Workers evacuated after leak in Hanford, WA nuclear tank farm

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: NC-20070728-12595-USA
Date / time: 28/07/2007 17:38:08
Event: Nuclear Event
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of Washington
City: Hanford
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:

Hanford workers were being moved out of the 200 West Area of central Hanford this afternoon after a leak was discovered in the tank farms. Radioactive waste being transferred between underground tanks leaked onto the ground from an above-ground transfer line, apparently during the night. The leak was discovered Friday morning. No employees were in the immediate area at the time of the leak, but as a precaution all employees in the 200 West Area were told to take shelter at 11 a.m. today. This afternoon they were being moved out of the area


More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&cid=12595


See also:

Radioactive leak discovered at Hanford nuclear reservation

Jul 27, 8:40 PM EDT

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy evacuated about 50 workers from an area of the Hanford nuclear reservation Friday afternoon after discovering a liquid radioactive waste leak.

The leak was discovered in an aboveground waste transfer line at the tank farm in the 200 West area of the south-central Washington site, where contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group Inc. has been unearthing long-buried containers of waste.

The leak measured about 15 to 18 feet in diameter.

More:
http://www.columbian.com/news/state/APStories/AP07272007news174528.cfm


See also:


DOE seeks contractor for $8.2 billion in tank farm work



Published Monday, July 2nd, 2007

By Herald staff

The Department of Energy released its request today for bids for $8.2 billion of work at Hanford's tank farms.

The farms include 177 underground tanks holding 53 million gallons of radioactive waste from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

<snip>

Last week, DOE requested bids for $6.3 billion of work to clean up central Hanford. That work is being done under an expiring contract held by Fluor Hanford.

More:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/breaking/story/9099308p-9015502c.html


Also:


Radioactive waste spills on ground at Hanford
Posted by lreed July 27, 2007 17:45PM
Categories: Breaking News

A clogged pump caused an undetermined amount of highly radioactive waste to spill on the ground Thursday night and Friday morning during a transfer operation at the Hanford Site.

Kim Ballinger, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford, said several workers were involved in the transfer but none was contaminated.

Ballinger said a team of workers sprayed a cement-like fixative over the eight- to 15-foot-diameter spill area to keep radioactive material from being carried by the wind.

Steve Wiegman, a senior technical advisor with the Department of Energy at Hanford, said no one knows how much of the radioactive liquid spilled because it rapidly sank into the ground.

"The area is very permeable, so there's no pool of liquid," he said.

More:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/07/radioactive_waste_spills_on_gr.html



Permeable.

Great.

Right into the groundwater.

No problem.


See also:


Sludge removal speeds along at Hanford

The Associated Press
Published: July 28th, 2007 01:00 AM


RICHLAND, benton county – Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation are making big strides in cleaning up the highly radioactive K West Basin, filled with wastes from the production of atomic weapons.

Hanford workers have finished vacuuming the bulk of radioactive sludge from the floor of the basin into underwater containers, leaving bare concrete.

“This is another example of the momentum we continue to sustain in cleaning up the site and eliminating risk to the Columbia River,” Dave Brockman, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford office, said in a statement.

Completion of the sludge removal task allows the DOE to meet a revised legal deadline and a commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have the sludge in containers by the end of this month.

More:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/120554.html

[populistdriven]

1. why wasnt the area sprayed with concrete and lined to begin with? oh well it is now...

[Ian David]

2. It is now S.E.P. Someone Else's Problem

"Oh, lookit that. All the radioactive material drained away into the ground. Guess we don't have to pay to dispose of it. I guess in about 10 years, when it makes its way into the drinking water, it will get cleaned-up by SOMEBODY."

[hedda_foil]

3. "The leak measured about 15 to 18 FEET in diameter."

That sounds like a bigger than a "leak" to me -- more like a flood. How much water do those storage tanks hold, anyway?