nuclear-news

Work to fill the tunnel with concrete-like grout began in early October and was completed at the end of last week.

Local government officials are relieved.

“We experienced a horrible winter with a massive amount of snow,” said Pam Larsen, executive director of Hanford Communities, a coalition of local governments, at a recent meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board.

“The tunnel could have collapsed,” she said. “It would have been catastrophic for our regional economy.”

Concerns about the second PUREX tunnel were raised after the first tunnel partially collapsed in spring 2017. An unusually wet winter may have contributed to the collapse.

Filling the second tunnel with grout is a temporary measure to prevent a possible collapse and release of radioactive particles into the air, with plans to clean up the waste in the tunnel to be made in the future……

About 40,000 cubic yards of grout, or 4,000 truckloads, were needed to fill the tunnel, which is 1,700 feet long.

It holds 28 rail cars loaded with obsolete and failed equipment that is contaminated with highly radioactive waste from the past production of plutonium at Hanford for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

When the first tunnel partially collapsed, thousands of Hanford workers were ordered to take cover and the Tri-Cities-area anxiously waited for information until it was determined that there had been no release of radioactive particles.

The soil topping the tunnel fell into the breach, covering the waste…….

Hanford watchdogs were concerned that grouting might become a permanent solution, with the radioactive waste left in the ground permanently.

“Opponents raised legitimate concerns, but in the end those concerns did not outweigh the potential environmental and safety threats that could have been posed had the tunnel collapsed and exposed its highly radioactive contents,” Ecology officials said in a statement Monday…..

In both tunnels, grout was added in layers, with each layer allowed to set before the next layer was added.

But the second tunnel was five times longer, requiring changes to procedures and equipment as grout was added every 100 feet along the tunnel…….https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article229789389.html