Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday, April 29, that an underground nuclear waste storage tank in Washington state had been leaking gallons of contaminated liquid into the ground.
This was the second tank discovered to be leaking waste left from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The first was discovered in 2013.
The
Environmental Protection Agency, is currently leading the site’s cleanup.
“It’s a serious matter whenever a Hanford tank leaks its radioactive and dangerous chemical waste,” Ecology Director Laura Watson said. “Based on the information we have right now, the leak poses no immediate increased risk to workers or the public, but it adds to the ongoing environmental threat at Hanford.”
The 75-year-old tank in Washington state is leaking some 3.5 gallons of waste each day into an area where an estimated 200,000 gallons have already leaked from other tanks at the site.
By Tori B. Powell
Updated on: April 30, 2021 / 1:54 PM / CBS News
An underground radioactive chemical storage tank in southeast Washington state is leaking gallons of nuclear waste, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology, which is overseeing the site s cleanup.
The 75-year-old tank B-109 at Hanford Nuclear Reservation is estimated to be leaking 3.5 gallons of waste a day into the ground - the equivalent to nearly 1,300 gallons per year. This highlights the critical need for resources to address Hanford s aging tanks, which will continue to fail and leak over time, Laura Watson, the department s director, said in a statement.
The tank holds 123,000 gallons of waste and is leaking into an area where an estimated 200,000 gallons have already leaked from other tanks at the site, the state s Department of Ecology said. Since March of 2019, an estimated 1,700 gallons of waste have leaked from B-109, which the department has been tracking f
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