A few months ago, a 400 foot hole opened up in a tunnel containing rail cars filled with radioactive waste (Hanford, WA). But it’s not the only problem there and just glancing around I found this from 2 years ago:
“On Dec. 10, radioactive contamination was found on the elbow of a worker after the suit had been removed. It was one of several incidents at the Plutonium Finishing Plant during the past six months, including incidents of skin contamination.”
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article50600355.html
There is so much wrong with that story as posted by the Tri City Herald it’s hard to know where to start. First the tunnel is 400’ long not the cave in, that was 20’. Next, this was a tunnel used to transfer plutonium and enriched uranium between points within the finishing plant. The waste in the tunnel system is not what most would know as waste, it is actually the equipment used in shuttling the nuclear material within the tunnel system, the rail cars and such.
This equipment is highly radioactive and has been out of service for decades. At this point most of the finishing plant has been dismantled, raised to the ground, and decontaminated. There is one building left that is currently being decontaminated and equipment removed. That building had the highest radioactive contamination and new technologies had to be developed to provided improved health and safety protections for the workers.
The tunnel areas are a challenge and those are slated to be addressed after the above ground facility dismantling is complete. More than likely Hanford is now reassessing the timeline since the cave in. Cleaning up Hanford is a monumental project that is already in it’s third decade. Only the U.S. has made a commitment like this to restore one of the most contaminated places on earth.