Whistleblowers fired, as Hanford leaking radioactive waste problem continues

25 years on at America’s most contaminated nuclear waste site BBC News, Washington 10 June 2014 By Taylor Kate Brown “…….In February, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden accused the DOE of a “never-ending pattern of failing to disclose what it actually knows about conditions at Hanford”. Wyden is most recently concerned about the tanks holding by-products of plutonium production, buried just below the surface at the centre of the site.

The original containers, single-shell tanks built in the 1940s and 1950s, had already leaked at least 1 million gallons of liquid waste into the ground. Hanford officials built double-shell tanks in the 1970s and 1980s and began transferring the radioactive waste into the newer vessels.

But in October 2012, the energy department announced one of the double-shell tanks was leaking into the space between the two shells. Waste in that tank has not entered the environment.

Wyden released an engineering review that said six other double-shells had similar construction flaws. He accused the agency of hiding what they knew, as the report had been made months after the initial leak announcement, but no other warnings from the DOE had followed.

Meanwhile, Hanford officials have recently submitted a plan to start emptying the leaking tank in two years.

Then, in late March, two dozen workers fell ill because of chemical vapours near the tanks. Workers again noticed vapours around the tanks in May. The composition of the waste in the leaking tank makes it more likely to corrode, Fletcher says. No other double-shell tank holds such a mixture and full inspections on the tanks will now be done more frequently,

But in general, the double-shells must do their job for several more decades until a waste treatment plant – currently under construction – immobilises in glass all 56 million gallons of waste in the tanks.

The treatment plant was scheduled to become operational by 2019, but construction has been slowed or entirely halted on two key parts of the plant for additional testing. Once the treatment plant goes into operation, parts of it must be run entirely by robotics because of the high radioactivity of the waste. Regulators call it a “black-box” system.

Hanford Challenge represents two whistleblowers, Walt Tamosaitis and Donna Busche, who say they have been punished for expressing concerns about the treatment plant’s design.

Carpenter says the whistleblowers are speaking up now because once the plant begins operations, there will be no chance to fix potentially dangerous errors.

Both Tamosaitis and Busche have been fired by URS, one of the contractors at Hanford.

The energy department says it has asked its inspector general to “review the circumstances surrounding the termination of Ms Busche”, a safety manager who alleged continuing harassment since she first brought up concerns in 2011. Meanwhile the waste remains in the aging tanks. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26658719