This is one of the main drawbacks to Nuclear energy. In theory it's quite wonderful, I imagine, but the reality is this: No one has a clue what to do with the very deadly wastes that are produced along with the energy. In the meantime, accidents like this could have devastating effects on the earth and her creatures, including us.
Then there is always the possibility of full meltdown, like at Chernobyl and, almost, Three Mile Island.
Then, there is always the danger of having an incompetent government, beholden to the energy companies, including those that run these nuclear plants; a president who refuses to regulate them, leaves these plants, along with dangerous chemical plants and hot labs all over the country unprotected from attack, simply because the businesses don't want to have to pay for the security.
Ooops, we already have that. Somebody start the countdown to disaster.
Pump leaks 'hot' water at Hanford
A clogged pump caused an undetermined amount of highly radioactive waste to spill on the ground Thursday night and Friday morning during a transfer operation at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Kim Ballinger, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford, said several workers were involved in the transfer but none was contaminated.
As a precaution, about 50 office workers -- most of them between one to two miles from the spill site -- were evacuated Friday afternoon. Environmental monitoring found the traces of radioactivity Friday morning, and about 11 a.m. the workers were told to stay inside their buildings. They were moved out of the area about 3:30 p.m.
Ballinger said a team of workers sprayed a cementlike fixative over the 8- to 15-foot-diameter spill area to keep radioactive material from being carried by the wind.
Steve Wiegman, a senior technical adviser with the Department of Energy at Hanford, said no one knows how much of the radioactive liquid spilled because it rapidly sank into the ground.
"The area is very permeable, so there's no pool of liquid," he said.
The liquid was being pumped from an old single-shell storage tank to a newer double-shelled tank as part of a tank farm cleanup by contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group Inc.
Wiegman said the situation did not meet the criteria for an emergency declaration. But the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees Hanford, has established an event coordination team and will develop a plan to clean up the spill, he said.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
No comments:
Post a Comment