Update | 200 workers take cover as precaution at large nuclear waste lab in Eastern WA

Workers at the 222-S Laboratory complex in the center of the Hanford site nuclear reservation were told to take cover as a precaution about 11:15 a.m. Monday.

A chlorine-like smell was reported, which was considered an unknown condition, said Dee Gray, director of strategic integration and development for the Department of Energy laboratory contractor.

About 200 workers took cover, with those in the main laboratory building going to assigned staging areas at other buildings at the lab complex.

The order was lifted by 12:30 p.m., when workers were allowed back to their offices but not individual laboratories, Gray said.

The Hanford Fire Department was called to investigate, but could not detect the odor.

Industrial hygiene technicians were doing additional surveys of laboratory spaces on Monday afternoon.

This is the second potential emergency at the lab this year.

In February, the Richland Fire Department’s bomb squad was called to the 222-S Laboratory after a small amount of an unstable, dangerous chemical was found. There was concern that about a thimbleful of crotonaldehyde found at the bottom of a test tube had degraded and could be explosive.

About 50 workers were evacuated and the Richland bomb squad removed the chemical and destroyed it.

The 222-S Laboratory is used to analyze highly radioactive waste samples, primarily waste stored in underground tanks from the past chemical processing of irradiated uranium to remove plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration, owned by Navarro Research and Engineering and Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International, holds the Department of Energy contract to operate, manage and maintain the 222-S Laboratory.

The 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation site adjacent to Richland in Eastern Washington was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

At the heart of the 222-S Laboratory complex is a 70,000-square-foot building with more than 100 pieces of analytical equipment, 156 fume hoods, 46 remote manipulators and 11 hot cells where workers operate handling equipment from outside the cells and look through thick, leaded glass to work with radioactive waste samples within the hot cells.

This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 12:17 PM.