![](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/HanfordGroutTunnel1.jpg)
Hanford Close To Filling Second Radioactive Waste Tunnel With Grout
Listen
Story originally published Dec. 7, 2017
The U.S. Department of Energy is about start shoring up another train tunnel full of old radioactive equipment at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington state. This is all happening because a similar train tunnel full of waste—called Tunnel 1—collapsed this spring.
Federal contractors filled that tunnel with grout in November.
Tunnel 2 is a lot larger than Tunnel 1—nearly 1,700 feet long and holds 28 rail cars containing old contaminated equipment from a plutonium processing plant. Crews expect to start grouting up the tunnel before next fall.
Critics, including Northwest Native American tribes, have said that grouting closed these massive tunnels essentially makes them permanent radioactive waste dumps.
Tunnel 2 was built in the early 1960s and has had known structural problems. Government officials worry that the tunnel is under strain and that another collapse could send up a plume of radioactive dust.
Related Stories:
![Retreat fire in-Rimrock-area, Yakima-County. (Credit: Inciweb)](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Retreat-fire-in-Rimrock-area-Yakima-County-500x500.jpg)
Intense fire week forces road closures and evacuation notices in WA
Fire crews continue firing wildfires to keep on high alert in the Northwest.
![](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/groundbreaking-500x500.jpg)
‘We’re just getting started’ | Haaland highlights major salmon recovery effort with $16M investment
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland celebrated with Gov. Jay Inslee, state, local, and Native American tribal leaders break ground at the new passage facility Wednesday, July 24, 2024
![Creator and host Alec Cowan’s shadow during a tour of the Sunday Mine Complex, a complex of five uranium mines in the Big Gypsum Valley near Paradox, Colorado, on Feb. 19, 2024.](https://www.nwpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Alec_Mine-Shadow-500x500.jpg)
Boom Town: New Northwest-made podcast explores Western uranium mining and Hanford downwinders
Creator and host Alec Cowan’s shadow during a tour of the Sunday Mine Complex, a complex of five uranium mines in the Big Gypsum Valley near Paradox, Colorado, on Feb.