[Updated] A government report on radioactive waste storage at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which was released Tuesday, has prompted a call for the Department of Energy to take corrective action within the next three months.
The call to action was prompted by the Government Accountability Office report that says the condition of 177 radioactive waste tanks at the facility is deteriorating faster than previously expected. Problems have been detected in both the older single-walled tanks and the newer double-walled tanks, the federal watchdog agency reported.
Some of the tanks were constructed more than seventy years ago. Put into use in the 1940s, they long ago surpassed their original life expectancy, The New York Times reported.
The GAO report says that 14 of the single-shell tanks – the older model tanks – are currently experiencing water intrusion from rain or ground water and that one of them is leaking at a rate of 640 gallons per year, which is a faster rate then previously realized.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who released the report, called on the DOE to do more than just agree with the findings. He called for “a plan of action within 90 days.”
Waste storage at the facility costs about $1 billion a year. The tanks on site hold approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that originated with weapons grade plutonium. That makes it the largest federal collection of radioactive waste from the years of nuclear weapons production.
The GAO said the DOE had no plans for how to handle what is now seen as an accelerated deterioration of the tanks. “The DOE's current schedule for managing the tank waste does not consider the worsening conditions of the tanks,” the party-neutral federal watchdog agency said.
Construction of a $13 billion waste treatment plant at the facility in eastern Washington has stalled to address safety and design issues. The plan calls for converting the waste into glass-like material suitable for burial.