations. The chinook being caught are
To help salmon on the Yakima River, causeway to be removed at Bateman Island
A fisherman stands on Bateman Island in the Tri-Cities. (Credit: Melindaa91 / Wikimedia Commons) Listen (Runtime 0:56) Read Removing a small causeway in the Tri-Cities could have big impacts for
