Radioactive Nuclear Contamination, a world wide catastrophe causing unprecedented environmental destruction. The Establishment does not have the answers or a real solution to clean up what they have created. The information is buried with the rest of the major issues that face our Society, nature will continue… but will our species continue?
Hanford nuclear facility far greater threat to the West Coast than Fukushima,
click photo for to learn more
This Article below Published May 10th 2017
Tunnel collapse at Washington state nuclear site
“Unfortunately, the crisis at Hanford is far from an isolated incident,” said Kevin Kamps of the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear.
For instance, at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which opened in the 1950s and produced plutonium and tritium, the government is laboring to clean up groundwater contamination along with 40 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored in tanks that are decades past their projected lifespan. The job is likely to take decades.
In addition to the tunnel collapse discovered Tuesday, dozens of underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state — some dating to World War II — are leaking highly radioactive materials.
The problem is that the U.S. government rushed to build nuclear weapons during the Cold War with little thought given to how to permanently dispose of the resulting waste.
The radioactive environmental disaster in Hanford, WA – Where America invented The Bomb.
Hanford Groundwater Contamination Sources
Underground Storage Tanks
There are 177 tanks at Hanford storing more than 55 million gallons of high-level waste. Sixty-seven single shell tanks are known, or suspected, to have leaked. Past releases have amounted to about 1 million gallons.
Hanford scientists feeding radioactive food to sheep
Tunnel collapse
On the morning of May 9, 2017 a 20-foot (6 m) section of a 360-foot (100 m) tunnel caved-in. It was used to store contaminated materials and was located next to the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Facility in the 200 East Area in the center of the Hanford Site. All non-essential personnel were evacuated from the site. Some 53 truckloads (about 550 cubic yards (420 m3)) of soil were used to fill in the hole.
The PUREX process plant at the Hanford facility was responsible for the production of ‘abundant volumes of liquid waste’, resulting in radioactive contamination of groundwater.
PUREX is a chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. It is an acronym for recovery of uranium and plutonium by extraction ( P lutonium U ranium R ecovery by Ex traction ). PUREX is in fact the standard aqueous nuclear reprocessing method for the recovery of uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel (“spent”, “exhausted” or “depleted”). It is based on liquid-liquid extraction by ion exchange.
The PUREX process was invented by Herbert H. Anderson and Larned B. Asprey at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago as part of the Manhattan Project under the administration of Glenn T. Seaborg. Its patent “Solvent Extraction Plutonium Process” was registered in 1947, mentions tributyl phosphate as the main reactant that performs most of the chemical extraction.
The United States Department of Energy assumed control of the Hanford Site in 1977.
6 reasons to know about Hanford’s nuclear waste
The timeline for officials to clean up the biggest, most toxic nuclear waste site in the Western hemisphere is shrinking.
The race to clean up 56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste sitting at the Hanford site, 230 miles east of Portland, becomes more urgent each year.
With an estimated price tag of $120 billion, and a theoretical deadline of 2047, cleanup efforts are continually stalled by obstacles including time, money, the danger of the task at hand, and the sheer vastness of the site.
Attempts to store liquid and solid radioactive waste from the 586 square-mile site – which supplied the plutonium for the bomb that ended WWII — have been failing for decades.
Pits & Burial Grounds
Solid and liquid wastes in barrels were buried in trenches, pits, or unlined landfills. As the containers break down, contaminants enter the soil.
In Summary So Far,
Hanford nuclear facility far greater threat than Fukushima, Hanford is far from an isolated incident, at the Savannah River Site government groundwater contamination along with 40 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored in tanks. Meanwhile dozens of underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are leaking highly radioactive materials. U.S. government rushed to build nuclear weapons with little thought given to how to permanently dispose of the resulting waste. 177 tanks at Hanford storing more than 55 million gallons of high-level waste leaked 1 million gallons.
The PUREX process plant at the Hanford facility was responsible for the radioactive contamination of groundwater. With an estimated price tag of $120 billion, and a theoretical deadline of 2047, cleanup efforts are continually stalled by obstacles including time, money, the danger of the task at hand, and the sheer vastness of the site.Attempts have been failing for decades.
95 million gallons of Radioactive Liquid Waste on a 30 year deadline. That is just two locations.
=============================================
********************** Д.И.Ї. *********************
=============================================
Д.И.Ї. 