The Hanford Base, known as "one of the most nuclearly polluted areas in the world", is located on the Columbia River in Washington State, USA. During World War II and the Cold War, the Hanford Base provided most of the plutonium for the large-scale nuclear weapons manufacturing in the United States. At present, the storage tank of the nuclear sewage at the Hanford base has been in disrepair for many years, and there have been many leaks. 1 million gallons (1 gallon is about 3.8 liters) of sewage seep into the ground. People worry that nuclear sewage may flow into the Columbia River through groundwater and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. Although the U.S. government has conducted intensive decontamination at the Hanford base for decades, the high cost and huge technical challenges may allow the decontamination work to continue into the 22nd century.
Nuclear arsenal from World War II to the Cold War
In March 1943, in a desert on the west bank of the Columbia River, a mysterious project costing 230 million U.S. dollars (equivalent to the current $3.1 billion) began in the United States. 50,000 staff members were called there. They did not know that they were participating in the famous "Manhattan Project". As one of the three major facilities of the project, the Hanford Base provided a large amount of money for the manufacture of American atomic bombs. Of plutonium.
In July 1945, the United States conducted its first nuclear test in the desert of New Mexico; in August, the United States detonated an atomic bomb "Fatty" in Nagasaki. The plutonium used in these atomic bombs came from the Hanford base. During the Cold War, the United States produced 103 tons of plutonium, of which about two-thirds were produced at the Hanford base. It was not until 1987 that the nuclear reactor at the Hanford base ceased production of plutonium. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States had produced approximately 70,000 nuclear warheads.
Most of the work at the Hanford Base was concealed until the 1980s, and it had a serious impact on public health, personal safety and the environment. There are comments that the Hanford base is "Chernobyl waiting for the outbreak" of the United States. Some US nuclear policymakers once called Hanford a "national sacrifice zone."
Buried plutonium can make 1,800 atomic bombs
During the production process, the Hanford site was not subject to external supervision. Due to improper disposal methods, large-scale nuclear pollution was caused. The nine nuclear reactors at the Hanford base are located on the Columbia River for easy access to cooling water and discharge of nuclear sewage to Hanoi during operation. Managers also emit toxic gases into the air, polluting farmland and pastoral areas. Solid nuclear waste is buried in the desert near the Hanford base. As a result, the local environment is so polluted that the feces of rabbits are radioactive.
The most worrying thing about Hanford Base is the leakage of nuclear sewage. During the extraction of plutonium, a large amount of radioactive sewage is produced. At the Hanford site, nuclear sewage containing radioactive materials and chemical toxins is as high as 56 million gallons. The nuclear sewage is stored in storage tanks and buried underground. At Hanford Base, there are single-shell water storage tanks and double-shell water storage tanks. There are even more single-shell water storage tanks, 149. They were built between 1943 and 1964 and have a service life of 20 years. The double-shell water storage tank was built from 1968 to 1986 and has a service life of 20 to 50 years. These water storage tanks have exceeded or approached the design life limit, and the condition continues to deteriorate.
Some US media reported that the Hanford base's underground water storage tanks are planned to be used at least until 2047, but if these tanks have problems, they will pose a huge threat, and the US Department of Energy has not yet found a corresponding solution. The "Business Insider" website stated that the radioactivity of these nuclear sewage was more than twice that of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Alvarez, a former official of the U.S. Department of Energy, said in 2010 that the plutonium buried at the Hanford base could create 1,800 "fat guys" that exploded in Nagasaki.
In fact, the nuclear sewage storage tank at the Hanford base has already leaked. According to the Associated Press, at least one water storage tank started to leak in 2013, and another 59 water storage tanks may have leaked before. According to the "Business Insider" website, the management of the Hanford base knows that one storage tank is leaking nuclear sewage at a rate of 300 gallons per year, and the situation of the other five storage tanks is also worrying. In 1960, a dead whale appeared on the coast near Oregon, and its carcass could emit gamma rays. Some scientists suspect that the nuclear sewage that leaked from the Hanford base flowed along the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean, contaminating plankton, and the whale became radioactive after eating these creatures.
At the beginning, the management of the Hanford base claimed that the leakage of nuclear sewage into the soil was a trivial matter, and it was not until 1998 that they admitted that this was not the case. Previously, management stated that it takes 10,000 years for radioactive materials to enter groundwater, but in fact nuclear sewage has already contaminated groundwater. According to the New York Times, when 1 million gallons of nuclear sewage leaked into the soil, the U.S. Department of Energy did not know how to solve the problem. An employee at the Hanford base was fired for exposing the matter to the outside world.
Although for many people, nuclear sewage seeps into soil and groundwater, it is like the end of the world, but for those familiar with Hanford Base, this has happened many times before. The senior official of the US Department of Energy said in 2015 that the infrastructure of the Hanford base was being destroyed and more nuclear radiation would be released. In 2017, the tunnel containing radioactive waste at the Hanford base collapsed. The US government stated that as the equipment ages, more tunnels will collapse.
Will the cleanup be completed until the next century?
During the production of plutonium, the Hanford base produced a large amount of radioactive waste. In the mid-1980s, local residents began to have doubts about the significant morbidity and mortality rates in the community. Under the pressure of reporters, the government gradually revealed some news, and the public learned that Hanford Base is the "most poisonous" place in the United States. The angry public urged the government to clean up the nuclear waste.
The clean-up work at the Hanford Base began in 1989. The US Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State signed a tripartite agreement. The Department of Energy carried out the most intensive environmental clean-up project in history. However, due to management errors and technical challenges, this work is intermittent and is expected to continue until 2060. Some people even predict that these cleanup efforts will even continue into the next century.
The cost of cleaning up the pollution at the Hanford base is staggeringly high, with an average annual cost of 2 billion US dollars, and more than 50 billion US dollars have been spent up to now. Moreover, the cost of cleaning up pollution continues to rise. In February 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a new estimate, and the cost of the entire cleanup process will rise from $110 billion to $660 billion.
In addition to the high cost, the cleanup work also faces huge technical challenges. In order to treat nuclear waste water, the United States plans to build a treatment plant that uses a glass curing process to mix nuclear waste water with glass materials, vitrify the nuclear waste water and bury it. After turning into a stable glass form, nuclear sewage can be safely stored for thousands of years. However, due to technical difficulties, construction of the treatment plant has ceased in 2012. The U.S. Department of Energy hopes to dispose of all nuclear sewage before 2047, but this is unlikely to happen. The U.S. may have to wait until 2079 or 2102 to complete these things.
