Re: Hanford Site Cleanup Standards and CERCLA

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

1.  I didn't determine that contractors aren't liable.  that's in the law that I cited.

2.  Storage of the fuel on the K-basins resulted from the shutdown of plutonium production.  Prior to 1989, irradiated fuel from the N-reactor went remotely by rail to PUREX, where plutonium and neptunium were extracted.  The waste in the tanks was from PUREX and earlier processes.  Once PUREX was shut down, what do you suggest should have been done with the irradiated fuel?  Many of us would much have preferred gradual shutdown and making MOX fuel, but that was vetoed by your anti-nuke pals.

3.  Yes, if there were substantial leakage of K-basin water into the Columbia and it were allowed to continue, the K-basins would pose a threat.  It's a potential threat now rather than an actual one.  Anyway, the basins are in the process of being emptied and the fuel moved away from the river, and as you might guess, that can't be done overnight. The move began as far as I recollect, around 1999.  Maybe you could do it quicker.



As to your last paragraph: shame! The people at Hanford who worked so diligently first, to produce the weapons material that Congress charged them to produce, and now, who are working so diligently, and at risk to themselves, not to the sainted "stakeholders," to remediate the site do not deserve this constant and consistent sniping.

 

Ruth



-- 

Ruth F. Weiner

ruthweiner@aol.com

505-856-5011

(o)505-284-8406



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