Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 16 June 2017

APNewsBreak: Official says more Hanford nuke mishaps likely

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS lapse, a huge sinkhole liters) of radioactive and
Associated Press suddenly emerged above chemical wastes.
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — the 360-foot (110-meter) In late May, radioactive
Future accidental radia- long tunnel holding eight contamination was also
tion releases at the largest railroad cars that trans- found on robotic equip-
U.S. site of waste from nu- ported waste in the 1950s. ment surveying the space
clear weapons production The earth that fell into the between the walls of a
are likely following back- tunnel helped prevent ra- double-walled under-
to-back emergency evac- diation from going into the ground nuclear waste
uations of workers in May air because it covered the storage tank, indicating a
and June because aging railroad cars. Workers have possible leak. Some radio-
infrastructure is breaking since filled in the sinkhole activity was discovered on
down, the top Energy De- and covered the tunnel the clothing of the worker
partment official at the site with a fabric similar to what who removed the robot
told The Associated Press. is used to cover farmers’ from the tank, although
Adding to the likelihood of In this photo taken July 11, 2016, a sign warns of radioac- haystacks. no skin contamination was
more nuclear mishaps at tive material stored underground on the Hanford Nuclear Officials were aware of the found, Hanford officials
the sprawling Hanford Nu- Reservation near Richland, Wash. risk to the tunnel, Shoop said.
clear Reservation is inad- Associated Press said. He warned other ag- In addition, vapors for sev-
equate government fund- ing facilities at Hanford also eral years have escaped
ing to quickly clean up the evacuated May 9 when ing the U.S. government pose a risk. from underground storage
millions of gallons of toxic the roof of a 1950s rail tun- to delay cleanup dead- “There are a whole bunch tanks and made dozens of
nuclear waste at the site, nel storing a lethal mix of lines by decades, putting of things analogous to the workers sick, most recently
said Doug Shoop, who runs waste from plutonium pro- lives and the environment tunnels,” he said. on Tuesday. In that event,
the department’s opera- duction collapsed. Tests at risk.“Every year that we In the June incident, radia- eight reported smelling va-
tions office at Hanford. show no radiation was re- don’t have an earthquake tion warnings sounded as pors and three underwent
Hanford has an annual leased.Then, on June 8, ... has been just luck,” said workers removed outdoor medical checks.
budget of $2.3 billion for demolition work at a 1940s Gerry Pollet, a Washington equipment from a plant The tunnel collapse
cleanup but Shoop said it plutonium plant sent 350 state legislator who repre- that once churned out prompted a group of north-
will cost at least $100 billion workers seeking cover in- sents a liberal Seattle dis- disks of plutonium for use western U.S. lawmakers to
to clean up the highly toxic side. Radiation was emit- trict, about 200 miles (320 in nuclear weapons and is press the federal Govern-
radioactive and chemical ted but not deemed at a kilometers) from Hanford. now one of Hanford’s most ment Accountability Of-
wastes on the 580-square level harmful to people. Shoop said about half of polluted areas. fice to review the Hanford
mile (1,502 square kilome- More money would lead the site is free of pollution. The event illustrated how cleanup work, saying they
ter) site which produced to a faster cleanup, Shoop And parts of Hanford make Hanford’s precautions to “are concerned that future
up to 70 percent of the plu- said. But President Donald up the new Manhattan protect its workers have events could put the safety
tonium for the U.S. nuclear Trump’s proposed budget Project National Historical paid off and how they’ll of workers, the public and
arsenal since it was estab- for next year includes a Park, where visitors can likely face similar situations environment at risk.”
lished in World War II. $120 million cut for Hanford. learn about the develop- in the future, Shoop said. Shoop defended progress
“The infrastructure is not The official deadline for ment of the atomic bomb. “We are sending people at Hanford, pointing to
going to last long enough cleaning up Hanford is But Hanford’s most danger- into environments no one numerous successes from
for the cleanup,” Shoop 2060, but Shoop said so ous contaminated waste was expected to go to,” three decades of cleanup.
said in an interview this much infrastructure at the has not been cleaned up, Shoop said. “Is there the He is aware that some peo-
week. “It will be another 50 site is deteriorating that and the two recent evacu- potential for more alarms? ple may feel little has been
years before it is all demol- “some facilities are not go- ation incidents illustrated Absolutely.” done.
ished.” ing to withstand that time.” problems that could be- Hanford’s has 177 under- “Some things are not pro-
Shoop made the com- The site’s cleanup began come more frequent in the ground tanks made of steel ceeding as fast as we’d
ments after hundreds of in 1989 and critics have ac- future. that contain more that 54 all like,” Shoop said. “You
Hanford workers were cused regulators of allow- In the May rail tunnel col- million gallons (204 million can’t do it all at once.”q