A Tunnel Collapsed in Washington State at Hanford Nuclear Facility PUREX

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The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Southeast Washington State declared a state of emergency on 9th May 2017. It was due to a part of a storage tunnel collapsed and it prompts its workers in the field to take cover and essential safety measures. The officials are responding to reports of a cave-in of a 20-feet section of a tunnel. This tunnel is hundreds of feet long and is being used to store contaminated materials. This tunnel is also known as PUREX and positioned next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility. It is basically situated in the center of the Hanford Site in well known 200 East Area. Point to be noted that there was no indication of contamination leakage at this point. The technical crews are continuously surveying the area for contamination.

A Tunnel Collapsed in Washington State at Hanford Nuclear Facility PUREX

The entire personnel in the surroundings of the PUREX facility are safe and no injuries were reported. The spokesperson of the Department of Energy said that the segment of tunnel that went down accidently and it houses rail cars filled with radioactive waste. It was said that the damages will be more serious than reported initially, so the take-cover order was initiated to cover the entire facility. It was in response of the crews discovered a 400 square feet section of the decommissioned rail tunnel had collapsed. Hanford has been considered the biggest depository of radioactive waste with containing at least 56 million gallons in it and most of them are underground tanks. It is important that the United States is looking to dismantle and decommission the site.