[CPEO-MEF] Wyden concerned about Hanford (CA) nuclear-waste tanks

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Senator Expresses Concerns About Nuclear-Waste Tanks

By MATTHEW L. WALD
New York Times
March 1, 2014


WASHINGTON - Most of the youngest and sturdiest of the giant tanks  
that the Energy Department uses to store high-level radioactive waste  
at its Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington State show some of  
the same construction problems as a tank that began leaking in late  
2012, according to documents released by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon,  
whose state is across the Columbia River from the site.

The Energy Department is counting on the tanks, built in the 1960s  
and 1970s, to last for decades more, and has pumped into them  
thousands of gallons of radioactive liquids scavenged from older  
tanks that leaked or were at risk of leaking.

Mr. Wyden, a Democrat who is a member of the Senate Energy Committee,  
pointed out in a letter sent Friday to Energy Secretary Ernest J.  
Moniz that at the time of the 2012 leak, the department said, “It  
seems unlikely that the other double-shell tanks in similar  
circumstances would have been similarly affected.”

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/us/senator-expresses-concerns-about- 
nuclear-waste-tanks.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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