A section of roof collapsed over a tunnel containing radiological materials on May 9 at the Dept. of Energy’s Hanford nuclear waste site in southeast Washington.
DOE declared a site area emergency for fear of potential radiation leaks, but there were no injuries and there is no evidence of a radiological release from the tunnel at the the PUREX facility, a former processing facility used to extract plutonium from uranium fuel rods, according to Destry Henderson, spokesman for contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation, The firm has a contract to decontaminate the facility.