[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION: Hanford (WA) fire

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

To Prevent a Nuclear Disaster, Washington Firefighters Burned a Whole Mountain

by SARAH EMERSON
Motherboard
August 3, 2016 

The nation’s largest nuclear waste dump was almost ignited by wildfire this weekend. The raging inferno, called the Range 12 Fire, threatened to summit Washington’s Rattlesnake Mountain, and creep down the other side toward the Hanford Nuclear Site, an aging nuclear production complex that sits along the Columbia River.

On Sunday night, more than 100 firefighters in Yakima and Benton Counties attempted to triage the blaze that had by that point consumed 70,000 acres of land, according to KOMO News. The fire had already hopped several highways, and was making its way toward Rattlesnake Mountain - the only thing stopping “America’s Fukushima” from setting aflame.

The Hanford Nuclear Site is no stranger to catastrophe. In April of this year, 3,500 gallons of radioactive sludge leaked out of storage tanks built during the Manhattan Project. Though the site is decommissioned, it still houses 56 million gallons of Cold War nuclear waste.

…

For the entire article, see
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/to-prevent-a-nuclear-disaster-washington-firefighters-burned-a-whole-mountain

--

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/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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