Emergency at a nuclear waste storage center in the northeastern United States could lead to a global disaster
On May 9, news agencies reported scanty information about an alert at the largest US underground radioactive waste storage facility in Washington state. The RIA-Novosti article said that the alarm at the Hanford complex was caused by soil subsidence over a railway tunnel, in which wagons loaded with contaminated waste from plutonium production have been stored for a long time. It was reported that the personnel of the complex were partially evacuated, and the workers of the complex were ordered to be in the shelter, to provide reliable ventilation for themselves and to refrain from taking food and water. Later, a spokesman for the state's environmental department said that no radiation leaks as a result of the incident were recorded.
Russia-24 TV channel also noted a short 27-second report on the incident. Later, the Russian press and media did not show much attention to this incident. And it would be worth it. This incident went far beyond the ordinary occurrence, caused great concern in the United States and spawned many rumors and conspiracy theories.
What actually happened, what is the scale and, most importantly, the consequences of the accident at a nuclear facility?
The Hanford Nuclear Complex was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in Hanford, Washington, near the border with Canada. The first complex consisted of a B-reactor, the world's first full-scale plutonium production. Plutonium, produced at Hanford, was used in the first nuclear bomb tested in Project Trinity at the Giordano del Muerte test site in New Mexico, and in the Fat Man nuclear bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.
During the Cold War, this project was expanded to nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing facilities and became a plutonium producer for most of the 60,000 warheads in the US nuclear arsenal. However, the complex was very unreliable, and for a long time there were numerous leaks on it due to unreliable and poor-quality technologies for safety and waste disposal, as well as storage practices. The Hanford Complex has released significant amounts of radioactive material into the air and into the nearby Columbia River over the years.
Promotional video:
At the end of the Cold War, all nuclear reactors were decommissioned and shut down, but their operation left 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste, 25 million cubic meters of solid radioactive waste, 200 square kilometers of contaminated groundwater, and numerous accidental illegal pollution. By volume, Hanford now contains 2/3 of all US nuclear waste, and the government spends $ 2 billion annually on their storage and disposal - a third of the total nuclear waste budget at the national level.
***
The American press has been writing about serious radioactive leaks in Hanford recently. In 2013, it was reported that one of 177 reservoirs with radioactive waste leaked, the service life of which is 20 years and has long expired, and some mutants began to spawn instead of fish in the Columbia River. Then, in the United States, there was a wide public discussion about the construction of a plant for the disposal of plutonium and uranium worth $ 12.3 billion under an agreement with Russia. However, 4 years have passed, a similar plant was built in Russia, and with an order of magnitude less cost, and in the USA things are still there, which in the future creates huge risks of nuclear disasters in the USA.
In 2016, the leaks of radioactive waste from the Hanford complex were already called catastrophic. Thousands of gallons of waste have been leaked, including 750,000 gallons of radioactive waste reported by Penn Energy, of which the Tri City Herald reported 3,000 to 3,500 gallons in just one day. Research has identified critical conditions and design flaws in all 177 waste storage tanks, which accumulate between the double walls of the tanks and can burst out at any time. The authorities postponed the solution of the problem indefinitely, and all measures to protect personnel were reduced to instructions to wear personal protective equipment. Although, according to all calculations, the radiation level near the reservoirs can exceed the maximum allowable levels by tens of thousands of times,and in the event of a disaster, Fukushima and Chernobyl may seem like seeds compared to Hamford.
***
And on May 9, as a result of the collapse of the soil, a pit 20 feet (more than 5 meters) in diameter was formed. This hole was formed above an old railway tunnel, which contains carriages with old contaminated equipment and fuel rods.
The old tunnel has not been used since 1965. It was built in 1956 with timber, concrete and steel and backfilled with 8 feet of soil. It is 110 meters long and is completely filled with old wagons. According to research by the Heart of America Northwest, based in Seattle, the level of radiation in the tunnel is such that it can kill all life within an hour. Independent consultant Stephen Schwartz has published a list of the loadings of the cars in the tunnel, some of which emit up to 500 rem per hour. Doses in excess of 100 rem, given in a short time, can cause acute radiation sickness, which can be fatal within a week.
Workers immediately set about plugging the tunnel, and to date have dumped 50 trucks filled with soil. More than 3,000 employees of the complex were ordered to take refuge in shelters, and all aviation pilots were prohibited from flying over the disaster zone. The Federal Aviation Administration has formally imposed these restrictions. In the area of the disaster, robots began to be used to eliminate the consequences.
The US Department of Energy has established an emergency monitoring and response team that publishes hourly information on the Hanford situation and instructions to the emergency responders.
In Washington, the Emergencies Ministry issued a map showing the distance from the incident to various areas. All work shifts were canceled and workers not involved in the liquidation of the accident were removed.
Spokane Spokesman-Review reported that Gov. Jay Inslee had been notified of the tunnel by the White House Department of Energy. Inslee called the event "an extremely serious situation." Energy Secretary Rick Perry was also briefed and Senator Maria Cantwell called for the disaster to be recognized as a # 1 priority for the United States.
Apart from the statements of officials, the media does not publish any information about the state of the Hanford complex. This is a worldwide practice in order not to cause panic among the population. However, for the last 3 days, even official information has not been published, which gives rise to many rumors and conspiracy theories.
The US Geological Survey has published a map according to which 16 earthquakes of various magnitudes occurred in the area during the two days preceding the Hanford disaster, which continue to occur to this day. Usually such tremors precede a stronger and more powerful earthquake.
In the area of the complex there were earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5-3.3 points. However, they were also able to cause ground collapse, which entailed as yet unknown consequences. Stronger tremors can destroy the entire facility, which could have catastrophic consequences incomparable with Fukushima, not only in the capital of Washington State, Seattle, located just 200 miles from Hamford, but in the vast territories of the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada. Many associate the recent sudden resignation of FBI Director James Comey and President Donald Trump's talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov precisely with the state of affairs at the Hanford complex. Indeed, the nuclear catastrophe in Hamford may be followed by much more destructive natural disasters that can wipe the United States off the face of the Earth and greatly affect the rest of its territory. And the official American authorities are silent.
Alexander Nikishin
