Re: Security at U.S. Nuclear Labs Called Unacceptable

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/21/02 1:01:57 PM Mountain Daylight Time, liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM writes:



> Hanford - Unfortunately, spent fuel waste IS transporting across the barren desert
>
> and is approaching the Columbia River, from which it's likely to get into someone's
>
> hair spray.  

This kind of mis-statement is indeed grist for the anti-nuke mill. 


In sum: no spent fuel waste (what's that?) is NOT "transporting across the barren desert..." etc. 


I suppose you mean waste from plutonium processing.  Concentrated liquid waste from this process was stored for years in single-shell underground tanks.  several decades ago, the tanks were largely dewatered.  Some of the material has leaked into the ground.  The plumes are monitored.  They are not leaking into the Columbia.  More recently, double-shelled tanks were put into service.  The space between the shells is monitored.  Clearly tank storage is temporary.  I was on a citizens' committee that in 1988 (!) made a series of recommendations for redu cing the risk from the tanks.  None of these recommendations were implemented.  Screaming from the local anti-nukes and their inability to agree to anything short of miraculously beaming the waste up to heaven or to a distant galaxy, in Star Trek mode, has stalled actual remediation, which has o!

nly recently begun.


The untimely shutdown of the N-Reactor and the precipitous shutdown of plutonium production left a lot of spent fuel in the K-Basins adjacent to the Columbia, from which it is being moved.  No, they don't leak into the Columbia.


For many of the years of plutonium production, waste water containing dilute amounts of radioactive material was drained directly into the subsurface soil.  Should we be horrified by this?  Not really, as any soil chemist could tell you.  Hanford soil is sandy and is actually a pretty good adsorption medium for the radionuvlide contaminants -- it acts like a filter.  This was not a really commendable way  to dispose of the material, but it's not a disaster either.  A numbeer of experiments are now ongoing to stabiulize this underground contamination.


I have forgotten most of the detail, and there are doubtless people on this list who no more about Hanford than I do, but for goodness'sake, let's not mindlessly repeat baseless anti-nuke accusations.


In the meantime we spend $$$$ trying to clean up this mess and don't seem


> to be making much progress.



Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com