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<br /> How Hanford Became Contaminated: Some Examples
<br /> I ¦ NUCLEAR REACTORS
<br /> w r All but one of Hanford's nine nuclear reactors. ~pa
<br /> r• which created plutonium in fuel rods, drew water ~ro'
<br /> ` from the nearby Columbia River, ran it through the hn
<br /> reactor to cool it antl then dischargetl the water
<br /> - ..;,f k; _ back into the aver. When fuel cladtlings ruptured.
<br /> - radioactive elements contaminated the water. ta:
<br /> which was diverted to [he soil and flowed back to m
<br /> the river. All the reactors also had nearby bursa; -a[
<br /> grounds, where workers dumped solid objects. m - re
<br /> eluding some extremely radioactive ones. ,T,
<br /> ¦ REPROCESSING CANYONS ht
<br /> Five reprocessing canyons were built (three in pl
<br /> 200 Area West and two in 200 Area Eastl to ex-
<br /> tract plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Work le
<br /> ers poured millions of cubic meters of relativeh
<br /> lightly radioactive antl chemically contaminates a.
<br /> wastewater imo the soil. In the 19405 antl early li.
<br /> 19505. more strongly radioactive wastes from one o
<br /> - plant were injectetl hundretls of feet below ground. tl
<br /> ¦ ~ At the same time, large quantities of radioactive
<br /> iodine were releasetl into the air from two plants ~
<br /> ¦ HIGFFLEVEL WASTE TANKS it
<br /> A total of 177 tanks (91 in 200 Area Eas[ antl 86 - h
<br /> - - in 200 Area West) store 210.000 cubic meters of
<br /> -i.;. higNy radioactive nuclear waste. a by-protluc[ of t
<br /> _ reprocessing. Sixty-seven of the tanks are knows C
<br /> - w suspected of having leaketl an estimated 3.700 c
<br /> - cubic meters of [he intensely radioactive waste
<br /> - into [he soil. I
<br /> - ¦PL'JiONIUM FINISHING PLANT - t
<br /> _ - - ' From [his plan[, wastes containing transuranic ei~ ,
<br /> - emen[s, such a5 plutonium and americium, were i
<br /> r pumped into the grountl. Many intlustrial solvent=_
<br /> he 1,450-square-kilometer Han f,~e and other chemical contaminants were also dis nom, ~ '
<br /> Tford site encompasses eight dif- e~ charged, including carbon tetrachloride, tributyi %b"
<br /> ferent sets of numbered areas, where ,~~tt`P phosphate, aluminum fluoritle nitritle. antl lard ail
<br /> relat°d activities in plutonium pfoduC- ~P (the latter was used as a cutting oil in the machir.
<br /> ing of plutonum metal).
<br /> lion were carried out. The three most - _
<br /> important were the 100, 200 and 300 R. - ~ ¦ EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES
<br /> ~ 4
<br /> Areas, where nUClear materials were - A plutonium laboratory, nuclear-fuel fabrication fa
<br /> E ifradiated, prOCessed and developed. ~ '"r cilities and six small test reactors all occupy what
<br /> -Richland, Wash., a tiny village before is known as the 300 Area. Waste and uranium
<br /> World War II, was expanded to house 0 4 8 12 ~ _ bearing liquids were sometimes discharged mto
<br /> ~O•~ the soil from the laboratories and facilities, as
<br /> -workers at the Site. KILOMETERS - were contaminated coolants from the reactors.
<br /> hasized roduction above atl else. continues to re ulace itself where cer- deterioratin conditions ~
<br /> p p g g prompted a
<br /> Scatting wtth the Atomic Energy Com- rain nuclear materials, such as uranitun federal raid in 1989 and a subsequent -
<br /> mission in the 1940s, the agencies that and plutonium, are concerned.) During lawsuit against the plant's main con-
<br /> oversaw the weapons complexes were the late 1980s, newspaper investigations trattoy Rockwell International. Ina
<br /> essenciatly unconcerned with em'iron- began offering the first hints of the ex- plea bargain, Rockwell paid $185 mil-
<br /> menral degradation. (Nor, it seems, did tent of the contamination inside some lion, and the charges were dropped.
<br /> Congress pay it much heed.) The DOE of the complexes, intensifying the pees- At about the time of the Rocky Flats
<br /> and its predecessors answered to no sure on the department to fundamen- episode, the DOE formally faced the in-
<br /> outside regulators and, it is now known, tally change its activities with regard to evitable by aeacing the Office of Envi-
<br /> obscured or lied about operations and the environment and safety. ronmental Management (which ex- z
<br /> conditions inside the complexes. For the DoE, becoming an externally panded on the existing Office of Waste
<br /> A turnaround began in the mid- regulated entity was difficult and some- Management). This year Environmen-
<br /> 1980s, when a series of landmark rul- times traumatic. At [he Rocky Flats cal Management will receive $6.026
<br /> ings in federal courts established the ap- complex near Denver, where the de- billion of the DOE's [oral budget of -
<br /> plicability of state and federal environ- parrment's contractors machined Pluto- $16.3 billion ($3.4 billion still goes to-
<br /> mental laws and regulations co DOE nium, allegations of secret violations of ward weapons work). In comparison,
<br />
<br /> ' ac[iviries. (Notably, however, the DOF, environmental laws and dangerously the entire 1996 budget of the FPA (not
<br /> 90 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Ma}'1996 f'IQrtfOIdS Nuclear lL'asteGrnd
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