I have written many articles about the problems at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Central Washington State. There so many issues at Hanford that I could do a daily blog on just Hanford and never run out of material. Many citizen groups, including the Heart of America Northwest, are pressuring Washington State and Federal departments such as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to move more aggressively to stop the horrible environmental damage that is ongoing at Hanford.
During World War II and the Cold War, uranium was milled and fashioned into fuel rods for the Hanford reactors in an area called the “300 Area.” The 300 Area was also used for experiments in chemically removing plutonium from spent uranium fuel rods. Each day, about two million gallons of liquid radioactive waste was poured into settling ponds and trenches next to the Columbia River.
In the 1990s, some trenches were dug up and some of the contaminated soil was removed. The level of uranium in the groundwater went down. As a result of this work, it was assumed that if contaminated soil was removed to a depth of fifteen feet, the pollution of the groundwater would eventually stop. However, it was later discovered that there was contamination in the soil below fifteen feet that still leached into the groundwater. Also, the rising and falling levels of the Columbia River caused the ground water to rise and fall which resulted in the periodic saturation of zones of contaminated soil. Today there is a one hundred twenty five acre groundwater plume from the 300 Area that is carrying about three hundred thirty pounds of uranium into the Columbia River each year.
Part of the current cleanup plan involves digging up the trenches, pipes and some of the soil where the radioactive garbage was dumped. Unfortunately, it would cost over one billion dollars to dig up all the contaminated soil. There is not sufficient space in the lined landfill at Handford to contain the seventy million cubic feet of contaminated soil. Ironically, the digging itself might increase the contamination of the groundwater because the water used to control dust would soak down through the soil into the groundwater.
Instead of digging up all the contaminated soil, the current cleanup plan includes sequestering or locking the uranium in place by adding phosphates to the soil to chemically bind the uranium. The resulting uranium phosphate compound, called autunite, is a stable mineral that does not dissolve easily and would keep the uranium from moving with the groundwater. The phosphates would be added by pouring them onto the ground and injecting them into wells that did not reach the water table. This approach is predicted to lower the uranium contamination of the groundwater to safe levels over a few decades. Over decades of research, no better alternative has been found.
Critics of the plan say that more research is needed including more tests of the actual proposed processes at the 300 Area before the cleanup plan is finalized. There will be a public hearing in Seattle at 7 PM on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 to discuss the Hanford cleanup at the University Heights Center, 5031 University Way, Seattle. There will be a pre-hearing workshop at 6:15.
