An underground nuclear waste storage tank in southeastern Washington state that dates to World War II appears to be leaking radioactive chemical waste into the ground, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology, which is overseeing the site’s cleanup.
The 75-year-old leaking tank, designated B-109, is leaking about 3.5 gallons of waste per day, the equivalent of 1,300 gallons a year, according to CBS News.
“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 Washington State Department of Ecology’s director, said in a statement.
Tank B-109 is but one of about 177 tanks at Hanford, 149 of which have a single shell. Historically – single shell tanks were used for storing radioactive liquid waste and designed to last 20 years.
And even though most of the radioactive waste has been transferred to double-shelled tanks over the years, residue remains in the older single-shell tanks. It is believed that up to six of these “empty” tanks are leaking.
NBC News is reporting that the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were notified Thursday that the tank was likely leaking.
“There is no increased health or safety risk to the Hanford workforce or the public,” said Geoff Tyree, a spokesman for the Energy Department. “Contamination in this area is not new and mitigation actions have been in place for decades to protect workers, the public and the environment.”
The federal agency claims that the tank had been previously emptied of pumpable liquids, leaving a small amount of liquid waste inside. They add that “systems in the area capture and remove contaminants that reach the groundwater and ensure the protection of the Columbia River.”
Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the Hanford site produced about two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal, including the bomb dropped in 1945 on Nagasaki, Japan, and now is the most contaminated radioactive waste site in the nation.
Cleanup of the nuclear site has already taken decades and cost the government billions of dollars, and despite the site still being cpntaminated, on November 10, 2015, it was designated as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park alongside other sites in Oak Ridge and Los Alamos.
The Seattle-based watchdog group Heart of America Northwest said the leak releases radioactive waste that is dangerous for hundreds to thousands of years. “There’s no such thing as a small leak from a high-level nuclear waste tank,” director Gerry Pollet said.
