Graphic showing the leaking of the high-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Tank Farms, and the depth of the leakage. An underground plume of the liquid waste has been transporting towards the Columbia River.
This is the same technology as “recycling" nuclear waste from reactors.
Some of the tanks in the #Hanford Tank Farm at the time of construction. There are 177 tanks, most are single hulled, and after they began leaking the last set was double hulled (also now leaking).
This is very bad news for radioactive waste management at #Hanford
"Hanford’s pre-treated waste might not meet Vit Plant criteria"
Much of the worst radioactive waste at Hanford is the "liquid" waste in the Tank Farms. The plan was to vitrify them (enclose them in glass). Now, looks like the Vit Plant may not be up to the task. Billions more wasted after the first Vit Plant was scuttled for safety concerns.
All of the tanks in the Tank Farm are leaking. Workers are hospitalized annually for inhaling toxic fumes working at the site. They may remain with no viable plan to process the waste into a form that is manageable.
1977 NBC News special. Amazing footage of waste being dumped into the Atlantic, the Pacific, and also vast waste sites across the US at the time, including homes and schools built with highly radioactive tailings. Little has been done since then.
"Born Violent: The Origins of Nuclear Power" (2019)
The first 13 #nuclear reactors built in the US only manufactured plutonium. The 14th was for electricity.
This article traces the history of the development and construction of the first prototypes & operating nuclear power plants, all as part of the Manhattan Project. Beginning with CP-1, the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction in 1942, it details subsequent Manhattan Project reactors and then examines the construction & operation of the first modern nuclear power plants built at Hanford, WA. These were built for the sole purpose of manufacturing plutonium for nuclear weapons. It argues that nuclear power was born violent: it was invented as part of the manufacturing process of nuclear weaponry. It was immediately essential to killing 100,00s of people.