Hanford, Columbia River and Yucca Mountain: 'Hot' and nasty scenario

The ‘whistleblower’ post - based on a series of videos sent by alert reader, SailorColin - apparently resonated with another reader who happens to be a seismic geologist familiar with the radioactive contamination issues surrounding both the Hanford Reservation on the Columbia River in Washington state, and Yucca Mountain, right here in Nevada.

The first email:

“What they want from a ditched nuclear waste depository in Nevada is somewhere to dump the waste.  Right now it’s either stored on-site at existing power plants or is at Hanford.  There was an article in today’s Chronicle about a radioactive rabbit caught and destroyed at Hanford. 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013354107_apwaradioactiverabbit1stldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

Believe me, this is only the tip of the iceberg.  If most people realized what Hanford truly represents as a radiation hazard they would be horrified.  Imagine hundreds of pits filled with liquid nuclear waste so hot that it boils; so hot it corrodes the cement enclosures holding it; so hot they have to pour new containment around the degraded, radioactive concrete every so many years.  It’s real and it’s scarier than anyone realizes.  They want Yucca Mountain because the Columbia River water table is threatened by contamination from Hanford.  It’s only a matter of time.”

Hmmmm. We know a bit about nuclear waste here at Rancho Maven. Mr. Capt. Maven worked at the Phillips Petroleum facility at the Idaho National Laboratory in Arco, Idaho back in the day in order to pay the bills while learing to fly. Don’t let anybody ever tell you that nuclear energy never killed anybody. It did. While he was working there. Ooops. I guess it was a real project flying the lead coffins out in the middle of the night. The gear on one of the aircraft went right through the tarmac.

I digress.

Actually, the waste from nuclear power plants is relatively benign when compared to the really nasty stuff which has been produced over more than five decades of cold war arms race weapons production - largely centered around the processing of plutonium.

Another email:

“http://www.doh.wa.gov/hanford/publications/overview/columbia.html

http://www.hanford.gov/?page=519&parent=0
Notice the last paragraph … “Disposal”… this is where Yucca Mountain comes into play.”

Yup. Here’s how it sounds in official DOE-Hanford speak:

“High-level waste canisters will be temporarily stored at Hanford’s Canister Storage Building (see Canister Storage Building link) until such time as a national repository is identified and constructed.  About 480 canisters of HLW are expected to be produced each year during operations.”

Until a national respository is identified? That’s almost funny. Almost.

The third email:

From Hanford’s own documents on their website:

“149 of these single shell tanks were built at Hanford between 1943 and 1964. 83 single shell tanks are located in the 200 West Area, with another 66 single shell tanks found in the 200 East Area. However, even with 149 tanks available, the volume of chemical wastes generated through the plutonium production mission far exceeded the capacity of the tanks. Some of the liquid waste did end up being put into holding facilities and some was poured into open trenches. Some of the wastes that were put into the tanks didn’t stay there, as the heat generated by the waste and the composition of the waste caused an estimated 67 of these tanks to leak some of their contents into the ground. Some of this liquid waste migrated through the ground and has reached the groundwater (see groundwater remediation).”

“In a study done during the early 1980s by the Corps of Engineers (and corroborated independently by WPPSS - Washington Public Power Supply System), interpretations of seismic risk impacted Hanford.  There were two nuclear plants under construction at the facility that were shut down by the findings in the two independent seismological reports on the region.  The report done for the Corps of Engineers was intended to evaluate dams on the Snake River.  It turned out that the maximum credible earthquake for the Hanford area was 6.75.  The two nuclear plants were engineered for a 6.0, so the reports shut them both down.  No nuclear plants have been initiated for construction on the west coast since then.  Things could change significantly within the next few years though, what with the new frenzy to get rid of coal-burning plants.  We’ll see.”

Yes, I guess we will see. Although it might take it longer to happen with Harry Reid back in Washington D. C. for six more years of keeping the weapons grade nuclear waste wolf at bay.

Personally, I’m a bit conflicted about the use of nuclear power. I’ve seen it used effeciently and safely all over Europe. They have strict government imposed guidelines about how the plants are built and operated - since the Europeans aren’t quite as beholden to corporate interests yet. Knowing how money talks and bullshit walks over here, however, I’m more than a little skeptical about further production of more relatively low level waste when we have such an abundance of the really, really nasty weapons grade stuff which we haven’t dealt with either honestly or effectively.

Another consideration is that Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the nation. Additionally, in the beginning of the Yucca Mountain project all the positives centered around the supposedly wonderful geology of that area - that it was geologically ideal for such a repository.

However, later study - undertaken by some more locals, and I mean my actual neighbors - by DRI among others, indicate a serious possibility that fluids migrate up and throughout the structure of the mountain itself. That this is real can be demonstrated by later changes in the engineering of the site vis a vis engineered drip shield barriers that weren’t even thought to be necessary originally.

These barriers are designed to keep waste from seeping into groundwater - a possibility that Yucca Mountain’s supporters originally said wouldn’t/couldn’t/shouldn’t happen due to the natural geology.

Apparently that natural geology isn’t all it was cracked up to be. I’ve worked with hydro-geologists around here in the Great Basin of Nevada enough to know that geology isn’t always what it appears to be at first glance.

To quote Thomas Jefferson - “delay is preferable to error.”

So, all that said, I’m pretty sure that Yucca Mountain isn’t the answer.

For more reading on the subject, you might go to the following:

State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects

Nuclear Information Resource Service and/or Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program

Discover Magazine:Yucca Mountain Ruled Out for Storing Nuke Waste. Now What?