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KING-TV reports that "a tunnel full of highly contaminated materials collapsed" in a reprocessing facility at the Hanford nuclear site. An official said "The facility does have radiological contamination right now but there is no indication of a radiological release." The U.S. Department of Energy released statements (archived copy) saying that employees were "told to shelter in place" and that non-essential employees were sent home.
additional coverage:
- Susannah Frame of KING-TV via Twitter (photo)
- Tri-City Herald (video)
- Western Journalism
- Yakima Herald-Republic
- Washington Post
- Seattle Times
- Popular Mechanics
- USA Today
- Fox News
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Tunnel Collapses at Hanford Nuclear Reservation
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(Score: 4, Informative) by butthurt on Thursday May 11 2017, @05:07AM
> Civilian nuclear reactors run on Uranium, as I understand, not on Plutonium.
Military reactors convert uranium-238 into plutonium-239. The fuel rods are removed quickly ("low burn-up") before the plutonium-239 has a chance to absorb additional neutrons and become plutonium-240, plutonium-241 etc. which are undesirable for bomb-making. In civilian reactors, the fuel rods are left in place longer ("high burn-up") so that more of the fuel may be used up. For military use, the fuel rods are chemically processed, separating the uranium from the plutonium, and removing other fission products. That reprocessing is what used to be done at the PUREX plant that this story is about.