nuclear-news

Nuclear sludge at Washington state site put in safer storage

Nicholas K. Geranios | AP November 28 at 1:33 PM

SNIP

The sludge left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons was transferred from the old single walled tanks into modern double wall tanks that are considered much safer, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement provided to The Associated Press Monday.

While the event is regarded as a major milestone for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the waste removed came from only one of the facility’s 12 tank farms containing radioactive waste.

A government contractor is in the final stages of removing waste from one of the tanks, which has a capacity of 530,000 gallons (2 million liters), the energy department said. It has stored waste since 1947 and officials suspect it has been leaking.

Cleanup of the waste at Hanford has been underway since the 1980s and is expected to last for decades, costing an additional $100 billion.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/nuclear-sludge-at-washington-state-site-put-in-safer-storage/2017/11/28/9b341d68-d46a-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_story.html?utm_term=.66ccc9175c13

November 28, 2017 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized