A “take cover” alert was issued at the 200 East Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state at about 6 a.m. local time Friday after a worker saw steam rising from an unexpected area above PUREX Plant waste storage Tunnel 2, the Department of Energy confirmed.
The agency and contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation were putting together a team to investigate the cause of the steam, an Energy Department spokesperson said by telephone about two-and-half hours after the alert was issued. The Energy Department said in a tweet at about 8:30 a.m. Pacific time there was no indication hazardous materials had been released.
Crews wearing protective gear will start radiological surveys and activate lights, cameras, and air sampling equipment, according to DOE.
The take cover alert basically requires anyone who might be outside to go inside a building with a ventilation system. Workers who are already inside are instructed to stay there until the alert is lifted.
About 5 square miles of the 200 East Area at Hanford are covered by the take cover order. It is not unusual for steam to be spotted above an underground grouting operation, but this steam was observed in an unexpected area, the DOE spokesperson said. Steam was seen coming from a small building at the north end of Tunnel 2.
Workers this month started filling the PUREX Plant’s second waste storage tunnel with a concrete-like grout for stabilization, after it was determined this year to be at risk of collapse.
Tunnel 1, the older and shorter of the two tunnels used for storage of radioactively contaminated equipment from the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, was found to have partially collapsed in May 2017. It underwent an emergency grouting shortly afterward.
No workers are actually underground in the PUREX tunnel, the DOE spokesperson said.
