Hanford's Nuclear Option (catastrophic mismanagement)

[ensho]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2011-10-19/news/hanford-s-nuclear-option/


Department of Energy scientists allege catastrophic mismanagement of the costliest environmental cleanup in world history


Razor wire surrounds Hanford’s makeshift borders while tattered signs warn of potential contamination and fines for those daring enough to trespass. This vast stretch of eastern Washington, covering more than 580 square miles of high desert plains, is rural Washington at its most serene. But it’s inaccessible for good reason: It is, by all accounts, a nuclear wasteland.

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During Hanford's lifespan, 475 billion gallons of radioactive wastewater were released into the ground. Radioactive isotopes have made their way up the food chain in the Hanford ecosystem at an alarming rate. Coyote excrement frequently lights up Geigers, as these scavengers feast on varmints that live beneath the earth's surface. Deer also have nuclear radiation accumulating in their bones as a result of consuming local shrubbery and water. The EPA has deemed Hanford the most contaminated site in North America—a jarring fact, as the Columbia River, lifeline for more than 10,000 farmers and dozens of commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, surges along Hanford's eastern boundary.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the agency that oversees energy and the safety of handling nuclear material, supervises the cleanup efforts, which are currently undertaken by Bechtel National Inc.—infamous for its mishandling of Iraq reconstruction efforts—and a handful of other companies like URS and CH2M HILL. But despite more than two decades of cleanup efforts and billions of dollars spent, only a tiny fraction of Hanford's radioactivity has been safely contained. And the final costs for the Hanford cleanup process could exceed $120 billion—higher even than the $100 billion tab for the International Space Station.

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Now outrage is brewing at Hanford. Some prominent employees working on the project are blowing the whistle over what they believe to be dismissals of internal scientific assessments, as well as alleged abuses of managerial power that have been called to the attention of the Obama Administration, to no avail. These staffers point to institutional failures within the DOE and Bechtel as toxic as the nuclear waste they're tasked to clean up, asserting that the DOE lacks critical experts on staff to oversee the project and Bechtel rushed through shoddy design plans in order to pocket some quick cash. The consequences are not only jeopardizing safety and putting the project at risk of failure, they are also likely to cost taxpayers even more money should fatally flawed construction ultimately require a complete overhaul.

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whatever Bechtel touches is a criminal money maker - its like Oliver North, where ever he goes he is doing something criminal.

"It is, by all accounts, a nuclear wasteland." and not the only nuke wasteland in the US

[Tikki]

1. It is beyond pathetic that this or any....

part of our World has been permanently scarred by this kind of incompetence
and corruption.

This is nuclear waste and expect your great-grandchildren and beyond to be still dealing with this.


Tikki

[Tesha]

2. This is how nuclear energy (and especially, nuclear weapons) *REALLY* work.

For all the happy talk that nuclear proponents still spew,
folks have got to realize that the trade-off for the continued
use of nuclear energy and the continued possession of
nuclear weapons is the creation of more Hanfords (and
various equivalents around the world).

Tesha