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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHanford Officials Hid Leak Evidence From Advisory Panel
by SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 NewsPosted on May 21, 2013 at 10:10 PM
Updated yesterday at 7:49 AM
A government-chartered advisory panel was told last September that materials spotted outside the inner wall of a tank holding radioactive waste at the Hanford Site were possibly the result of a "carbonate buildup," cross-contamination or "rainwater leakage."
"We've seen a lot of things and they don't point to any one thing," a senior U.S. Department of Energy official at Hanford told the group on Sept. 7, "so that's why it's hard to speculate what it is."
But internal emails obtained by KING 5, written by the government contractor carrying the multi-billion-dollar contract to manage the tanks, show that tests conducted weeks earlier had already confirmed that the materials found in the safety space of the double-shell tank were highly radioactive and matched the chemical makeup of waste contained in the primary tank.
On Aug. 13, results of a scientific analysis showed samples taken from the space contained high levels of two radioactive isotopes -- Strontium-90 and Cesium-137. Smaller traces of Plutonium-239/240 and Americium-241 were also detected. In addition scientists analyzing the sample found traces of potassium -- a unique marker to this specific tank (found in one other double-shell tank at Hanford).
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DCKit
(18,541 posts)Why are we still so skeptical?
madokie
(51,076 posts)They LIE. Can't even trust the NRC either as they'll leave shit out or lie too, which ever better suits their narrative.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)And just so you know, there are slightly over 160 of those tanks at Hanford, and they were typically designed to hold one million gallons of material. The Columbia River is within sight of a number of the tank farms. It is my opinion that no one in their right mind would ever eat a fish taken out of the Columbia River adjacent to or down stream from the Hanford site.
madokie
(51,076 posts)I never really cared for salmon anyway.
Salmon patties made with farm raised salmon only and not very often.
now that its brought to my attention I'll have to put in a request to the cook, my wife, for salmon patties this evening
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)This is from the 50s and 60s
http://toxipedia.org/display/wanmec/Radioactive+oysters+in+Willapa+Bay,+WA
Tikki
(14,557 posts)the tanks...this is all TAX PAYER money and the clean up and containment
work by these contractors has been going on for decades.
NUKE is a scam and a very costly one at that...
Tikki
child of the radiant glow
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)All you see when you come to a tank farm is a fenced in area - amazingly small - with a guard-shack/entrance way and then a lot of pipes sticking up out of the ground. The fences surrounding the area are very well marked.
Tikki
(14,557 posts)maintenance of the projects themselves. Yes, Hanford is out in the middle of nowhere and still
in restricted space but I don't see how that keeps the tanks from leaking.
There is nothing supernatural, trendy, progressive or cool about nuclear waste.
The Tikkis
..children of the radiant glow