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Hanford's Contaminated Tunnel Nearly Half Full Of Grout 

At the Hanford Site, the job to seal in a tunnel full of radioactive waste is nearly half done according to the federal government. It became a high-priority project when the tunnel partially collapsed this past May, causing an emergency at Hanford.

Workers are doing the job at night so that hundreds of trucks carrying fresh grout can travel without traffic.

https://youtu.be/4pcMJqfyWss

But this big job has had some hitches. When workers started pouring the grout earlier this month, some more of the roof of the tunnel collapsed around where they were injecting it. That’s a concern because the tunnel is highly contaminated and officials don’t want any radioactive particles dusting up.

Filling up the tunnel with grout has been criticized by some who question how the government will ever further clean up the tunnel.

The tunnel holds very-large worn-out equipment leftover from processing plutonium for bomb making during World War II and the Cold War.

https://youtu.be/oRBKKyyUFRo

An artist's rendition of a cutaway of Tunnel 1. Large equipment from the PUREX plant that had worn out was driven into the tunnel with a remote locomotive.
/ U.S. Department of Energy
/
U.S. Department of Energy
An artist's rendition of a cutaway of Tunnel 1. Large equipment from the PUREX plant that had worn out was driven into the tunnel with a remote locomotive.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.
Anna King
Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.