Tunnel With Nuclear Waste Collapses in Washington State
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., in 2014. An emergency has been declared on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation after a portion of a tunnel that contained rail cars full of nuclear waste collapsed.
Photographer: Ted S. Warren/AP PhotoThis article is for subscribers only.
Richland, Wash. (AP) -- A portion of an underground tunnel containing rail cars filled with radioactive waste collapsed Tuesday at a sprawling storage facility in a remote area of Washington state, forcing an evacuation of some workers at the site that made plutonium for nuclear weapons for decades after World War II.
Officials detected no release of radiation at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and no workers were injured, said Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology.