skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Latest Hanford Emergency Leaves Workers' Safety in Question, Again

play audio
Play

Wednesday, May 10, 2017   

RICHLAND, Wash. - Workers were evacuated Tuesday after the roof of a tunnel containing rail cars with radioactive material collapsed at the Hanford nuclear site. No one was injured, but the U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency alert and around 3,000 employees in the surrounding areas were ordered to take shelter indoors.

Tom Carpenter, executive director of the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, said this is another example that shows the aging facility is in need of serious improvements.

"We're looking at this very much like a wakeup call that you can't keep putting off dealing with Hanford's risky business," he said, "and this was one of 'em, and there are a lot more out there."

There are no indications of a release of radioactive material from the tunnel, according to the DOE. Carpenter commended the agency's quick response with precautionary methods to evacuate workers and order shelter for those nearby. However, he said he is concerned about the DOE's lack of transparency. Originally, he said, the agency reported Tuesday's emergency as just a precautionary measure without alluding to the collapse, which now is a 20-by-20-foot hole and larger hazard.

In this case and others, Carpenter said, the DOE has not been forthright about what's happening on the ground.

"It just gets tiresome," he said. "It's like, 'Come on, spill. What is the situation? Be truthful about it. Don't deny it or soft-pedal it.' They had a bad day at Hanford - and it's not over."

Carpenter said he wants to see another agency in charge of the Hanford cleanup.

"They've got bad habits," he said. "They've got a culture of denial. They've got a lousy safety culture. They punish the people who bring forth reports of safety problems. They fire them over and over and over again."

Hanford is the nation's largest nuclear cleanup site, with more than 50 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks.

The DOE emergency alert is online at hanford.gov.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021