Six underground tanks that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, federal and state officials said Friday.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion..._tanks_leaking
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6 underground Hanford nuclear tanks leaking
Six underground tanks that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, federal and state officials said Friday.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion..._tanks_leaking
Member
Bad News from Hanford Washington
Link....The leaking of radioactive liquids at the Hanford, Wash., Nuclear Reservation is more extensive than previously reported, with six storage tanks affected, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.
In a conference call with reporters Friday after a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Inslee disclosed that six of the 177 tanks were leaking at the nuclear facility in Richland, in eastern Washington about 50 miles southeast of Yakima.....
....Hanford — which houses millions of gallons of radioactive waste left over from plutonium production for nuclear weapons — is already considered one of the most contaminated sites on Earth, the U.S. government says....
The radioactive waste genie has been out of that bottle for a while now. So, what are we gonna do about it? Treat the situation like the brain-trusts in Washington treat the deficit and keep passing it on to the next generation?
After all, that stuff is going to be around for a very, very, very long time.
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It's in Eastern Washington which is noted mostly for its dust devils so no one cares. We're all going to hell for being shiftless gluttons consuming everything with no regard for tomorrow. No one wants their money spent on dumps and clean ups. We've been pigs and now our trash is striking back.
We killed the original stewards of the land, the Indians, then raped the countryside such that the most beautiful parts of this country are now also the most contaminated. You live in the West, you know how it goes. The history of the West is the history of the exploitation of the land. Colorado is one of the most contaminated states. Montana is even worse. So when you hear about leaking tanks it really is just the latest installment of the American rape of the land. It's sad.
When people try to bring attention to the situation they are demonized by whatever interest group governs the mess. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News haws and snorts, the protesters are demonized and the entire issue gets turned on its head.
Member
Hanford produced and reprocessed a massive amount of plutonium for almost five decades. The contamination is almost beyond imagination. You have shut down nuclear reactors, liquid radioactive waste in tanks buried underground, various facilities for processing nuclear materials including highly enriched uranium and plutonium. You have entire buildings that are so contaminated as to be off limits. You have so-called low-level nuclear waste - everything from glove boxes to contamination suits to tables that are, despite the classification, highly radioactive. We've spent tens of billions there since the end of the Cold War trying to get a handle on this place. A lot of the underground stuff was leaking into the Columbia River for decades. During the 40's, 50's, and 60's the safety and environmental protocols were quite simply, shoddy.Originally Posted by AttackPlanR
A lot of the waste has been shipped to a place called the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico. A lot of it has been 'secured in place'. We simply don't really know how to deal with the stuff and the scale is beyond belief. This is also true of Rocky Flats in Colorado - Warhead fabrication, Oak Ridge in Tennessee - Uranium processing, and Savannah River (also plutonium) in South Carolina. There are many other sites that were part of the nuclear weapons complex but these four in particular are massive, almost county sized, places and are incredibly contanimated.
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I see the Energy Dept is only copping to one compromised tank. Scary stuff. Glad to see NBC at least is covering it. These kinds of stories get seriously under-reported no doubt because the government likes it that way.
Member
As long as people continue to put republicans and democrats into office, it will continue. Everybody criticizes the "both sides do it" argument, but this story is proof that it is true. When people wake up and reject both parties they might be able to get one that actually works for the good of the people. At least for a little while anyway. Unfortunately, both parties have worked this game to it's ultimate potential. It's not what "our party" can do for you, it's what you have to fear about the "other party" that makes you have to vote for us. And I admit, I have played into their hands just like everyone else.
Member
back in the late 80s and early 90's, I had invested in a local company that won some contracts to clean up some of that mess out their .......
I lost track of what was going on out there after the carlye group took duratek private .....
I thought the technology they brought to the table would really help .....
looks like there is still a lot of serious risk out there ......
The pair of companies won a similar -- and potentially bigger -- contract in September to clean up waste at one of the country's largest disposal sites in Hanford, Wash. That award has a potential value of $4 billion.
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Hanford's tanks hold some 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — and many of those tanks are known to have leaked in the past. An estimated 1 million gallons of radioactive liquid already leaked there.
"None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service," he said. "And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste."
Member
Looks like Bechtel has the vitrification plant to treat the hanford waste now .......
this was cool technology that a small company on Rt 32 was piloting 20 years ago when I had the opportunity to get a tour .....
Hanford Vitrification Plant
they need to get up and running and get after this mess ......
the plant has been under construction for more than 10 years .....
Member
How about the gluttons in government (federal, state and at the local level) who consume our wealth? Not concerned about that, right?
This is what grown ups do. They go and fix it.We killed the original stewards of the land, the Indians, then raped the countryside such that the most beautiful parts of this country are now also the most contaminated. You live in the West, you know how it goes. The history of the West is the history of the exploitation of the land. Colorado is one of the most contaminated states. Montana is even worse. So when you hear about leaking tanks it really is just the latest installment of the American rape of the land. It's sad.
When people try to bring attention to the situation they are demonized by whatever interest group governs the mess. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News haws and snorts, the protesters are demonized and the entire issue gets turned on its head.
Member
I see gurgles has missed the point completely. Not in American Thinker so I guess it's hard for him to put a real situation into perspective.
Member
It's a mess that cant be solved by the minds that created it!
The United States has 104 commercial nuclear reactors providing about 20% of the nation’s electricity, but throughout their lifetimes, they’ve accumulated about 58,000 tons of nuclear waste. They produce about 2,000 tons annually.
Although recent developments are promising, Yucca Mountain http://blog.heritage.org/2008/06/20/...nuclear-waste/ has been a political boondoggle for decades. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 set January 31, 1998, as the deadline for the federal government to begin receiving used fuel. The result has been billions of dollars in taxpayer liability. Furthermore, Yucca Mountain’s statutory limit has been set at 70,000 tons when, in fact, it could hold 120,000 tons or more. Yet, even with a 120,000 ton limit, if nuclear power production increased by 1.8 percent annually after 2010, Yucca would be full by 2030.
http://blog.heritage.org/2008/06/20/...nuclear-waste/
Member
This is one that's been warning U.S. and as you state they are put down!
Greenpeace has always fought - and will continue to fight - vigorously against nuclear power because it is an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity. The only solution is to halt the expansion of all nuclear power, and for the shutdown of existing plants.
We need an energy system that can fight climate change, based on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear power already delivers less energy globally than renewable energy, and the share will continue to decrease in the coming years.
Despite what the nuclear industry tells us, building enough nuclear power stations to make a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would cost trillions of dollars, create tens of thousands of tons of lethal high-level radioactive waste, contribute to further proliferation of nuclear weapons materials, and result in a Chernobyl-scale accident once every decade. Perhaps most significantly, it will squander the resources necessary to implement meaningful climate change solutions.
http://www.greenpeace.org/internatio...ce97d749b473dd
Member
And what is going to replace coal, nuclear, and gas?
Member
Sounds like it has been going on for quite some time. Who is responsible for the site, the radioactive waste and the leaking tanks?
Member
It goes back to the Manhattan Project, then the Atomic Energy Commission. Today it is under the Department of Energy. Certainly the most contaminated site in the United States and rivaled only by some of the Soviet Union's old nuclear weapons sites. They were even worse about safety and the environment than we were which is saying something.
Most people don't realize it but the primary function of the Department of Energy is maintaining our nuclear arsenal although at this point a bigger portion of their budget might be slated for cleanup.
Member
This is why moving it all to Yucca Mt. made a great deal of sense. Naturally, environuts prevented that.
Last edited by veritas; 02-23-2013 at 08:32 PM.
Member
they have to stabilized all the liquid waste up there first ......
the plan was to use vitrification which turns it into radioactive glass ......
then they could put it in a place like Yucca because it could never leach out ......
Member
Even if...
1) Yucca had gotten the green light that facility would not yet be ready to receive the Hanford Waste
and
2) The waste in question would not be ready to be shipped until at least 2019.
As usual, you are wrong.
Member
Theoretically
Although storing radioactive waste underground on top of various fault lines with a history of seismic activity might not be the best idea.
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