Hanford Emergency Evacuation Hanford Radioactive Leak May Have Been Transfer System RICHLAND — Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation’s C Tank Farm were evacuated and other workers were ordered to take cover Wednesday night after an unusual radiation reading was detected near Tank C-101. Thursday morning the Department of Energy said a transfer system may have leaked radioactive waste. The radiation was detected near a sluice box, which holds equipment for the system used to spray liquid to help remove waste within Tank C-101, a 530,000-gallon capacity underground tank. Liquid already contaminated with radioactive waste is used rather than water to prevent the creation of more waste. Workers were evacuated from the C Tank Farm, a group of 16 underground tanks, after the radiation was detected at 9:35 p.m. No contamination was found on any workers, but four workers were sent to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland as a precaution. They have been checked and cleared to return to work. Other workers were ordered to take shelter. That included workers in the 200 Areas in central Hanford and nearby and those near the K Reactors along the Columbia River. Access to the entire nuclear reservation also was restricted. Surveys first were conducted around the perimeter of the C Tank Farm and no unexpected radiological or chemical contamination was found, said Department of Energy spokeswoman Carrie Meyer. The take cover order was lifted for all workers at 12:35 a.m. Thursday except workers in the 200 East Area, which includes the C Tank Farm, and at the nearby vitrification plant. At 3:52 a.m. five workers entered the C Tank Farm to check for radiation near the Tank C-101 sluice box. The team included two firefighters, a nuclear chemical operator, an industrial hygiene technician and a health physics technician, according to DOE. The team found no visible sign of a leak but again detected radiation on the shield box, although at lower levels than the night before. The team applied a fixative to a 3-square-foot area to prevent the spread of any potential contamination. Barricades were installed around the C Tank Farm and the order for workers to take cover in the rest of the 200 East Area and the vit plant was lifted. Workers were told to return to work as usual for the Thursday day shift. Hanford was under an “alert,” the lowest level emergency DOE declares, from 9:35 p.m. Wednesday until about 5 a.m. Thursday. DOE protocol calls for an alert to be issued if there is liquid waste on the ground from a leak from a waste transfer system, either because the waste if visible on the ground or increased beta radiation rates are detected. Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee was briefed on the emergency Thursday morning and said at an event attended by press that there was no known public health threat, according to his staff. The Washington State Department of Ecology is following up to learn more about the leak. The C Tank Farm is the only single-shell tank farm at Hanford where work is underway to empty tanks of radioactive waste into newer double-shell tanks until the waste can be treated for disposal. DOE faces a court-enforced deadline to finish emptying waste from all 16 tanks before October 2014. Hanford has 149 single-shell tanks and all but one that have been emptied are in the C Tank Farm. Seven of the C Tank Farm have yet to be emptied and DOE already has notified the Washington State Department of Ecology that two of the tanks may not be emptied by the deadline. Workers had been retrieving waste from two of the C Farm tanks earlier this week, Tank C-101 and Tank C-110. Before the emergency, DOE had been working to have those to tanks emptied by the end of September. C Farm work to empty tanks is on hold, pending further evaluations, said Dave Olson, president of Washington River Protection Solutions, the DOE tank farm contractor, in a message to employees Thursday morning. Work had been going well in Tank C-101, with 67,000 of 88,000 gallons of waste removed since mid December. Workers were down to a hard layer at the bottom of the tank, the most difficult waste to remove. However, they were having success with a high pressure water spray in breaking up the waste and pumping it from the tank. Work to remove the remaining 17,200 gallons of waste from Tank C-110 began on Monday. They remaining waste was left after a sluicing system was unable to remove it.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 00:51:26 +0000
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