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ing on its side. Each has internal radix- terms of Hanford's inventory of solid nants that were improperk disposed of I non levels ranging from slight to dead- radioattive waste. Tn 40-year-old, wa- or that are near groundwater or the riv- ly. Their inner surfaces, air filters and ter-filled basins neaz the Columbia Ric- er-for the sole purpose of redisposing ~l duct systems contain large quantiries of ey the DOE and its contractors have of them more carefully and systemati- ' I dangerous radioactive elements. been storing 2,100 tons of spent nude- tally in what is known as the 200.4rea. ' In one of the canyons, known as B- ar fuel, much of it corroded and releas- This area, which includes the reprocess- I I plant, room-size air filters may have ing radioactive elements into the basin ing plants and the high-level waste I` collected as many as 100 million curies water A strong eazthquake, it was real- tanks, ~s on a plateau about 7.i meters I of radioattive cesium and strontium, ized, could release up to 9,000 cubic above the water table. Roughly'0 per- $t7tENTtFIt] AntExtcaN has learned. meters of contaminated water from the cent of Hanford's waste sites are al- Such avast accumulation of radioattiv- basins into the soil and river, allowing read? on the plateau, so the plan basi- ity will make demolition of the build- radiation in the azea above the basins tally involves getting waste from the ing-as required by an agreement be- to soar to lethal levels and dispersing other 30 percent up there. ]n some cos- I ' tween the federal government and the fine radioactive particles into the air. In es, though, "what [hey are doing is I _ state-extremely difficult. A better esti- fact, in the 1970s a large quantin of moving a problem and giving it to mate of the radioactivity is not avail- contaminated water did leak from the someone else a generation latey" one able, because it is so high that `we basins, as did a lesser amount in 1993. Hanford sciemist says. don't have instruments to measure it (No radiation was dispersed into the Besides being the destination for precisely," a Hanford scientist admits. aiy because the leaks were slow, en- thousands of tons of waste and con- The canyons are heavily reinforced ro abling additional water to be pumped taminants from the soil, the 200 Area withstand bombing and have massive in to keep the fuel bundles submerged.) will be the sire of a storage building, a shields in the walls to keep the radix- The DOE spends about $30 million a kind of interim repository, for the 2,100 tion in. Currently maintenance and year maintaining the basins in this un- tons of stabilized spent fuel, as well as ,I surveillance at each of the five repro- settling state. But a $700-million crash another such facilin• for the immobi- ~ cessing plants costs $35 million to $45 program to convert the fuel for stable, lized, high-level waste from the 177 million a year. The DOE and Westing- dry storage in an interim reposirory on giant tanks. Currently an agreement -•Y ~I house Hanford, however, are attempt- high ground is about to ing to decontaminate B-plant and an- begin. When completed, I~ I~ 4~ other canyon, called Purex; they hope around the year 2000, the ~ x+„' ; ~ to put them into a state requiring rela- maintenance costs are ex~ ' Lively little maintenance. (The catch- petted to drop to about phrase at Hanford is "controlled, clean $1 million a year. As with 1 and stable.") The three-year projects Hanford's plutonium and aim to reduce annual expenses to $1 or cesium and s¢ontium $2 million a year. capsules, the ultimate dis- At B-plant, though, about $10 mil- position of the spent fuel t~i I lion a year will still be needed to sustain is uncertain. I - ;~;r (Jthe attached Waste Encapsulation Sror- I 3" age Facility. It houses water-filled pools A New "Cleanup" ° i tj [hat cool and shield some 1,900 cap- j sules, each containing either cesium 137 ~11 told, about $600 or strontium 90. The isoropes were re- million of Hanford's moved from [he high-level waste tanks annual budget goes to- a ears a o to make the waste less ther- ward paying what clean- Y.~ I, Iil. Y g molly and radiologically hot. up officials call the cold The isotopes have half-lives of about war `mortgage"-safely three decades, but the radiation level at maintaining buildings and ' , I the surface of one of the capsules is plants, many old and de- ~ ~ enough to deliver a fatal dose in four raying, and keeping them seconds. The radiation is so intense that from leaking more radix- its interaction •with the water arotmd Lion into the aiy water and xhe canisters causes a bright blue glow, soil. In addition to the like a gaudy effect in ascience-fiction need m spend vast sums , movie. Some analysts have questioned paying the mortgage, there = how long the capsules can be kept as are more complex reasons ~ they are. Brush and Heitman, forexam- why so little actual clean- ple, wrote last yeaz that `Hanford has up has been achieved. ~ no technical basis for assuring that When the DOE's con- "TRANSPORTING PLUTONIUM is not child's play, I WESF [the encapsulation storage fa8li- ttattors at Hanford are appearances m the connary. The handle allows workers I ty] may be relied upon for long-term not trying to keep urgent m be more than a meter from the wagon's comm~ts while pulling it, minimamg exposure to radiation. In safe storage of these capsules." risks Erom becoming di- addition, the wagon's p•lindrical pedestals securely cep- I The cesium and strontium capsules casters, they are generally orate cans containing the material, so that an upset can- are the proverbial tip of the iceberg, in rounding up contami- not trigger a spontaneous nuclear chain reaction. Han/ord's Nuclear Wasteland Sacwnrtc .4ntrxican Slay 199e 93