US
state on alert after nuclear waste leak
HEIGHTENED
radioactivity levels have been found outside a nuclear waste tank in
the US state of Washington, officials say, in a new alert about a
site used to make Cold War-era bombs.
22
June, 2013
Governor
Jay Inslee said there was no immediate public health threat, but
urged federal authorities to accelerate action to deal with leaks at
the Hanford site, which he sounded the alarm about four months ago.
In
February, Inslee said that at least six tanks containing radioactive
waste were leaking, based on decreasing levels within them, but no
elevated radioactivity levels were recorded outside of the containers
themselves.
Now,
higher radiation levels have been recorded in a pit next to a
double-shell tank at the the site, he said - suggesting that waste
material has leaked through both shells containing them.
Inslee
said that federal experts "discovered what appears to be an
elevated contamination level reading in the leak detection pit
outside and adjacent to the Hanford double-shell tank AY-102".
"This
is most disturbing news for Washington. It is not clear yet whether
that contamination is coming directly from the outer shell of the
AY-102 but it must be treated with the utmost seriousness," he
said.
The
Hanford nuclear site, 300 kilometres southeast of Seattle, was used
to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War
II.
Output
grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last
reactor closed down in 1987.
"Weapons
production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk
to the local environment," its website said.
Millions
of gallons of leftover waste are contained in 177 tanks at the site,
according to the Energy Department, which in 1989 inked a deal with
Washington state authorities to clean up the Hanford Site.
Inslee
said he was told about the raised radiation levels by US Energy
Secretary Ernest Moniz, who called him on Thursday night.
"I
told the secretary I continue to have serious concerns regarding the
pace of addressing the leaking tanks. We will be insisting on an
acceleration of remediation of all the tanks, not just AY-102,"
Inslee said in a statement.
The
Energy Department "has a legal obligation to clean up Hanford
and remove or treat that waste, and we ensure that legal obligation
is fulfilled".
A
spokeswoman for Washington state's Ecology Department explained why
the new finding was so disturbing.
"Until
last night, it was thought the leak was contained in the outer shell,
but workers detected elevated radioactivity levels within the leak
detection pit," Erica Holmes said
Source:
KING 5 News
Date: June 21, 2013h/t moxnews
Date: June 21, 2013h/t moxnews
[...] It appears the most dangerous material on earth is out of its tank and out of their control, and there’s no immediate plan on how to solve the problem. […]
Now it appears the worst case scenario has happened, the waste has eaten through the outer tank wall. […]
But no one expected this […]
A crew working on the leak detection pit pulled a piece of equipment from it and measured a whopping contamination reading — 800,000 dpm,or disintegrations per minute. [...]
Nuke
waste leaking from OLD PLANT for many years
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