nuclear-news

The Department of Energy wants to start stabilizing a Hanford tunnel filled with highly radioactive waste that is at risk of collapse without waiting for more public comments.

Work needs to start in a few weeks to finish before winter, the department said.

DOE has asked the Washington Department of Ecology, a Hanford nuclear reservation regulator, if it can proceed with filling the nearly 1,700-foot-long storage tunnel with concrete-like grout in August.

DOE held a public comment period on the plan, but the state planned its own 45-day comment period and public meetings starting next month.

Ecology officials will review DOE’s request made Thursday, but still plans to go on with its own public process, said spokesman Randy Bradbury.

The older of the two waste storage tunnels at the PUREX processing plant partially collapsed in May 2017, causing thousands of workers across the Hanford site to take cover.

The concern was that radioactive contamination could have spread from the open tunnel roof. No radioactive material is believed to have escaped but DOE is trying to prevent further collapses of the aging tunnels.

DOE wants to start filling the longer tunnel in August to get some, if not all, of the tunnel stabilized with grout before ice and snow make roads slippery this winter.

Dozens of daily truckloads will be needed to bring supplies to a batch plant near the tunnel to mix the grout. Trucks then will deliver the grout to spots along the length of the tunnel, where it will be inserted.

In addition, video shot of the inside of the tunnel in April raised concerns about the condition of the tunnel. The videos found corrosion of bolts and weld plates.

“While not an indication of imminent collapse, the fact that some components are stressed above design capacity and are also corroding is a concern,” DOE said……….https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article214973345.html