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Hanford Nuclear Waste Vitrification Plant "Too Dangerous"

Noryungi writes "Scientific American reports, in a chilling story, that the Hanford, Washington nuclear waste vitrification treatment plant is off to a bad start. Bad planning, multiple sources of radioactive waste, and leaking containment pools are just the beginning. It's never a good sign when that type of article includes the word 'spontaneous criticality,' if you follow my drift..." It seems the main problem is that the waste has settled in distinct layers, and has to be piped through corroded old tubes, leading to all sorts of exciting problems (e.g. enough plutonium aggregating to start a reaction).

2 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Why is anyone surprised by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

    This always happens. Lowest cost + government insurance = safety failure.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Re:Greed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hanford is not a civilian site. This is the waste from the plutonium production used for weapons.

    Spent fuel from the civilian industry usually has the form of ceramic uranium oxide inside tubes made from a zirconium alloy.
    You can vitrify that too ( England does) , but there is no absolute need for it. The geological disposal planned by Finland and Sweden
    does not rely on it as example, and in the US reprocessing civilian nuclear fuel is currently illegal.

    What you're doing is a little bit like pointing to aviation deaths in the air force and trying to claim it proves you should not travel with Airbus. It isn't very rational.