[ RadSafe ] 60 Minutes feature on Hanford last night

Tue May 2 13:57:13 CDT 2006

Jim covered the seismic issues well, and I didn't see the 60 minutes
thing either, mostly for the same reasons Jim didn't. I do, however
license the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant for radioactive air emissions
(we regulate their controls and monitoring systems), having given them a
construction authorization, which has been modified several times to
accommodate changing design. We will ultimately issue an operational
license (hopefully in my lifetime). I stay out of the politics, since I
work for them here in Washington, but I can at least comment on the
contractor (Bechtel National). I don't know if they've made seismic
related design mistakes or not, but my dealings with them have been very
positive. They are very proactive in getting design changes to us and
working closely with us to keep the project going. They have been very
professional and excellent to work with. We also work closely with the
Department of Energy's Office of River Protection, who we also work
closely with, and who seems to me to be trying to do the right thing the
right way.

I should also add that not all tank wastes will go through this plant.
Some of the wastes are TRU and will be retrieved and go to WIPP. Some
are low level wastes, which will go through supplemental technology.
There are no plans to do anything with what has already leaked into the
ground, but, as Jim said, once it hits the river, its so dilute, it
can't be seen down stream. Plus most of the waste is tied up in the
vadose zone below the tanks, so I question whether most of it will ever
reach the river.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Dukelow, James S Jr
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 11:03 AM
To: Sandy Perle; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] 60 Minutes feature on Hanford last night

Sandy Perle wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl on behalf of Sandy Perle
Sent: Mon 5/1/2006 11:20 AM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] 60 Minutes feature on Hanford last night

This was a scathing report on DOE and the Hanford clean-up process. I
know how 60 Minutes can skew information and manipulate the final
product. However, there were DOE Management, Washington State Governor
and others interviewed. 

Haven't seen this mentioned on Radsafe, so, what is the take from our
Hanford colleagues regarding the telecast?

=====================

I did not see the 60 minutes piece, having quit watching it and network
news, in general, about 25 years ago, when CBS illustrated TMI with a
graphic of a containment dome with a pan of water with a fire under it
inside the dome and complemented that by introducing Ernest Sternglass
as an expert commentator.  Sternglass commented, "Run for the hills,
you're all going to die", or words to that effect.

The cause for the Vit plant stop work was new seismic information that
suggested that parts of the plant might not designed (and in some cases
already built) to rigorous enough seismic standards.  Older Hanford
buildings wera all built to Uniform Building Code Seismic Zone 2
standards.  Hanford was generally considered a low seismic area, with an
instrumental record of  fairly frequent small (Richter 3 and change)
onsite quakes and a Richter 5+ quake a few decades ago about 50 miles
north at Smyrna on the other side of the Saddle Mountains anticline.  An
extended period of seismicity perhaps 5 to 15 million years ago is
reflected in two separate families of anticlines/synclines, one
East-West trending and the other Northwest-Southeast trending.  Pretty
quiet now, though.

An interesting question mark on Hanford seismicity is the
Olympic-Wallowa Lineament, a seismic feature that runs from the Olympic
Peninsula, directly underneath the middle of the Seattle area, over
Snoqualmie Pass (and, in all probability, the reason for the existence
of Snoqualmie Pass), down through the upper Yakima River Valley, under
several East-West trending anticlines, directly in front of Rattlesnake
Mountain (on the Hanford site(, and on southeast under the Blue
Mountains in Oregon, ending at the Wallowa Mountains in norhteastern
Oregon.  If you want to see geologists collectively scratching their
heads, google "Olympic Wallowa Lineament".  Nobody knows whether it will
support current seismicity.  I have placed my bets by building a house a
couple hundred yards from the OWL.

I haven't followed the details of the Vit plant seismic reanalysis, so I
did a little digging.  The most plausible description of the problem I
found was in the minutes of the 14 April 2005 meeting of the Tank Waste
Committee of the Hanford Advisory Board.  The HAB is an interesting
critter -- a collection of stakeholders comprising anti-nuclear
activitists, Hanford site employees, and representatives of interested
governmental and non-governmental organizations, including at least one
RADSAFE contributor.  The HAB committee reports are available at
<www.hanford.gov/public/boards/hab/>.

Quoting from the HAB committee report:

"Lew Miller, DOE-ORP, updated the committee on the seismic report for
the WTP.  He provided the context for seismic concerns, and explained
how improvements in computer measuring techniques for measuring how
earthquakes in other areas could impact the WTP have created the need
for further analysis.  The initial seismic study tried to model the 200
East and 200 West areas, using an assumption of 500 feet of sand and
gravel beneath the sites.  There is actually closer to 600 feet of sand
and gravel under the WTP, which has an absorbing effect on earthquake
impacts.  Underneath the sand and gravel there are layers of basalt
bedrock, with interspersed layers of mudstone and siltstone.  The
bedrock layers have an attenuating effect on earthquake impacts,
however, no measurements were taken of seismic wave movements through
these layers in the initial study.  In 1996, the assumptions was that
the layers are more like soldi bedrock; with the identified layers of
mudstone and siltstone, the area of bedrock is now actually believed to
attenuate earthquake impacts less.  The new seismic report used models
that accounted for the layers attenuating less, which amounts to a 40%
increas in impacts where buildings are most sensitive."

"Lew explained how DOE plans to utilize the new data in the design of
the WTP to meet new seismic standards.  Depending on what state the
design is in determines what type of corrective action needs to be
taken.  Most design work that has been done is robust enough to account
for new seismic data, so few changes need to be made in those areas."

"A dynamic analysis will be coming out soon, which will model the entire
building to show how an earthquake would impact the entire building.
Modeling can also be done component by component to assess seismic
impacts."

Subsequent HAB committee meetings have focussed more on the budget and
schedule impact of the seismic reanalysis.

A comment on the rather trashy coverage by our local big-city newspapers
and comments by our governor (who I voted for and rather like).
Christine Gregoire sounds the alarm about tank waste in the groundwater
and moving -- gasp -- toward the Columbia River.  This is not science
(well, perhaps, political science).  The flow of the Columbia River is
three to four orders of magnitude greater than the flow of Hanford
groundwater into the Columbia.  During all the years of Hanford
contamination of the Columbia, radionuclide contamination has never been
above EPA drinking water standards and will not be in the future.
Hanford radionuclide contributions to the Columbia are in the noise of
the natural radionuclides coming down out of the mountains.  I am on a
well now, but drank Columbia River water (downstream from Hanford) for
25 years.  You should all have such nice water.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow at pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.
_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list

Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood
the RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
http://radlab.nl/radsafe/radsaferules.html

For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
visit: http://radlab.nl/radsafe/