nuclear-news

Hanford nuclear waste tank – a new radioactive leak?

Big, radioactive lump in Hanford nuclear-waste tank: Is it leaking? Seattle Times, 21 Aug 12, A discovery at the Hanford nuclear reservation throws into question the integrity of the double-walled steel tanks where radioactive waste is being temporarily stored. As part of the biggest, costliest
environmental cleanup in the nation’s history — disposing of 53
million gallons of radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear
reservation — one thing was supposed to be sure: Toxic waste stored in
sturdy, double-wall steel tanks wasn’t going anywhere.

That reassurance has been thrown into question with the discovery of a
3-foot-long mound of radioactive material between the inner and outer
steel walls of one of the supposedly safe tanks.

“We’re taking it seriously, and we’re doing an investigation so we can
better understand what it is,” Department of Energy spokeswoman Lori
Gamache said Tuesday.

The discovery marks the first time material has been found outside the
inner wall of one of the site’s 28 double-shell tanks, thought to be
relatively secure interim storage for the radioactive material
generated when Hanford was one of the nation’s major atomic-production
facilities. It opened in 1943 and began a gradual shutdown in 1964.
Cleanup started in 1989.
The $12.2 billion cleanup eventually aims to turn most of the Hanford
waste into glass rods at a high-tech vitrification plant scheduled to
be operational in 2019, assuming the formidable design and engineering
hurdles can be overcome.

In the meantime, plant engineers have been transferring waste from the
facility’s 149 leaky, aging single-wall storage tanks into
double-shell tanks for safekeeping. The double-wall tanks were
expected to last another 40 years.

More than 1 million gallons of waste have leaked from 67 single-wall
tanks into the surrounding soil over the years.

“There’s been this presumption that the double-shell tanks at least
are sound and won’t fail, and they’ll be there for us,” said Tom
Carpenter, of the advocacy group Hanford Challenge. Several days ago
the group obtained a memo from the cleanup site detailing the
discovery of the mysterious substance.

“This changes everything. It is alarming that there is now solid
evidence that Hanford double-shell has leaked,” Carpenter said in a
separate statement on the discovery.

The 42-year-old tank, known as AY-102, holds about 857,000 gallons of
radioactive and other toxic chemical waste, much of it removed several
years ago from a single-shell storage tank.

Workers who relocated the material fell ill simply from inhaling the
fumes, Carpenter said….. Carpenter, who has talked extensively with
workers at Hanford and was briefed on Tuesday by one of the Department
of Energy’s senior officials at the tank farm, said he believes the
evidence is strong that there was a leak.

“I know Hanford would like it not to be so,” he said. “But the people
I’m talking to at the Hanford site say no, it really does look like a
leak.”… http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2018964055_hanford22.html

August 22, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, USA