‘US fails to contain Hanford nuke leak’

A nuclear scientist tells Press TV the United States has failed to contain nuclear waste leakage at the Hanford Site in the state of Washington, which continues to contaminate the habitat.

Behrad Nakhai said in an interview with Press TV on Sunday, “The Hanford Site is leaking and it has been leaking for many years. In fact, it is estimated that it has leaked over a million gallons of contaminated radioactive sludge.”
Nakhai said the site produces “one of the most contaminated radioactive materials in the United States that causes alarm for the habitat and environment surrounding this place,” adding that it “goes through the water system under ground and then contaminates it.”
Nakhai stated Washington faces surmounting difficulties in addressing the issue of nuclear waste at Hanford, where the “costs would exceed about ten billion dollars and is currently stuck in various bills in the Congress.”
He said “What needs to be addressed is that the Congress should appropriate enough funds for creating a safe and permanent depository to move nuclear waste.”
The expert warned the policy makers in Washington to stop the “same mentality of the Cold War of matching arms with arms and escalating arms buildup,” otherwise the US is doomed to “revisit the same problem years down the road at different sites.”