Leaks were found from an old tank nuclear waste in Spokane, in Washington state. This was announced by the American Department of Energy which excludes an increase in risks for the population. A lose is the gigantic underground tank called B-109 which contains 123,000 gallons of radioactive waste from the production of plutonium for the construction of atomic weapons at the Hanford power plant. The tank was built in the days of Manhattan Project and the waste produced by the operations at Hanford was stored there between 1946 and 1976. “Obviously this is a cause for concern,” said the Washington State Governor. Jay Inslee, stressing the need for more resources for Hanford.
“For us it has long been a cause for concern because there are thousands of gallons of waste stored it shouldn’t be acceptable,” inslee remarks. asking for a permanent solution. In the statement from the Department of Ecology it is estimated that the loss is equal to 3.5 gallons per day (one gallon equals about four liters), about 1,300 gallons per year.
“The loss adds up to one million gallons of soil waste from the Hanford site – declares the director of the ecology department, Laura Watson – this highlights the crucial need for resources to be allocated to the Hanford reservoirs which are old and which will continue to have leakage problems. “In the official statement from the Department of Energy it is specified that the reservoir was previously emptied of toxic liquids that any potential contamination will be captured and removed with a system that was specially installed years ago.