An Attempt to Turn Nuclear Waste into Glass

[cheybarnes]

The aging underground steel tanks at the former Hanford nuclear weapons are leaking at an unprecedented rate.

The Hanford Site is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. It has an interesting –if creepy history. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in the town of Hanford in south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, and in Fat Man, the bomb that detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.

Decades of nuclear weapons production have produced 56 million gallons of plutonium, cesium and other radioactive sludge that is seeping into the ground beneath. This represents one of our nation's most alarming environmental emergencies. One million gallons of sludge from about a third of the 177 underground tanks have leaked into the soil, and some of it has already reached aquifers under the plateau.

The Columbia River, the West's biggest waterway, is seven miles downhill from the waste and under a worst-case scenario, could be hit by the plumes in as little as 50 years, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

The U.S. Energy Department has known about this problem for many years and has been working for the last 24 years to develop a highly advanced 12 story facility, the size of a football field, to transform the radioactive muck into glass or “vitrify” it for easier disposal.

It’s a great idea but unfortunately has to date been an abysmal failure. After spending over 13 billion dollars, the U.S. Department of Energy officials ordered a halt to construction on the most important parts of the waste treatment plant after outside experts raised warnings that the technology for mixing the waste in processing tanks could cause dangerous buildups of explosive hydrogen gas and might allow plutonium clumps to form potentially causing a spontaneous nuclear reaction.

I’m all for promotion of ways to safely dispose of nuclear waste products and have been delving deeply into research on thorium reactors amongst other alternatives, but the bottom line is the sooner we end nuclear proliferation, the more time future generations will have to clean up the mess their parents left for them.

 

[flacaltenn]

This is a primary enviro catastrophy.. Caused by, Ignored by, and Mishandled by the very govt that gets to write itself enviro waivers to its' own policies.. It needs to be handled TODAY...

Putting a NATIONAL nuclear waste dispository on hold does not help the cause. This is NOT a pollution event associated with the generation of nuclear electricity. The Bulldozers PUT those cheezy drum containers there --- They need to REPACK that waste and DISPOSE of it properly.. Think we could alert the press and tell them that THIS is more important than a stupid traffic stunt pulled by the Governors office in New Jersey??? Or maybe cut thru the SuperBowl coverage to run an occasional update?

Should be an issue in EVERY Federal election.. To clean up the nuclear weapons waste sites...

 

[Two Thumbs]

hmm, considering enviros tend to over exaggerate, by a lot, and by a lot, they won't hesitate to lie, and keep lying no matter the facts.


I can't answer your poll.


so

if this is true, grats, you now know the Fed couldn't give shit about you, and they want control over your health care.

if not, which I think is more likely, the idea of wasting billions to turn it into glass, is just ignorant

 

[flacaltenn]

Glass passivation has been used all the world.. It doesn't turn nuclear waste INTO glass, it PACKS it into leaded glass as a new container.. Which is important here, because much of what's leaking is fluids and slurries... There's more to this story about how the money has actually been spent..

Step one is to build containment facilities DIRECTLY OVER (and under) the waste dumps.. And try to mitigate in place.

 

[cheybarnes]

thank you for the clarification, it makes sense.
But what to do with it after is the burning question. Eventually the glass containers break down as well.

 

[flacaltenn]

thank you for the clarification, it makes sense.
But what to do with it after is the burning question. Eventually the glass containers break down as well.

Glass is not very biodegradable.. That's why we don't want it in landfills.. Even in direct contact with acidic soil -- it would not lose much integrity.

But you're right -- it needs to go somewhere and get monitored. That's what Yucca Mtn was for.. But due to pressure from Harry Reid -- this got cancelled. There is an alternate site that COULD be pressed into service.. But the Govt promised a safe and centralized storage facility for passivated nuclear waste YEARS ago and has spent $BILLs on the development of Yucca Mtn and others -- but never followed thru..

Can only assume they LIKE to have an enviro disaster they can point to in order to make them more important and relevent..

Best I can tell --- Here's where your $Bills went in Hanford.. Dont know what went wrong with that little Federal project...

Stealth Kurion Emerges to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Glass ? Tech News and Analysis

If you know why they failed in what 5 other countries can do --- please let me know..