There’s no turning back at the Hanford site’s vitrification plant after the heat-up of the world’s largest melter for radioactive waste started Saturday, 20 years after construction of the plant began.
The 300-ton melter now must remain hot continuously around the clock as it initially makes practice glass and eventually starts glassifying radioactive waste for the first time at the nuclear reservation.
Glassification prepares the waste for permanent disposal. (...)
The 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland in Central Washington produced about two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium for its nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.
Uranium fuel irradiated at Hanford was chemically reprocessed to remove plutonium. The mix of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste from reprocessing has been stored in underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking. They hold 56 million gallons of the waste until it can be treated for disposal.
The melter that is being heated up is the first of two at the $17 billion plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility and is expected to operate continuously for at least five years.
by Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald/Seattle Times | Read more:
Image: Anna King/Northwest News Network via:
[ed. See also: Turning Hanford’s nuclear waste into glass logs would emit toxic vapors, says document (OPB):]
Miller: I noted that amount of radioactive waste, a number I can’t really fathom, 56 million gallons of this waste. How is it being stored right now?
Stang: It is stored in 177 huge underground tanks that are located in the central part of the site.
Miller: One big fear is that this waste could leach out into the ground, the groundwater, potentially into the Columbia River. How much is that happening?
Stang: At least one million gallons has leaked out into the ground. It takes a while for it to seep down to the ground water, the aquifer, which is 100-200ft beneath the surface, and then it flows toward the Columbia River which is about seven miles away. Some of it’s already reached the Columbia River.
Miller: I noted that amount of radioactive waste, a number I can’t really fathom, 56 million gallons of this waste. How is it being stored right now?
Stang: It is stored in 177 huge underground tanks that are located in the central part of the site.
Miller: One big fear is that this waste could leach out into the ground, the groundwater, potentially into the Columbia River. How much is that happening?
Stang: At least one million gallons has leaked out into the ground. It takes a while for it to seep down to the ground water, the aquifer, which is 100-200ft beneath the surface, and then it flows toward the Columbia River which is about seven miles away. Some of it’s already reached the Columbia River.
