Six single-shell underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation’s
most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.
He warned there could be more leaky tanks and that an investigation is under way to find out. There is no immediate safety threat, he said.
Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids.
“The amount of leakage varies from tank to tank. They are certainly levels that cause us concern and demand action,” Inlsee said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.
Inslee is in D.C. this weekend for a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and a meeting with other governors at the White House.
The governor said it was discovered that readings from the tanks were not being properly evaluated. “He (Chu) reported to me that a new evaluation of data … has shown that there are six tanks that have had a drop in level with a high probability that these tanks are leaking,” Inslee said.
“So to find these, you do have to have pretty exquisite instruments to find the change in the level. We have those instruments. They work and have worked. The problem, according to Secretary Chu, is the data simply was not interpreted in a way that would be able to identify the change in level.
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He warned there could be more leaky tanks and that an investigation is under way to find out. There is no immediate safety threat, he said.
Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids.
“The amount of leakage varies from tank to tank. They are certainly levels that cause us concern and demand action,” Inlsee said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.
Inslee is in D.C. this weekend for a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and a meeting with other governors at the White House.
The governor said it was discovered that readings from the tanks were not being properly evaluated. “He (Chu) reported to me that a new evaluation of data … has shown that there are six tanks that have had a drop in level with a high probability that these tanks are leaking,” Inslee said.
“So to find these, you do have to have pretty exquisite instruments to find the change in the level. We have those instruments. They work and have worked. The problem, according to Secretary Chu, is the data simply was not interpreted in a way that would be able to identify the change in level.
Read More