U.S. radioactive waste site faces 'catastrophic' nuclear leak

New Scientist, July 14, 2008

ONE of "the most contaminated places on Earth" will only get dirtier if the US government doesn't get its act together -- clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.

More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.

There are now "serious questions about the tanks' long-term viability," says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticizes the U.S. Department of Energy for delaying an $8 billion program to empty the tanks and treat the waste. The DoE says the clean-up is "technically challenging" and argues that it is making progress in such a way as to protect human health and the environment.

The DoE's plan, however, is "faith-based," says Robert Alvarez, an authority on Hanford at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. "The risk of catastrophic tank failure will sharply increase as each year goes by," he says, "and one of the nation's largest rivers, the Columbia, will be in jeopardy."

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From issue 2664 of New Scientist magazine, 14 July 2008, page 7.
Link to article:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19926642.900-contaminated-us-site-faces-catastrophic-nuclear-leak.html