Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Nuclear Alert: #Hanford Dirty Secrets - DOE Announces Major Plutonium Leak in Storage Tank AY-102 | King5news/nsnbc


Well,

Now it is Official. #Hanford is Leaking.

And the DOE confirms.  Guess that makes it Officially SERIOUS.

It is:

AY-102 is one of 28 double shell underground nuclear storage tanks at Hanford. The double shell tank design was thought to be far more effective than the 149 single-shell tanks also on site. strong. - AlertsUSA

Coverage below from King 5 News, nsnbc and Threat Journal.com each in their own right, are arguably the Best coverage not being covered by the "media"...

WE will keep you updated HERE.
and on USAEBN on blogtalkradio

Stay Alert.
Stay Informed.
Be Prepared.

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     The first double-shell tank to have leaked at Hanford may be in worse condition than anyone imagined. Hanford workers conducting routine maintenance on the tank Thursday were shocked to find readings of radioactivity from material outside the tank.Read more...

    Washington on Alert after Nuclear Waste Leak


    Published On: Mon, Jun 24th, 2013

    Christof Lehmann (nsnbc),- Officials of the U.S. state Washington have urged the U.S. Federal Authorities to act swiftly, to cope with leaks at the Hanford nuclear site, where heightened radiation level readings outside and adjacent to the Hanford double shell tank AY-102 suggest, that highly radioactive nuclear waste has leaked through both shells of the tank. The Hanford nuclear facility was used to make Cold-War era nuclear bombs. 

    Washington Governor Jay Inslee stated, that there was no immediate threat to public health, but urged the federal authorities to act swiftly to cope with the situation, stressing, that he had already asked the federal authorities to take action about four months ago.

    Construction of the Hanford Nuclear Waste Tanks - Plutonium from the Hanford Facility was used for the construction of the bombs that incinerated tens of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
    Construction of the Hanford Nuclear Waste Tanks – Plutonium from the Hanford Facility was used for the construction of the bombs that incinerated tens of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

    Already in February Governor Jay Inslee drew attention to the fact, that at least six of the tanks, which are containing radioactive waste, were leaking. The alarm was raised, after decreasing radioactivity levels were observed within the tanks, while no elevated levels were observed outside of the double shell tanks themselves.
    The federal authorities failure to take immediate action may be the cause for the worsening of the situation, as heightened radiation levels have now been recorded in a containment pit next to the double-shell tank. The heightened radiation levels in the containment pit suggest, that radioactive waste material has leaked through both shells.
    In statements to the press, the Washington Governor, Jay Inslee said:
    “Federal experts have discovered what appears to be an elevated contamination level reading in the leak detection pit, outside and adjacent to the Hanford double-shell tank AY-102. This is most disturbing news for Washington. It is not clear yet, whether that contamination is coming directly from the outer shell of the AY-102 but it must be treated with the utmost seriousness”. 
    The Hanford Nuclear Facility is located approximately 300 kilometers southeast of Seattle. The site was, among other used for the production of the Plutonium for the bombs which incinerated tens of thousands in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killed tens of thousands more from radiation poisoning, and caused generations of human suffering from radiation poisoning in Japan.
    After the end of the second world war the Hanford facility was upgraded and expanded for cold war nuclear weapons production. The last reactor at Hanford was shut down in 1987, but both solid and liquid radioactive waste remained at the site.
    According to the Department of Energy, the Hanford facility holds millions of gallons of liquid nuclear waste in 177 tanks. In 1989 the Energy Department and authorities of the State of Washington reportedly signed a deal which obligated the federal authorities to clean up the site.
    Governor Jay Inslee stated, that the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz had called him Thursday night and informed him about the heightened radiation levels. Governor Inslee said:
    “I told the secretary that I continue to have serious concerns about the pace of addressing the leaking tanks. We will be insisting on an acceleration of the remediation of all the tanks, not just AY-102… The Department of Energy has a legal obligation to clean up Hanford and remove or treat the waste, and to ensure that this legal obligation is fulfilled”. 
    Erik Holmes, who is a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Ecology called the detection of the heightened radiation levels outside the double-shell tank disturbing and said:
    “Until Last night, it was thought that the leak was contained in the outer shell, but workers have now detected elevated radioactivity levels within the leak detection pit”.
    The “leak detection pit” is an open-pit and an emergency containment that can hold some of the radioactive liquids which are contained in the tanks. It is neither adequate for preventing environmental contamination or for containing a spill in the case of a catastrophic rupture of the tanks. So far, there are no independently verifiable risk assessment data available.

    About the Author


    - Dr. Christof Lehmann is the founder and editor of nsnbc. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and a wide range of other political issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations. On 28 August 2011 he started his blog nsnbc, appalled by misrepresentations of the aggression against Libya and Syria. In March 2013 he turned nsnbc into a daily, independent, international on-line newspaper. He can be contacted at nsnbc international at nsnbc.wordpress@gmail.com



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    http://www.king5.com/

    Tank AY-102 leak timeline: 12 months between first signs and public announcement

    Tank AY-102 leak timeline: 12 months between first signs and public announcement
    This cross-section of double-shell tank AY-102 shows the annulus -- the area between the inner and outer wall. Monitoring devices are lowered into the annulus space via risers. Credit: John Vu / KING 5 News


    Posted on April 22, 2013 at 10:00 PM

    Updated Tuesday, May 21 at 6:18 PM

    The first signs of a leak in Hanford double-shell tank AY-102 were detected in October 2011, a full year before the Department of Energy and Washington River Protection Solutions announced the leak officially.

    2011

    Oct. 9: Leak detection equipment (ENRAF) senses liquid in AY-102 annulus and goes into alarm.

    Oct. 10: WRPS employee Mike Geffre and a colleague check the ENRAF to see if it is malfunctioning. They see waste residue on a part (the plummet) of the ENRAF that monitors liquid in the tank annulus. A Geiger counter reading through leaded glass shows the ENRAF plummet is emitting radiation.

    Geffre alerts his WRPS managers that he believes the tank has a leak based on his visual inspection and radiation found. Managers respond by saying the ENRAF must have malfunctioned and that rainwater, not nuclear waste, must have seeped into the annulus space.

    Oct. 12: Geffre checks the AY-102 ENRAF again and confirms it is working properly. Notes plummet is wet in a report. He also take a photo.

    Gary Tardiff, an engineer working at the AY tank farm, recommends that a camera be deployed into the AY-102 annulus to scan for signs of water intrusion.

    Oct. 24: Geffre is asked to flush the plummet on the AY-102 ENRAF that went into alarm on the 9th. Before the flush, a Geiger counter reading shows the plummet emitting 5 millirem of radiation; after the flush, the reading drops to 1.5 mrem.

    Oct. 26: A spike in radiation levels is recorded by a continuous air monitor (CAM) on AY-102, possibly because the flushing of the plummet on Oct. 24 stirred up more contaminated particles into air in the annulus.

    Oct. 27: WRPS managers task Geffre with re-setting the ENRAF on AY-102 into a less sensitive state. Geffre conducts the re-set under protest. The ENRAF's new setting results in it ignoring the leak it detected on Oct. 9.

    2012

    March 10: ENRAF plummet is found to be stuck to the bottom of the AY-102 annulus in the exact spot where the ENRAF detected a leak in 2011.

    Apr. 16: Video inspection request made on Oct. 12 is officially cancelled. "No inspection needed" is marked as the reason for the change.

    May 24: Wire that suspends ENRAF plummet into AY-102 annulus breaks. Wire and reel pieces that are retrieved are found to be reading a radioactive reading of 20,000 dpm/100cm2.

    June 4: A bullet camera is deployed into the AY-102 annulus to locate the plummet stuck on the bottom. Employees say the video from the camera showed images of what looked like nuclear waste.

    Aug. 1: WRPS begins a regularly scheduled detailed video inspection of the AY-102 annulus.
    Aug. 10: Samples of waste material retrieved from the AY-102 annulus floor are sent to the 222-S lab at Hanford for testing.
    Aug. 13: Preliminary test results show the material to contain four radioactive elements that match the type of elements contained in AY-102.
    Sept. 7: At a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board, DOE tank farm official Tom Fletcher says the source of the waste in the AY-102 annulus remains undetermined. Board members said they left thinking the situation with the tank was not critical.

    Oct. 22: The Dept. of Energy's Office of River Protection and WRPS confirm that AY-102 is leaking radioactive waste into its annulus.

    Reference:

     

    Nuclear Alert: Leak at #Hanford nuclear site “has grown substantially” — “The worst of the worst on planet” — enenews/King5

    - See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2013/06/nuclear-alert-leak-at-hanford-nuclear.html#sthash.8dN0WJ7B.dpuf

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    What You Need to Know
    The U.S. Department of Energy late last week announced that at least one of the nuclear waste storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is leaking directly into the ground.
    According to their announcement. workers detected dangerous levels of radiation during a routine survey of the tank's leak detection pit which is located well outside of the double walled containment system. The underground carbon steel vessel known as AY-102 holds 865,000 gallons of the most chemically contaminated, corrosive and radioactive material known to exist.
    As previously reported by Threat Journal on several occasions this year (here, here and here), at least six tanks containing radioactive waste were leaking, based on decreasing levels within them, but no elevated radioactivity levels were recorded outside of the containers themselves, or at least none was being admit ted....
    AY-102 is one of 28 double shell underground nuclear storage tanks at Hanford. The double shell tank design was thought to be far more effective than the 149 single-shell tanks also on site. strong.
    AlertsUSA continues to follow this story and will provide additional details and updates as events warrant

    Nuclear Alert: Leak at #Hanford nuclear site “has grown substantially” — “The worst of the worst on planet” — enenews/King5

    Leak at U.S. nuclear site “has grown substantially” — “The worst of the worst on planet” —  #Hanford

     The worst of the worst on the planet” -KING 5
    Hanford dumping ground via Rosemere Assn Photo credit: HOANW
    - See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2013/06/nuclear-alert-leak-at-hanford-nuclear.html#sthash.8dN0WJ7B.dpuf

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