RICHLAND, Wash. - A nighttime crew of about 50 workers is busy placing engineered grout in Tunnel 1 near the Hanford Site ’s Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant after its partial collapse earlier this year.
To ensure a steady supply of grout, the work takes place at night when trucks hauling the material avoid the site’s daytime traffic congestion. Watch a video on the project here.
Grouting eliminates a potential threat of further tunnel collapse and increases the protection of workers, the public, and the environment from radiological hazards. It does not preclude future remedial actions or final closure decisions.
Using video cameras to monitor progress, workers layer the grout. As the injected grout displaces air inside the tunnel, that air is filtered as it exits the tunnel as a precaution. To ensure worker safety, air monitoring stations around the tunnel alert workers of changing conditions.
As of Oct. 10, crews with EM Richland Operations Office contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) placed about 30 percent of the estimated 6,000 cubic yards of grout needed to fill the 358-foot-long tunnel that holds eight railcars containing legacy plutonium processing equipment. CH2M plans to fill the tunnel by the end of December.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
