Barriers considered to prevent Hanford tank leak spread

.tri-cityherald ^ | February 28, 2013 | Annette Cary

[Rabin]

Covering the ground with a durable plastic or asphalt barrier is one option possible to stop the spread of radioactive waste leaking from Hanford’s underground tanks, said Jane Hedges, manager of the Department of Ecology’s nuclear waste program.

She spoke at a work session hearing of the Washington State Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee this morning.

Two of the barriers were built earlier at Hanford to prevent rain and snowmelt from driving contamination deeper into the soil. That contamination was left from earlier tanks spills or leaks. The barriers have markedly decreased the amount of water infiltrating the ground near the tanks, Hedges said.

[Rabin]

WE WAS GONA PUT A BOBWIRE FENCE TOO, Columbia along this stretch to the Pac, is just a string a lakes separated by hydropower dams. Each one fills the next, fills the next, and so on. Greenest dam power source on the planet but not renewable they say. A benny-spin off to this is the rise and fall of the beach, round the Hanford elbow, works to leach the crud from the low sand hills the tanks have called home All the dribblers is sunk in down to the gravel layer, theres this wide bend jus down a bit from the gravell to spinn the muck seep out offn shore sos it can dilute a bit afor it gits drun/ drinked.. We figured, shucks, no call sending it down to mexico, they don want it, lets jus let the river take it to Portland. Portlan don mind a bit, never have. May harden kanine tooth enamel too. Its all green, its win win for us all is how i see it.

R.

[TheZMan]

What?

[21twelve]

I’m guessing Rabin either is pretending to live downstream - or really DOES live downstream. Or perhaps he was the worker a few years ago that plopped a big rock down into one of these tanks to measure how full it was. (Yes - really!!)

[OKRA2012]

What have you been drinking?

[Fai Mao]

Paging Jimmy Carter, Jimmy carter please call the Atomic Energy Commission and explain why you forced them to stop reprocessing the fuel rods. Please Mr Carter. Tell us why you guaranteed these poisons would get out

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

Somehow, when faced with toxic underground leakage, my first try at a solution would not be to spread a blanket on top of it. But that’s just me.
TC

[21twelve]

The idea is to keep rainwater out, which only adds to the fluids in the soil which will help it get down to the aquifer and then out to the river. The groundwater is fairly deep IIRC.

Think of it as a puddle of oil in your gravel driveway. As long as it just stays there and soaks the gravel a bit it is no big deal. Wash it with a hose and it spreads out and into the ground and heading to the gutter and and beyond.

They are trying to figure out ways to put barriers below the tanks - but that has been difficult. The tanks are too old and weak to move, etc.

In that article (or a linked article) it says they are pumping out the old tanks. But there are a lot of them. And it takes ONE YEAR!!!??? to empty one tank!! Granted, it is unknown waste with Radioactive material, acids, and other unknown goop - but still - ONE YEAR!??

Although I have worked out at the site, and over a two week period saw a replacement sink for a bathroom go from being a box in the corner to an unwrapped sink in the corner with the cardboard leaning against the wall, so.....

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

Thanks for the lesson in mechanics. I think I've got that. "Think of it as a puddle of oil in your gravel driveway. As long as it just stays there and soaks the gravel a bit it is no big deal." Yeah, it's big deal. This toxic stuff will continue to disperse by various physical processes while the stupid bureaucrats say "problem solved; you can't sense it any more, so it's gone." Of course underground leaking containers are a hard problem. What did they think they would get when they put FRIKKIN NUCLEAR WASTES in metal containers in the ground? TC