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A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Energy said the polls did not show any sign of radioactive contamination release and that the cover take order had been lifted at 12:15 pm.
Hundreds of workers at the Hanford nuclear site found refuge Friday after the steam leaked from an aging tunnel containing radioactive waste and presenting a high risk of collapse.
Since the end of September, teams poured grout into the tunnel to stabilize it, and officials from the Federal Ministry of Energy said the steam was a result of the polymerization process during the drying of the material.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy said the polls did not reveal any sign of radioactive contamination, and that short order was lifted at 12.15
Mark Heeter, a spokesman for the Richland-based energy department, said the tunnel has a filtration system, but that steam was escaping into another area. Friday afternoon, the workers could no longer see the steam leave the tunnel, he said.
John Martell, a health department official involved in monitoring Hanford, said the steam was a result of the heat generated during grout hardening and would not catch any radioactive particles in the highly contaminated tunnel. He added that the state had set up a monitor on the site, which produces periodic readings. So far, he has "found nothing disturbing".
The nearly 1700-foot tunnel – built in 1964 – is the largest of the two tunnels that have been extensively surveyed due to fears of possible collapses that could lead to serious radioactive releases.
The other smaller tunnel was partially collapsed in May 2017. Although no radiation release was detected, the incident provoked a takeover of the workers and the led to a sealing effort to support the structure completed last November.
The tunnels hold cars loaded with contaminated equipment from a processing complex that used chemicals to extract the plutonium – intended for use in nuclear weapons – from fuel rods at the federal site created during of the Manhattan Project during the Second World War.
At a public meeting at a public meeting in August, a Hanford contractor concluded that the tunnel presented a "high potential risk of collapse" that must be anticipated. But the moment of failure "today, tomorrow or a year – is unknown."
The radioactive contamination is so severe that workers can not enter the tunnel to inspect the structure. They used remote cameras to assess its condition.
Injection work on the second tunnel is expected to continue during the winter.
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