Emergency Declared after Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Site

US DOE: HANFORD EMERGENCY INFORMATION

Event Summary 5/9/2017, 7:15 PM

HANFORD SITE EMERGENCY

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office declared an emergency at the Hanford Site at approximately 8:30 a.m. this morning after a cave-in of a 20-foot section of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long that is used to store contaminated materials. The tunnel is located next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX, which is located in the center of the Hanford Site, in an area known as the 200 East Area. No contamination has been detected following the cave-in. Crews are continuing to survey the area for contamination. Workers are preparing to fill the hole created by the cave-in in order to stabilize the tunnel. All personnel in the vicinity of the PUREX facility were accounted for and there are no reports of injuries.

This picture shows a 20 foot by 20 foot hole in the roof of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – OFFICE OF RIVER PROTECTION | RICHLAND OPERATIONS OFFICE

FIRE-EARTH Entries:

• 33 Hanford Workers Evaluated for Toxic Vapor Exposure in 5 Days  May 4, 2016
• 6 Hanford Tanks Leaking Nuclear Waste: WA Gov  February 23, 2013
• Gallup Polls Work Miracle  March 25, 2010
• This is Got to Be the Year of Radioactive, Chemical and Oil Spills, Too! July 24, 2008

Media Links to Hanford Incidents:

• Nuclear waste clean-up delayed and billions over budget
• Hanford nuclear waste: Proposed storage site prompts new criticism
• Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s leaking tanks latest woe for decades-old site
• 6 tanks at Hanford nuclear site in Wash. leaking

 

33 Hanford Workers Evaluated for Toxic Vapor Exposure in 5 Days

Elevated Radiation Detected near Second Failing Tank at Hanford Nuclear Site: Report

“Six more Hanford workers reported smelling odors in the AP tank farm where officials collected samples Tuesday. Washington River Protection Solutions says crews transported one worker to Kadlec for further evaluation. Doctors treated and released the employee,” said a report.

On April 26, Hanford Challenge stated that a “second high-level nuclear waste [double-shell] tank at the Hanford nuclear site may have failed.”

Elevated Radiation Indicator of Second Double-Shell Tank Failure at Hanford Nuclear Site: Plutonium, Cesium-137 Levels Detected in AY-101 Outer Shell

The group, citing sources inside Hanford, says that above-background levels of Cesium-137, plutonium and a high-beta emitter (likely Strontium-90) all radioactive by-products commonly found in Hanford tanks, were recently measured outside of the primary liner in Tank AY-101, one of the first of the 28 double-shelled tanks built at Hanford about 40 years ago.  Those measurements were confirmed to a high degree of certainty, according to Hanford sources.  Read more…

“There is litigation the Attorney General has filed to make sure that the federal government is observant to protect these workers. Very important,” said Gov. Inslee.

Three years ago…

6 Hanford Tanks Leaking Nuclear Waste: WA Gov

Posted by feww on February 23, 2013

Leaking tanks hold “two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste”

Six Hanford underground tanks holding a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S. are leaking, says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

“None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service,” said Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group. “And yet, they’re holding two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.”

Handford Site sits on 586-square-miles of shrub-steppe desert in southeastern Washington State, bordering the Columbia River. Six underground tanks are leaking radioactive waste. Hanford’s 177 tanks hold two-thirds of America’s high-level nuclear waste. Image source: United States Department of Energy

This aerial photo shows the Plutonium Finishing Plant complex. A red “X” has been placed on facilities that workers are demolishing. The plutonium vault complex consists of five ancillary structures and a larger building (2736-ZB) that once stored plutonium produced at Hanford during the Cold War for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Source: US Dept of Energy

The tanks, built in the the 1940s with intended life span of 20 years, hold at least 53 million gallons (200 million liters) of highly radioactive waste, the leftover from plutonium production used in nuclear weapons.

State officials announced last week that one of Hanford’s 177 tanks was leaking up to 300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and rivers.

Gov Inslee said he had received the “very disturbing news” during meetings Friday that in fact six tanks are leaking.

Uncapped fuel stored underwater in K-East Basin. Source: US Dept of Energy

The authorities say they haven’t yet detected higher radioactivity levels at nearby monitoring wells.

Hanford, home to several tribes of Native Americans and a small agricultural community in the state of Washington,  was depopulated in 1943 along with the town of White Bluffs to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site.

Japan Sending Weapons Grade Plutonium to U.S. this Weekend: Activists

Joint Statement by Activists Condemning “Secret” Plutonium Shipment from Japan to U.S.

Japan will send 331kg of weapons-grade plutonium as early as this weekend to the United States, Greenpeace said in a statement.

A shipment of weapons-grade plutonium scheduled to depart the port of Tokai, Ibaraki prefecture this coming weekend highlights the failure, but also the proliferation risks, of the current Japanese nuclear policy, a coalition of five non-governmental organizations warned today. A cargo of 331kg of plutonium will be loaded on to the Pacific Egret, an armed British nuclear transport ship, prior to departure under armed escort to the United States. It will be the largest shipment of separated plutonium since 1.8 tons of plutonium was delivered to Japan by controversial Akatsuki-maru in 1992. The two month voyage to the Joint Base Charleston-Weapons Station will then see the plutonium dumped at the Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for the shipment, has identified that storage in Japan poses a security risk justifying its removal.

“Citizen Nuclear Information Center (Japan); Green Action (Japan); Savannah River Site Watch (U.S.); CORE (England), and Greenpeace, condemn the shipment as a dangerous distraction from the major problem in Japan which is its overall nuclear energy policy, where over 9 tons of plutonium remains stockpiled and there are plans to produce many tons more during the coming decade. The representatives of the five organizations have worked together over the past quarter century against Japan`s plutonium and nuclear fuel cycle program,” said a joint statement.

Two-hundred and thirty six kilograms of the Tokai plutonium was supplied to Japan from the UK, with 2 kilograms from France and the remainder from the U.S. for neutronic testing purposes at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency Fast Critical Assembly facility at Tokai-mura in Ibaraki. The facility has been used as a basis for Japan`s failed fast breeder reactor program, in particular the MONJU reactor. For more than five decades, Japanese nuclear policy has been based on the production and use of plutonium as a nuclear fuel. However, the failure of both its breeder program and plans to use plutonium as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in light water reactors, has led to Japan acquiring the largest stockpile of weapons usable plutonium of any non nuclear weapon state.

Japan’s current stockpile of plutonium is about 46,700kg, of which 9,528kg is located locally, with the balance being stored in France and the UK. About 8kg is required for a nuclear weapon.

“Two reactors, Takahama 3 and 4, owned by Kansai Electric, began operation in January and February 2016 loaded with plutonium MOX fuel, with unit 3 operating with 24 assemblies containing 1,088kg of plutonium and unit 4 with 4 assemblies containing 184kg of plutonium. Unit 4 shutdown due to an electrical failure three days after start up, while unit 3 was forced to shutdown on March 10th following a court order. Both reactors remain shutdown and are subject of a court injunction preventing operation issued by the Otsu district court, Shiga prefecture on March 9th. They are expected to be non operational for many months. Of the 26 reactors under review by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), Ikata-3, Genkai-3 and Tomari-3 are all intended to operate with plutonium MOX fuel,” said the statement.

The U.S. Department of Energy reportedly “has no plans for final disposal of the Japanese plutonium, which will be added to the existing stockpile of 13 tons at the SRS, demonstrating that the shipment is largely a commercial dumping operation to secure funds for the beleaguered weapons material production site near Aiken, South Carolina, as pointed out by Savannah River Site Watch.”

An analysis of Japan’s plutonium program: Nuclear Proliferation in Plain Sight

Related Links

• Another Nuclear Reactor in Japan Leaking Radioactive Water  February 21, 2016

Stockpile of Nuclear Weapons Waste in SC Left in Limbo

NUCLEAR DISASTER WATCH
RADIATION LEAK
NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO 043
.

South Carolina nuclear weapons waste has no place to go!

The plans to ship weapons grade nuclear waste stored at the Savannah River Site (SRS) are in limbo, after  a radioactive leak that has indefinitely shut down the  the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a nuclear waste dump in New Mexico.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has thus far been unwilling to reveal whether they have any contingency plan to dump the toxic waste elsewhere, should they be forced to shut down WIPP permanently.

SRS has been under a federal mandate to ship its transuranic waste to the New Mexico facility and has been doing so since 2001, according to DOE; however, about 700 cubic meters of the waste still remains in SC.

The Savannah River Site

SRS [aka, The Bomb Plant] is a  nuclear reservation located in the state of South Carolina adjacent to the Savannah River, about 40 km from Augusta, Georgia. The site, owned by DOE, was built in the 1950s to refine nuclear materials for nuclear weapons. It covers more than 800km² and employs about 10,800 people.

SRS is also home to the “world’s surplus plutonium” where it is “being stored in a minimally-secured building located on top of the most dangerous earthquake fault in the South,” said a report.

The Bomb plant Promo

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

WIPP is one of DOE’s nuclear waste dumps where the U.S. Gov buries transuranic (man-made radioactive elements that are heavier than Uranium) radioactive waste such as plutonium used in making nuclear weapons.

A shipment of contact-handled transuranic waste arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

Located about 26 miles east of Carlsbad in SE New Mexico, WIPP has “disposal rooms” excavated in an ancient salt formation, about 700m (2,150 feet) underground. WIPP employs more than 800 workers. Waste disposal began at WIPP in 1999.

The Horizontal Emplacement and Retreival Equipment (HERE) is used to push remote-handled transuranic waste into horizontal boreholes in the disposal room walls. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

The 250-million-year-old salt formation below the Chihuahuan Desert is used to dump thousands of cubic meters of TRU radioactive waste each year. About 4% of the TRU waste received at WIPP is far too toxic and the containers must be remote-handled by robots and automated  machinery.

If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate… It Will!

On January 12, 2014 FIRE-EARTH forecast:

Estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites across the U.S. can potentially explode, leak, contaminate the environment

United States is dotted with an estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites containing one or more of deadly substances including radioactive, biohazardous, toxic, explosive, flammable, asphyxiating, corrosive, oxidizing, pathogenic, or allergenic materials, as well as herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that don’t fall into those categories.

Some of the substances (hazchems), which include more than 200 types of dioxins, are so lethal that even a small leak into the water supply could kill or permanently harm millions of people, before they are detected.

Related Links

• Radiation Leak in N.M. WIPP Leaves Nuclear Waste in Limbo March 1, 2014
• Likely Radiation Leak at NM Military Nuclear Waste Dump February 17, 2014
• If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate…  January 12, 2014

Radiation Leak in N.M. WIPP Leaves Nuclear Waste in Limbo

NUCLEAR DISASTER WATCH
RADIATION LEAK
NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO 043
.

Los Alamos nuclear waste in limbo after radiation leak at WIPP in New Mexico

The radiation leaks at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which has exposed  at least 13 workers at a nuclear dump near Carlsbad, New Mexico two weeks ago, has  put operations at the plant on hold including shipments of toxic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Shipments of nuclear waste from labs in Idaho, Illinois and South Carolina are also without a home while operations are halted, AP reported.

As of late January 2014, WIPP had accepted about 85,000 cubic meters of nuclear waste.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

WIPP is one of DOE’s nuclear waste dumps where the U.S. Gov buries transuranic (man-made radioactive elements that are heavier than Uranium) radioactive waste such as plutonium used in making nuclear weapons.

A shipment of contact-handled transuranic waste arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

Located about 26 miles east of Carlsbad in SE New Mexico, WIPP has “disposal rooms” excavated in an ancient salt formation, about 700m (2,150 feet) underground. WIPP employs more than 800 workers. Waste disposal began at WIPP in 1999.

The Horizontal Emplacement and Retreival Equipment (HERE) is used to push remote-handled transuranic waste into horizontal boreholes in the disposal room walls. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

The 250-million-year-old salt formation below the Chihuahuan Desert is used to dump thousands of cubic meters of TRU radioactive waste each year. About 4% of the TRU waste received at WIPP is far too toxic and the containers must be remote-handled by robots and automated  machinery.

If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate… It Will!

On January 12, 2014 FIRE-EARTH forecast:

Estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites across the U.S. can potentially explode, leak, contaminate the environment

United States is dotted with an estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites containing one or more of deadly substances including radioactive, biohazardous, toxic, explosive, flammable, asphyxiating, corrosive, oxidizing, pathogenic, or allergenic materials, as well as herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that don’t fall into those categories.

Some of the substances (hazchems), which include more than 200 types of dioxins, are so lethal that even a small leak into the water supply could kill or permanently harm millions of people, before they are detected.

Related Links

• If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate…  January 12, 2014
• Likely Radiation Leak at NM Military Nuclear Waste Dump February 17, 2014

Likely Radiation Leak at NM Military Nuclear Waste Dump

High levels of radioactivity detected at New Mexico military nuclear waste dump

Abnormally high levels of radioactivity were detected at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), an underground military nuclear waste dump in New Mexico on Saturday, said to be the first real alarm since the plant began operating 15 years ago, said a report.

“At 11:30 PM Friday, a continuous air monitor detected airborne radiation in the underground,” said WIPP.

“They (air monitors) have alarmed in the past as a false positive because of malfunctions, or because of fluctuations in levels of radon (a naturally occurring radioactive gas),” said a Department of Energy spokesman.

“But I believe it’s safe to say we’ve never seen a level like we are seeing. We just don’t know if it’s a real event, but it looks like one,” he said.

“We’re in shutdown mode,” said DOE.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is one of DOE’s nuclear waste dumps where the U.S. Gov buries transuranic (man-made radioactive elements that are heavier than Uranium) radioactive waste such as plutonium used in making nuclear weapons.

A shipment of contact-handled transuranic waste arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

Located about 26 miles east of Carlsbad in SE New Mexico, WIPP has “disposal rooms” excavated in an ancient salt formation, about 700m (2,150 feet) underground. WIPP employs more than 800 workers. Waste disposal began at WIPP in 1999.

The Horizontal Emplacement and Retreival Equipment (HERE) is used to push remote-handled transuranic waste into horizontal boreholes in the disposal room walls. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

The 250-million-year-old salt formation below the Chihuahuan Desert is used to dump about 6,000 cubic meters of TRU radioactive waste each year. About 4% of the TRU waste received at WIPP is far too toxic and the containers must be remote-handled by robots and automated  machinery.

If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate… It Will!

On January 12, 2014 FIRE-EARTH forecast:

Estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites across the U.S. can potentially explode, leak, contaminate the environment

United States is dotted with an estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites containing one or more of deadly substances including radioactive, biohazardous, toxic, explosive, flammable, asphyxiating, corrosive, oxidizing, pathogenic, or allergenic materials, as well as herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that don’t fall into those categories.

Some of the substances (hazchems), which include more than 200 types of dioxins, are so lethal that even a small leak into the water supply could kill or permanently harm millions of people, before they are detected.

Related Links

• If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate…  January 12, 2014

6 Hanford Tanks Leaking Nuclear Waste: WA Gov

Leaking tanks hold “two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste”

Six Hanford underground tanks holding a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S. are leaking, says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

“None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service,” said Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group. “And yet, they’re holding two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.”

Handford Site sits on 586-square-miles of shrub-steppe desert in southeastern Washington State, bordering the Columbia River. Six underground tanks are leaking radioactive waste. Hanford’s 177 tanks hold two-thirds of America’s high-level nuclear waste. Image source: United States Department of Energy

This aerial photo shows the Plutonium Finishing Plant complex. A red “X” has been placed on facilities that workers are demolishing. The plutonium vault complex consists of five ancillary structures and a larger building (2736-ZB) that once stored plutonium produced at Hanford during the Cold War for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Source: US Dept of Energy

The tanks, built in the the 1940s with intended life span of 20 years, hold at least 53 million gallons (200 million liters) of highly radioactive waste, the leftover from plutonium production used in nuclear weapons.

State officials announced last week that one of Hanford’s 177 tanks was leaking up to 300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and rivers.

Gov Inslee said he had received the “very disturbing news” during meetings Friday that in fact six tanks are leaking.

Uncapped fuel stored underwater in K-East Basin. Source: US Dept of Energy

The authorities say they haven’t yet detected higher radioactivity levels at nearby monitoring wells.

Hanford, home to several tribes of Native Americans and a small agricultural community in the state of Washington,  was depopulated in 1943 along with the town of White Bluffs to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site.

Related Links

• FIRE-EARTH Nuclear Alerts

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February 23, 2013 – DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,113 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,113 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs