Our Pacific Northwest
Hanford Reveals It's In Over its Head
Last Friday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee informed local and national press a nuclear tank at the Hanford Nuclear Plant is leaking radioactive waste. This week the Seattle Times has reported a $13.4 billion treatment plant for the site scheduled to be finished in 2019 may not reach the deadline due to “serious, unresolved engineering challenges.” The treatment plant would properly treat contaminated water and store 56 million gallons of radioactive waste at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site. According to the report, federal and state government officials have agreed to begin test phases by 2019 with the plant being fully operational by 2022. But the project has hit financial and political snags, particularly if the automatic federal spending cuts are initiated next month. The report also stated although construction of the treatment plant is over halfway finished, 80 percent of the actual engineering is completed. Efforts are being made by the Energy Department and local contractors to pump the waste out of the tanks into double-shelled tanks, offering better protection. This is unsettling news for both man and creature in our Pacific Northwest, as the contamination threatens some of the most critical watersheds in the region.
Photo Via Dirty Clean PNW
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