Hanford Nuclear Reservation tunnel collapse triggers alert

FoxNews ^ | May 9, 2017 | Staff

[Enchante]

BREAKING NEWS

WASHINGTON STATE TUNNEL COLLAPSE TRIGGERS ALERT AT PLUTONIUM PLANT

Hundreds of workers took cover after a tunnel in a Washington plutonium finishing plant collapsed Tuesday morning.

The tunnel at the Hanford plant near Richland was full of contaminated particles, including radioactive trains that transport fuel rods, KING5 reported.

[Old Yeller]

After Fukishima you would think we would be quickly shutting down the nuclear industry. This industry needs to shut down ASAP.

FUBAR - Fukishima Beyond All Repair

[bagman]

The Hanford reservation is a defense facility and is not related to the commercial nuclear industry,

[wastedyears]

Get rid of an entire sub-industry and put thousands of people out of work?

[fishtank]

[Dr. Sivana]

After Fukishima you would think we would be quickly shutting down the nuclear industry. This industry needs to shut down ASAP.

I would venture that MANY more lives have been lost, and many, many more shortened (black lung, anyone?) by both oil drilling and coal mining than by nukes, INCLUDING both Chernobyl and Fukishima put together. Men make things, and sometimes you get sick or even die from getting things done. Women also die in childbirth or from things related to childbirth. It is the human condition. We have made mining, drilling and childbirth safer, we can do the same with nuclear energy.

[stanne]

Nuclear power is crazy. But watch me get nuked for saying it. The women on Long Island stopped GE from being completed with the argument that evacuating 15 million in case of an accident couldn’t be done

[ctdonath2]

The nuclear industry would be fine IF people would stop freaking out over the fact that materials naturally break down thru a “bomb suitable” stage - to wit: if you just keep using radioactive materials in a safe & sensible way (modern highly-contained & self-limiting designs), it will degrade into waste at a relatively safe stage. It’s the “OMG bomb-grade!” attitude that leads to fragile designs producing high-intensity waste.

[bigbob]

Even safer yet with distributed thorium reactors, etc. Hanford is very old, we should be investing in new modern nuclear tech, but Hanoi Jane and her stupid movie spread so much FUD that investment and R&D virtually stopped for decades. The average age of a nuclear power plant is 36 years, which means many were designed before things like microcomputers even existed.

[Solson]

Are you really this stupid? Shut down the entire industry even though its safety record is so much better than other plants?

How much of the base energy generation do you think Nukes take care of in the United States? How about France? UK?

Please leave the ignorance off this forum. Sheesh.

[Ancesthntr]

“After Fukishima you would think we would be quickly shutting down the nuclear industry. This industry needs to shut down ASAP.”

---

If that happens, then you are condemning the world to many more, and more destructive, wars than we currently have. You see, nuclear weapons degrade over time (particularly, and most importantly, the tritium triggers for thermonuclear weapons). Once most of them are gone, our deterrence will be gone with them. Yeah, when push comes to shove we will prevail...but at what cost?

Think, don’t give in to fear-mongering.

[bigbob]

BTW that’s neat, I might dedicate a R-Pi to this. I wish the data were better correlated however. Data is good, but only if it means something.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Check out the area via satellite tonight. If it glows, ruh roh!

[Bender2]

Re: After Fukishima you would think we would be quickly shutting down the nuclear industry. This industry needs to shut down ASAP.

You'd think anyone using... 'guns equal freedom' as their FR ID--

Wouldn't be so stupid as to think a tidal wave... was caused by the nuclear industry-

[DCBryan1]

After Fukishima you would think we would be quickly shutting down the nuclear industry. This industry needs to shut down ASAP.

[Ancesthntr]

Best comment on the thread, and probably of the entire day at FR.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Interestingly, there are few deaths attributable to the radiation issues at Fukishima. Over time it is clear there will be more deaths, mostly due to cancer. on the other hand, the death toll will not likely reach the 15,000 that died in the actual earthquake.

Fukishima is a great example of the worst disaster that could happen, with stupidity abounding and multiple separate failures, and yet while it will be enormously expensive, it doesn’t make the list of major disasters (a lot more people died when the planes ran into the WTC, which I guess would argue for banning planes as you mentioned).

Fukishima was not anywhere near as bad as Chernobyl, which of course was the result of a police state which cared nothing about safety.

in terms of theoretical damage, nuclear is up there, but conceivable disasters with nuclear plants do not show casualties rates near the conceivable disasters that could befall our major dams. If I had to pick a place for a 50-foot diameter meteor to hit, I would choose a nuclear power plant over a major dam.

[steve86]

Our local media is reporting no injuries and no airborne radiation has been detected.

[editor-surveyor]

.
The tidal wave was an event with a high probability of occurrence in Fukushima.

Why was the plant not designed with better foresight?

The answer is that none of them ever are. They pray for them to wear out and be decommissioned before the predictable occurs.

The US is full of failed reactors (a large percentage designed by Babcock & Wilcox) and there is no plan for what to do with them.
.

[DesertRhino]

No, shutting down the nuclear industry would be a panicky childish response to Fukishima. Fukishima ignored American advisors or numerous issues for years.
It is proof of the Japanese mentality, not proof that nuclear power should end.

[orionrising]

Well we have only spent 10s of billions of dollars on this so far.. with another 100 billion planned...