Washington Nuclear Site Fears Wildfire

paraphrased by Steve Waldrop

Hanford nuclear complex, in Richland, WA, was beseiged by fears that a wildfire started by a car crash would spread across the dry landscape of its facility and spread radioactive materials. The fire has covered over 180,000 acres in a two-day period of time. State and federal officials said there were no known releases of radiation.

This is the second U.S. nuclear weapons installation to be threatened by fire in less than two months. So far, over two dozen homes have been destroyed and approximately 7000 people have been driven from their homes from the communites of West Richland and Benton City.

Local resident Marty Peck who watched the flames approach his house said that, "It was just a fireball two or three times taller than our house."

The National Weather Service said the 100-degree temperatures would continue, and also warned of winds up to 30 mph.

The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico became the target of a wildfire back in May that was started to clear brush near the area. The fire raged out of control, forcing more than 25,000 people to evacuate and destroying more than 200 homes.

At the time officials said that nuclear materials were safely protected in bunkers at Los Alamos, although they are now concerned that radioactive material in the soil could be washed into rivers and streams from hillsides denuded by fire.

The fire was approximately three miles from Hanford, which contains the nation's largest volume of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons. According to Engery Department spokeswoman Julie Erickson, the fire was close highly radioactive material in an area that once handled spent nuclear fuel.

Although she declined to discuss how officials would handle a fire at nuclear sites or wether radioactive releases were possible under such circumstances, she did say that "We don't feel any of our facilites are imminently threatened at this time."

Hanford is located about 170 miles southeast of Seattle and northeast of Portland, Oregon. The most dangerous of the radioactive waste stored there is in underground tanks. Additional fire breaks were cut to protect nuclear sites, and Erickson said most are surrounded by gravel.

An anti-nuclear group warned the fire could burn radioactive soil and spew contaminated particles into the air.

"We urge state officials to independently monitor to protect the public and firefighters form the hazards or airborne radioactive contaminated particles," said Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest.

Al Conklin, head of the state Health Department's division of radiological protection, said the state is using monitoring devices, and "we're not going to let the Department of Energy get away with anything if we find anything positive."

At one point, the Energy Department declared an emergency as the fire neared a lab where nuclear and hazardous waste samples are store, but winds later pushed the fire away.

The evacuation order was lifted on Thursday afternoon under warnings that residents could be asked to leave again at any time. Washington governor, Gary Locke activated the National Guard to assist residents in evacuations. The Red Cross was also brought in to set up shelters for evacuees and the extra firefighters in the area.

In all about a thousand firefighters were expected to be brought into the area to assist in extinguishing the blaze with the help of tankers that were dropping flame retardant on the fiery areas.

Hanford was initially established as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb in 1943. Today, workers at the Hanford site are simply cleaning up the waste, as plutonium production ceased there in 1986. About 8,000 non-essential personnel were told not to report to work on Thursday, leaving about 450 to 500 workers at the site.

The fire was started as a result of a head-on collision involving a car and a tractor-trailer just outside of the Hanford facility gate. The driver of the car was killed and the truck driver was injured.