Friday, March 21, 2008

Hanford clean up?


Washington state doesn't seem to pleased about the progress of the remediation at Hanford the nations largest radioactive waste site.

Hanford


A little background on this. I started in Haz Mat about the time this all began. Back then there was actually no real plan for 'clean up'. Billions of dollars were spent just on attorneys and planners and the mass of red tape over a period of over six years. The problems: nobody knew the extent of the contamination or even how to even contain the water leaking from the holding tanks and shafts. It wasn't until mid to late 90's that ground vitrification that was still in the developmental stage was considered.
This is not really my area of expertise but I have spoken to some co workers who have worked over there. They say it's insanely slow work because of the paperwork and the safety issues. In any given day they might spend 3/4 of a work shift on safety orientation and preperation for the job. For the state to threaten to sue for the slow progress seems like a no win situation. What would the state gain by suing?

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