Another nuke waste tunnel at risk of failing

A second tunnel storing radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state has structural problems and is at risk of failing, according to a U.S. Energy Department investigation released Friday.

This tunnel is more than four times longer than the smaller Hanford tunnel that suffered a partial roof collapse May 9, triggering an order for more than 4,800 employees to stay indoors.

Officials say the May 9 event did not trigger any radioactive releases. But it did escalate safety concerns about the storage of high-hazard materials left from the legacy of Hanford’s plutonium production. State Department of Ecology officials ordered an engineering evaluation as part of a series of corrective actions. The findings were jointly released Friday in Richland, Wash., by state and federal officials.

“This makes it clear that the second tunnel may also pose a risk to human health and the environment,” said Alex Smith, nuclear waste program manager for the Ecology Department.

The two tunnels are in the 200 East Area, where plutonium was recovered from irradiated uranium-fuel rods.

Doug Shoop, a manager at the Energy Department’s Richland office, said a plastic covering has been placed over the tunnel that had the partial collapse in May.

It is not clear what caused the collapse of the wood-and-concrete tunnel that contains eight flatbed railcars holding radioactive wastes.