People around here are angry about the delays at the Hanford nuclear reservation. They don't seem to understand the problem. This isn't about digging up a bunch of contaminated soil and moving it somewhere else. This is about merely containing a very large amount of contaminated water, some 80 square miles to be exact. The photo above shows how they used to get rid of radioactive wastes back in the 40s although the photo looks more like the 50s or 60s. They never thought a thing about digging a hole and burying anything contaminated whether it be tools or even an entire truck. Out of sight out of mind was the order of the day. The biggest fear right now is whether the contaminated water will make it's way to the Columbia river if it hasn't already. Clean up? Not going to happen. Containment? Maybe.
Hanford
6 comments:
nuclear wast is nothing to screw with that is why nimby applies to ourdesired waste site. It has an indeterminable life span.
Once here it is hare forever. That sounds like a hell of a lot of contaminated water. What stinks is there are many and all over the world.
I for one have no idea of the bulk of the radioactive wastes created in this country in various locations.
It seems to me like the best answer is to send it into space on rockets but maybe that would be more expensive than what is being done now?
Well, I guess the future is going to have to deal with all that shit so there isn't much point in me putting much effort in it now, they are the ones that will have to live with it.
I think for now I'll worry about something closer to home. Like keeping the firewood dry.
Maybe the best we can hope for is that they run out of the minerals they make it from?
But again, I have no idea how much radioactive stuff there is on this rock.
With what was known about radiation in the '50s, even, they should've done better than to bury large quantities of contaminated material over an aquifer. Criminal negligence in action, IMO.
The Hanford can has been kicked down the road for generations in one way or another. We're now in the eternal cleanup stage: always a journey, never a destination.
If someone wants to get rich enough to make a Wall Street banker blush, all they have to do is come up with technology that uses nuclear energy to neutralize nuclear waste.
In the meantime, I wouldn't bet much on how free of radiation contamination the Columbia downstream of Hanford is, truth be known.
Containment: n In US Policy speak, containment is equal to victory. Out of sight out of mind. I'm not saying it's correct. It is simply an observation on my part.
Actually, what you see in the picture was happening at Hanford until 2004, when the I-297 campaign to Clean Up Contamination put so much pressure on the Department of Energy that they announced their plans to immediately stop dumping wastes in unlined trenches & ditches.
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