Contaminated U.S. Site Faces ‘Catastrophic’ Nuclear Leak
July 16th, 2008Via: New Scientist:
ONE of “the most contaminated places on Earth” will only get dirtier if the US government doesn’t get its act together – clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.
More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.
There are now “serious questions about the tanks’ long-term viability,” says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticises the US Department of Energy for delaying an $8 billion programme to empty the tanks and treat the waste. The DoE says the clean-up is “technically challenging” and argues that it is making progress in such a way as to protect human health and the environment.
The DoE’s plan, however, is “faith-based”, says Robert Alvarez, an authority on Hanford at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. “The risk of catastrophic tank failure will sharply increase as each year goes by,” he says, “and one of the nation’s largest rivers, the Columbia, will be in jeopardy.”
Research Credit: DrFrost501
I’ve been up yonder there several times. The Columbia River is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen: a beautiful blue river running through a desert. Vineyards growing along side sublime.
I know enough about these tanks now that I no longer drink the red wines I so love from these parts. I’m probably radioactive from what I’ve ingested to date.
The true crime is the farce of “Homeland Security.” There is lots of MONEY to be made there, but alas, once you get done with spending money on that part of the budget, its all gone, and well, cleanup of waste, well sorry folks. We have priorities. We must ensure that a terrorist doesn’t figure out a way to use the waste in the tanks at Hanford against us!
The US taxpayer is a cow that can only provide so much milk, and so, I guess if a corporation contracted to provide cleanup at Hanford can’t do it without a profit, well screw us.
Damn good wine from them parts.
Damn good Walla WAlla onions and watermelon, too. That Columbia River, yum. All that salmon.
Too bad about the leaking tanks.
Can you see me glowing in the dark?