Tri-City-area mayors say the public is at risk of a “potentially catastrophic tunnel collapse” if work doesn’t start soon to stabilize a Hanford tunnel storing radioactive waste.
The Department of Energy recently asked the Washington State Department of Ecology to allow Hanford nuclear reservation
workers to fill the longer of the two tunnels with concrete-like grout.
Federal officials requested an answer by July 23 to begin work in August.
Ecology, a regulator at the Hanford nuclear reservation, is legally required to give an answer as soon as it practically can.
Starting work in August would allow most work to be done before the worst of the winter weather makes roads icy, according to federal officials. The project will require 5,000
truckloads of grout.
“What DOE is asking is to take irreversible action — put grout in that tunnel — before the the public process really has a chance to get off the ground,” said Alex Smith, Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program manager.
