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Workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reserve were ordered to shelter indoors on Friday morning in an area near the center of the 580-square-mile site.
24:15
A firm order of about four hours was raised for workers at 200 East Area, in the center of Hanford.
A team explored the area where steam had been spotted unexpectedly from a building located at the end of a tunnel storing radioactive waste.
No evidence was found that radioactive particles had escaped from the tunnel.
As a precaution, workers were ordered to take shelter indoors, with doors and windows closed and ventilation systems closed.
They will resume their tasks scheduled this afternoon, according to the Ministry of Energy.
11:45
Hanford officials are waiting for the results of the X-ray investigations at the second PUREX plant radioactive waste storage tunnel.
Steam was spotted from a small building at the end of the tunnel early Friday morning.
No radioactive particles in air suspension have been reported to date.
Workers continue to work in areas outside the 200 East Zone of central Hanford, where unplanned steam was reported.
They are asked to avoid the safe entrance Wye Barricade on the site, just north of Richland, and to enter the site through the barricade Rattlesnake Barricade, near Highway 240.
9:50
A team entered the work area where steam had been spotted from a small building located at one end of the PUREX radioactive waste storage tunnel.
The crew began the radiological examinations. No releases of airborne radiological material were reported at this time, but workers at the Hanford center are still under a precautionary warranty order.
Steam was expected as concrete grout had been injected into the tunnel in layers since the beginning of the month. According to the Ministry of Energy, it heats up as it heals.
However, no steam was to leave the building at the end of the tunnel.
An aerial view of the PUREX treatment plant shows the building, surrounded in yellow, where steam was observed on Friday morning. The building is at the beginning of a waste storage tunnel of a length of 1,700 feet. Beside, there is a shorter waste storage tunnel where a partial collapse occurred in May 2017.
Courtesy Department of Energy
9:30 am
The crews were equipped with protective equipment and filtered air respirators as they prepared to move closer to the PUREX radioactive waste storage tunnel where steam had been spotted from the tunnel.
They will perform radiological checks and turn on the generators to power the lights and cameras inside the tunnel and the air sampling equipment to deepen the investigation. Assessment of conditions inside and outside the tunnel.
The Ministry of Energy continues to say that the levy order is a precautionary measure and that no urgency has been declared. The emergency operations center has not been activated.
9:25
A planned historic B-reactor visit, organized by the National Parks Service, was canceled on Friday due to the take-out order.
Energy Northwest had planned a tour for the leaders of its member utilities and other people attending a public forum in Richland this week.
Reactor B is several kilometers from the area where the workers were ordered to stay indoors.
B reactor near the Columbia River, the world's first production-scale nuclear reactor, is part of the Manhattan Project National Historic Park.
Workers wearing filter respirators are conducting radiation surveys along the Hanford PUREX plant's waste storage tunnel after steam was observed in a building associated with the tunnel on Friday morning.
Courtesy Department of Energy
9:05
A team was being assembled to travel to the PUREX storage tunnel work area to investigate after steam was detected from the tunnel.
Steam was spotted coming from a small building at the end of the 1,700-foot tunnel located closest to the PUREX plant.
The building houses equipment to move a large door that has been opened to allow cars loaded with radioactive waste to be introduced into the tunnel from the mid-1960s until 1996. The tunnel contains 28 cars.
The drawing shows the location of the cars containing radioactive waste in the second Hanford PUREX plant storage tunnel and risers giving access to the tunnel for sealing work, including insertion. lighting and video cameras.
Courtesy Department of Energy
The steel door is 24 feet tall, 22 feet wide and 7 feet thick.
About 3,300 workers are in the 200 East Zone where the takeover order is issued during a typical work day in Hanford. However, with many workers performing 10-hour shifts from Monday to Thursday, the number of workers in the area on Friday was not immediately known.
Some employees expected to work in the Hanford Center may not have arrived at work before the purchase order has been issued.
The order of taking cover remains in place as a precaution.
8:30
A coverage removal alert was issued at 6:03 am in the 200 East Zone. This included workers building the $ 17 billion vitrification plant.
At 8:30, the takeover order was kept in place as a precaution, according to the Ministry of Energy.
A temporary grouting plant has been installed in the center of Hanford as work continues to fill the PUREX plant's second radioactive waste storage tunnel with concrete-like grout.
Courtesy Department of Energy
Steam had been seen coming from an unexpected place in the PUREX factory tunnel, storing obsolete or defective material highly contaminated with radioactive waste.
Work is in progress to fill the tunnel with a concrete type grout to stabilize it after the discovery of a risk of collapse. Work began at the beginning of the month but had not started yet on Friday morning.
According to a message to the workers, there is no immediate indication of the release of radioactive material.
The problem seemed to be limited to the immediate vicinity of the tunnel. The DOE stated that an emergency had not been declared.
The Ministry of Energy said the tunnel had to be filled because it could leave particles of radioactive material suspended in the air in the event of tunnel failure and expose waste that He was holding back to the atmosphere.
Another tunnel of the PUREX plant has partially collapsed in May 2017.
This caused a site-wide takeover that sent thousands of workers indoors for several hours and hours of tension for residents of neighboring communities until they reached the end of the day. 39, it be determined that no radioactive particles had become airborne.
This tunnel was filled with grout in November to prevent further collapse.
The collapse of this 360-foot long tunnel containing eight cars loaded with radioactive waste prompted a glimpse of the second tunnel built eight years later.
A first study conducted in spring 2017 revealed that he was also threatened with collapse.
Concerns increased in the spring of 2018 when video taken inside the tunnel showed corrosion of the bolts used to anchor the steel girders to tunnel concrete arches and corrosion of the girders at one end of the tunnel.
Corrosion increases the risk of tunnel failure.
The casting of the tunnel began as soon as the Washington State Department of Ecology, responsible for the regulation of the project, completed a public comment period and approved the work.
The PUREX plant was used from 1956 to 1972 and from 1983 to 1988 to chemically separate plutonium from irradiated uranium in the Hanford reactors. The plant processed about 75% of the plutonium produced at Hanford for the country's nuclear weapons program.
Much of the waste stored in both tunnels came from the PUREX plant.
Check back for updates.
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