Workers find more radioactivity at Hanford site

[harvey007]

Source: Washington Post / AP

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Workers cleaning up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site have discovered an area of soil so radioactive it exceeds lethal limits tenfold, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday with its cleanup contractor.

The finding represents some of the worst contamination at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation and highlights the difficulty and danger in cleaning up a site where records about Cold War-era weapons production either weren't kept or were incomplete.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705097.html

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R

This is a World War II photo of the historic "B Reactor" at Hanford, Wash.,
which was the world's first plutonium production reactor. The Hanford
nuclear reservation sits along the Colulmbia River. (AP Photo/ho)


The Fast Flux Test Facility on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near
Richland, Wash., shown here in a February, 1990, Department of Energy
file photo, was scheduled for shutdown in April, 1990. Many U.S.
nuclear weapons production and storage centers are vulnerable to
natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods,
government scientists warn. (AP Photo/Files)


The SX Tank Farm at Hanford Nuclear Reservation, near Yakima, Wash.,
is shown under construction in this 1953 file photo. Scientists have
discovered bacteria living in the toxic sediment beneath underground
tanks that have leaked radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear
reservation, home to some of the most highly contaminated soil in
the world. (AP Photo/Courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
File)


Steve Bolt repairs an electrical cord at the "tank farms" on the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., on Tuesday, March 23, 2004.
Bolt and more than 800 others who work at the tank farms, where about 53
million gallons of radioactive waste is stored in 177 underground tanks,
are given the option of wearing respirators depending on the location and
nature of their work. (AP Photo/Jackie Johnston)


The now idled nuclear reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation sits
on the bank of the Columbia River near Richland, Wash., on Aug. 5,
1997. This area of the river, known as the Hanford Reach, is the last
free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River. A national conservation
group names the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in Washington
state the most endangered river in North America and urged the Clinton
administration to create a 90,000-acre refuge to protect it. (AP Photo/
Louie Balukoff)

MORE: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/npp2/npp2-eyeball.htm

[stevedeshazer]

2. Notice how, not once but twice, the DOE toadies deny leakage into the Columbia River?

It's a quarter mile from one of the largest rivers in North America.

And three million people live downstream.

Actually, seven billion people live downstream, for it all flows into the ocean.

[slackmaster]

3. Well now, there's a shocker for you

[defendandprotect]

4. Isn't this GE Hanford? And aren't taxpayers paying for this clean up now...?

Didn't the Superfund $ run out and Bush refused to refinance it with

money from corporations which caused these problems?

GE slides off the hook with MIC backing .... but they shouldn't!

[slackmaster]

9. It was already a tragic mess when GE took it over in 1946

Nobody had ever built or operated a plutonium production facility that large, and its purpose was to fulfill a huge demand for the stuff under federal government pressure. The Atomic Energy Commission was actively involved in operations at all times. The top priority was production until the mid-1960s when they started shutting down and encasing reactors and dealing with the waste, none of which had ever been done before.

[uppityperson]

5. Workers find radioactivity 10 times the lethal limit at Hanford (per StlTimes)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013459877_apushanfordleak1stldwritethru.html

[mbperrin]

6. Can't be true! Nukes are so GREEN!

Worst part is, this waste is being hauled to the newest nuclear dump on the planet about 30 miles from my house. The cretins in Andrews there not only welcomed it with open arms, but actually passed a $70 million dollar bond issue to help out the billionaire owner of the thing.

State of Texas already agreed to accept all liabilities, and what started as a compact for Vermont and Texas for medical waste only is now available to all 50 states for any type of radioactive material whatsoever.

WHEN it leaks, it is sitting right on top of our drinking water, and 5 generations of my family's work will be destroyed, along with hundreds of thousands of others.



Bastards.

[Psephos]

7. Hanford is/was a nuclear weapons production facility, not a civilian power plant.

Very different animals.

Hanford is where they made bomb plutonium, which in addition to being extremely radioactive, is also a chemical mega-toxin.

That said, I'm sorry to hear about the waste site near your home, and wish you luck. I've heard that site is a disaster waiting to happen in the future.

[flor-de-jasmim]

8. Danger of thyroid cancer

Background:
I was born in Richland in 1953, at the end of the heaviest period of nuclear production and testing. We moved away when I was one (which was no doubt the healthiest thing we could have done!

Back in the days when the government was more forthcoming about hazards (ca. 1992-3), the government actually tracked me down to provide information on the possibility that I, and others born during the period of ca. 1947 and 1954, were under especially high risk of getting thyroid cancer, and should be checked every now and then to make sure it had not developed. If I remember right, part of this concern was over contamination of the milk supply.

I have been lucky, but I mention it in case there are others out there who were not contacted at the time. Despite this new information, it's possible that people would not be adequately informed, and current residents may also not have been sufficiently warned.