BREAKING NEWS: Hanford Emergency

UPDATE 1PM

Officials say a collapsed patch of ground above a nuclear waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was larger than first believed.

The U.S. Department of Energy said the Tuesday collapse covered about 400 square feet instead of the 16 square feet first reported.

Officials detected no release of radiation and say there were no workers inside the tunnel. Nearby workers were evacuated.

The agency says the rail tunnels are hundreds of feet long, with about eight feet of soil covering them. The U.S. Department of Energy says the incident caused the soil above the tunnel to sink between 2 and 4 feet.

UPDATE 10:30AM

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - An emergency has been declared at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington after a portion of a tunnel that that contains rail cars full of nuclear waste collapsed.   The incident occurred sometime before 8:26am Tuesday when the Hanford Emergency Operations Center was activated.

The Alert was declared in the 200 East Area which is at the center of the Hanford site.  The Department of Energy said access has been restricted to protect employees.

Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, said officials detected no release of radiation and no workers were injured.

He says there were no workers inside the tunnel when it collapsed Tuesday morning but that nearby workers were evacuated and others who were farther away were told to remain indoors.

The Department of Energy issued a statement saying no action was necessary for residents of Benton and Franklin County.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and is now the largest depository of radioactive defense waste that must be cleaned.

UPDATE 10:10AM

Hanford workers are reportedly taking cover after an emergency event out at the 200 area east. Here's what we know from our sister station 610 KONA and reporting from King 5 TV in Seattle...

A tunnel may have collapsed near the plutonium finishing plant as a result of vibrations from work crews are doing on roads nearby. That tunnel is full of highly contaminated materials. It's not known yet whether any radioactive material has been released, but workers are being told to initiate ventilation systems and not eat or drink anything until there's confirmation about any possible contamination.

A source said that crews doing road work nearby may have created enough vibration to cause the collapse.

A spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology, told the AP there apparently has been no release of radiation and no workers were injured.

The Department of Energy issued a statement saying no action was necessary for residents of Benton and Franklin County.

We have a reporter working to gather more information and will provide that for you as soon as we hear more.