Video - Emergency declared at Hanford nuclear site in Washington State

Updates Via HANFORD EMERGENCY INFORMATION:

Via Popsci:

  A tunnel collapsed at the Hanford nuclear waste site on Tuesday. Here's what you need to know.

Site-wide emergency alert at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington… https://t.co/9N2YmknE3k #NuclearEvent #HanfordEmergency #Hanford

— The Watchers (@TheWatchers_) May 10, 2017

Tunnel collapses at "most toxic site in America" once called "underground #Chernobyl waiting to happen." #HanfordEmergency #HanfordNuclear https://t.co/vhBGouh3WA

— Owen Clegg BBC (@ojclegg) May 10, 2017

10 May 2017
3:42 AM --

Hanford personnel began preparation work around 8 p.m. Pacific time on May 9 to stabilize and fill a 20-foot-by-20-foot opening over a tunnel that partially collapsed near the PUREX facility at the Hanford Site. This video, taken late on May 9, shows personnel laying down a gravel road that leads to the tunnel’s collapsed section. The road will provide a secure and clear path for workers to fill the tunnel opening.

3:16 AM -- Due to the recovery actions in the 200 East Area, Hanford site employees should adhere to the following dayshift work schedule for today:
• Non-essential employees north of the Wye Barricade are to report to work at 9:00 a.m. • All employees south of the Wye Barricade, including employees working in Richland – are on a regular work schedule
Essential employees needed north of the Wye Barricade to maintain minimum safe operations are to follow their normal work schedule.
200 East Area WRPS essential personnel are to report to the 2750E facility.
Route 4 South remains closed north of the Wye Barricade. Use alternate Route 2 North or the Rattlesnake Barricade.
The Rattlesnake Barricade will remain open until 10:30 a.m.
Call the Hanford Hotline at 376-9999 for updates
For specific questions regarding company policy contact your manager.

Event Summary 5/9/2017 10:37 AM

    HANFORD SITE EMERGENCY

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office activated the Hanford Emergency Operations Center at 8:26 a.m., after an alert was declared. Officials are responding to reports of a cave-in of a 20 foot section of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long that is used to store contaminated materials. The tunnel is located next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX, which is located in the center of the Hanford Site in an area known as the 200 East Area.

    There is no indication of a release of contamination at this point, Crews are continuing to survey the area for contamination. All personnel in the vicinity of the PUREX facility have been accounted for and there are no reports of injuries.

    Actions taken to protect site employees include:

    • As a precaution, workers in the vicinity of the PUREX facility as well as the Hanford Site north of the Wye Barricade (southern entrance to the site) have been told to shelter in-place

    • Access to the 200 East Area of the Hanford Site, which is located in the center of the Hanford Site, has been restricted to protect employees

    The public can request information regarding the event by calling (509) 376-8116. The media may call (509) 376-3322.

    No action is currently required for residents of Benton and Franklin Counties.

IAEA Director Yukia Amano Concerned about Iran 'activities'.

IAEA Director Yukia Amano Concerned about Iran 'activities'.(UOI).The IAEA Director Yukia Amano told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Iran may be secretly continuing work on nuclear weapons while his agency is tied up in protracted negotiations with the country on restarting an investigation into past suspected research and development of such arms.

Iran denies any secret weapons work, and a U.S. National Intelligence Estimates made public in 2007 said Tehran had suspended weapons development in 2003. Since then, however, IAEA reports have listed suspicions of tests and experiments past that date.

“We do not know for sure, but we have information indicating that Iran was engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices in the past and now,” Amano said. (AP, 3 April)


Amano added the IAEA's information was “cross checked ... so we have concerns.”

Yousaf Butt, a nuclear scientist at Monterey Institute of International Studies and a critic of the IAEA, said in response to Amano’s latest comments that Tehran “should be presented with any such evidence so it can respond to it.” (AP, 3 April)

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Amano also said there was “some possibility” that Iran may already be constructing additional sites to enrich uranium at locations unknown to the agency, based on an announcement by Tehran that they plan to build around 10 such additional facilities.Read the full story here.

Fukushima kids have skyrocketing number of thyroid abnormalities - report.

Fukushima kids have skyrocketing number of thyroid abnormalities - report.(RT).

A recent report into the Fukushima Nuclear disaster of 2011 has shown that more than forty percent of children have thyroid abnormalities.

­The Tenth Report of the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey, released earlier this week, with data up to January 21, 2013, revealed that 44.2 percent of 94,975 children sampled had thyroid ultrasound abnormalities. 
The number of abnormalities has also been increasing over time as well as the proportion of children with nodules equal to and larger than 5.1 mm and any size cysts have increased.
The report has also revealed that 10 of 186 eligible are suspected of having thyroid cancer as a result of the exposed radiation.
On Wednesday, the Fukushima Prefectural Government announced that two people who were teenagers at the time of the Fukushima No. 1 meltdown have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, bringing the total number of cases officially confirmed by authorities to three. All have undergone surgery and are now recovering.
Around 360,000 youths at the time of the disaster have to be repeatedly checked to see if they have been affected by the radiation.
In the meantime on Friday, a government-backed researcher claimed that no health effects have been detected in people living in the contaminated area because the radiation level is not high enough.
“Since the accident in Fukushima, no health effects from radiation have been observed, although we have heard reports some people fell ill due to stress from living as evacuees and due to worries and fears about radiation,” Kazuo Sakai of Japan's National Institute of Radiological Sciences has said.
He went on to argue that people in the area had a radiation exposure of 20 millisieverts or less, while “we know from epidemiological surveys among atomic-bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that if exposure to radiation surpasses 100 millisieverts, the risk of cancer will gradually rise.”
Sakai says that it will take years to establish a clear link between the nuclear catastrophe and health risks “as empirical knowledge says it takes several years before thyroid cancer is detected after exposure to radiation.”
Scientists and activists across the globe are still arguing about the possible long-term effects of the nuclear catastrophe while activists accuse the government of concealing the crucial data from people ever since the disaster.
Global environmental watchdog, Greenpeace, has criticized Tokyo of undermining the severity of public health risk.Read the full story here.


Related: 36 Percent Of Fukushima Children Have Abnormal Growths From Radiation Exposure.

               Chernobyl - Thyroid Cancer Effects in Children.

               Fukushima.greenaction-japan.

"Stuxnet going Rogue?" - Malware infects US power facilities through USB drives.

"Stuxnet going Rogue?" - Malware infects US power facilities through USB drives.(TW).By Grant Gross.Two U.S. power companies reported infections of malware during the past three months, with the bad software apparently brought in through tainted USB drives, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).
In one case, the industrial control system at a power generation facility was infected with "common and sophisticated malware" apparently through an employee's USB drive, according to the ICS-CERT Monitor for October to December 2012.
The publication did not name the malware discovered.
The tainted USB drive came in contact with a "handful of machines" at the power generation facility and investigators found sophisticated malware on two engineering workstations critical to the operation of the control environment, ICS-CERT said.
Investigators didn't find malware on 11 other workstations examined, ICS-CERT said.
ICS-CERT recommended that the power facility adopt new USB use guidelines, including the cleaning of a USB device before each use.
In the second incident, a power company contacted ICS-CERT in early October to report a virus infection in a turbine control system. About 10 computers were affected, ICS-CERT said.
An outside technician used a USB drive to upload software updates during equipment upgrades, ICS-CERT said. The malware delayed the plant's reopening by three weeks, the organization said.Hmmm....Whodunit.....Stuxnet......China.....Iran?Read the full story here.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Video - Former Chernobyl Engineer Conducts Guided Tour of a Ghost Town Pripjat.