U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency alert Tuesday morning at the Hanfo rd Site north of Richland, Washington, after a tunnel containing rail cars full of radioactive material was breached.Hanford is the nation’s largest nuclear cleanup site, with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste sitting in old, leaky underground tanks just a few hours upriver from Portland. After more than 20 years and $19 billion dollars, not a drop of waste has been treated.

Construction on the treatment plant was supposed to be completed in 2007. That slipped to 2011, then 2019. And now the deadline has been extended to 2036 for the most dangerous waste.OPB.