nuclear-news

Safety shortcomings at Hanford nuclear waste site

The radioactive waste is currently stored in 177 aging, underground tanks, many of which have leaked into the groundwater, threatening the neighboring Columbia River.

Energy Department audit finds nuclear plant vessels procured to 2005 fail to meet requirements The Republic, SHANNON DININNY, 30 April 12  YAKIMA, Wash. — The Energy Department and a contractor building a waste treatment plant at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site procured and installed tanks that did not always meet requirements of a quality assurance program or the contract, a federal audit concluded Monday.

The audit also found that the agency had paid the contractor a $15
million incentive fee for production of a tank that was later
determined to be defective and, while it demanded the fee be returned,
never followed up to ensure that it was.

In recent months, the $12.3 billion plant under construction at
south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation has been the
subject of whistleblower complaints about its design and safety. The
plant is being built to convert highly radioactive glass into a stable
glass form for permanent disposal underground.

The tanks’ design is significant because they will be located in
so-called “black cells,” which are areas of the plant that will be too
radioactively hot for workers to enter once the plant is
operating…… The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as
part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.
Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup
expected to last decades.

The cornerstone of that cleanup is the vitrification plant to treat
millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste. The waste is
currently stored in 177 aging, underground tanks, many of which have
leaked into the groundwater, threatening the neighboring Columbia
River.  http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9b936a945db449e99bedcbefee8dc62c/WA–Hanford-Plant/

May 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes