Hanford nuclear waste site at risk of explosion

The most contaminated nuclear waste site in the United States could explode at any moment, posing a serious threat to lives in the area, authorities say.

The radioactive waste tanks located at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the US state of Washington is at risk of exploding, threatening all inhabitants around the site, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DFNSB) said on April 1.

“All the double-shell tanks contain waste that continuously generates some flammable gas,” said the agency, adding that “this gas will eventually reach flammable conditions if adequate ventilation is not provided.”

An explosion would release flammable toxins that would “have considerable radiological consequences, endanger personnel, contaminate portions of the Tank Farms, and seriously disrupt the waste cleanup mission,” said the DFNSB.

In February, the US Department of Energy said that liquid levels are diminishing in the six underground containers at the Hanford Site, with one of the 177 tanks leaking liquids in the range of 150 to 300 gallons a year.

The underground containers hold millions of gallons of highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear arms.

One million gallons (4,000 cubic meters) of highly radioactive waste from Hanford is currently traveling through the groundwater toward the Columbia River and will reach the river in 12 to 50 years if the cleanup operation is delayed, according to Hanford Quick Facts, published by the Washington Department of Ecology.

The US government allocates around USD 2 billion per year for the cleanup at the Hanford Site – roughly 30 percent of its nationwide budget for nuclear cleanup.

The Hanford Site, which has the highest level of radioactive waste of any nuclear site in the US, produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.