Signs emerge of a second double-shell tank leaking at Hanford

[jpak]

Source: KING5.com

Radioactive particles have been measured at elevated levels for the first time in the outer safety space of the Hanford double-shell tank known as AY-101. The contractor that manages the tank told employees "we recently discovered higher-than-expected radioactivity readings" from filters that are part of the tank’s continuous air monitor (CAM).

"The filter contained traces of radioactive americium, cesium and plutonium, raising the possibility that the material is from tank waste that has escaped from the primary shell of the double-shell tank," wrote Rob Gregory, chief operating officer of Washington River Protection Solutions.

Sources tell KING 5 that alarms went off last week to alert staff of the presence of “hot” (radioactive) particles trapped in filters of the tank’s continuous air monitor (CAM). The sources say this is the first time readings of this sort have been detected in AY-101.

The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed to the state that radioactive particles had been detected by filters circulating air from inside AY-101, according to officials with the Washington Department of Ecology.

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Read more: http://www.king5.com/news/local/investigations/signs-emerge-of-a-second-double-shell-tank-leaking-at-hanford/154338445

[silvershadow]

1. not good

[Journeyman]

2. Who knew? Nuclear garbage won't abide by the rules of a shell game? . . .

How about this a for a solution: Anyone who favors these poisons as a means to further the society they envision must consent to storing their fair share of the garbage in their own homes.

Way I figure it, it wouldn't be too long before we'd be shed of those voices. They and their three-eyed offspring.

[Cassiopeia]

4. I think that's an excellent idea!

[suffragette]

3. So, bad and getting worse

[Overseas]

5. Sad K&R.

[madokie]

6. I realize

that this was not a power producing process that created this waste. Never the less this is a good example of why we need to look closely at what we're doing here with this whole splitting atoms thing

I know what we're doing with burning the coal and oil products is killing us dead but with the waste of nuclear it stays here for a long long time having an effect on pretty much everything, in some ways, for millions of years.
OTOH after we kill our selves by burning fossils fuels at least the world will be able to bounce back rather quickly. In the history of the world that is

[JunkYardDogg]

7. This may be a new tank also

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been operating since the early 1940's
At the peak, they had ,I think, 11 or 12 reactors operating, of various sizes, which generated a large quantity of liquid radioactive waste.
Their solution to the problem was to build single walled steel storage tanks. They were single walled as they had no idea of how long, in time, these would exist. Also, they were built using common grade carbon steel, which is not very corrosion resistant, instead of high nickel content metals, which are more resistant to the corrosiveness of the radioactive waste. As I recall, I think that they were 500,000 gallons each of capacity, out on the reservation. They built 150 of these over time, the contents were comingled, they kept no records of what went into each tank. There are a couple of tanks that get so hot that they have to be wet down, from the outside, to keep them cooled. The tanks are leaking and there is an underground plume of radioactive liquid working its way to the Columbia River, and they have no idea of how to stop it.
The ground in the area is not hard bedrock. It is like a rough grain water/river soil erosion build up from millions of years of down river deposits from the Columbia River.
The Federal Government has been building a treatment/conversion plant in the area to use the vitrification process to convert the liquid into a glass-like substance to be placed into hi-nickel alloy casks for long term storage. This is a yet to be used technology. The cost of building the plant is in the billions, and is extremely controversial.
When I was up there in 2004, they emptied one of the 500,000 gallon tanks as a test project. They got the liquid out, but the sludge at the bottom was a real problem. They had to blast it loose with acids. Took them a long time.
Since this tank mentioned in the article is referred to as double-walled, I would have to assume that it is a recently built tank.
I was up there for 4 or 5 months, and every week there were articles in the local paper of the problems from the radioactive materials there. These stories never get reported to the rest of the U.S. This is the worst and most highly contaminated haz-mat site in America.