150,000 SQ.KM of Pacific with Fukushima nuclear material - ‘Remarkable’ amount released in ocean

[mick063]

10. You really don't know do you?

Let's just say that I work there.

I'm a Nuclear Chemical Operator and I work at these tank farms. I can't say a whole lot more, but I can say that a prolonged sequester is delaying the resolution of a potential disaster.

I'll explain a simple concept here. The ocean can dilute radioactive contamination to negligible effect. It won't take long to disperse the radionuclide's. A common saying in the nuclear clean up world is "dilution is the solution".

Aqua firs? That is a different story. They are extremely difficult to clean up and can take hundreds of years to naturally clean themselves. This is fracking type damage on steroids.

These tank farms consist of 53 million gallons of mixed waste. Mixed waste is a combination of hazardous chemicals (chemicals that requires DOT placards on vehicles that transport them) as well as highly radioactive waste. The contamination at Fukishima is almost 100% a radiological hazard with no other hazardous constituents involved.

The large-scale effort to clean up Hanford is nearly a quarter-century old. Hanford was the state’s largest recipient — more than $1 billion — of federal money under President Obama’s stimulus program. The money went to begin construction of a vitrification plant that will eventually turn radioactive waste to glass and permanently isolate it from the environment.

But the waste is, as Inslee described it, a “witches’ brew” and treating it poses a major technical challenge. The vitrification plant is years behind its original schedule and far over budget. Before the project can go ahead, the DOE plans a full-scale mockup demonstration to show that its technology can work. “This is something never before done in human history,” said Inslee.

In the meantime, the state will insist on additional monitoring, and wants sludge pumped out of the old single-shell tanks and into double-shell tanks. The first tank to be confirmed as a leaker — T-111 — still contains more than 440,000 gallons of radioactive sludge. It was built originally in 1943-44.

Here is a good link on adverse health effects from radiological contamination.