The largest leak in history has occurred in a nuclear waste storage facility in Washington State

The management of the Hanford complex announced the release of 3,500 gallons (approx. 13 m ³ ) of radioactive waste. The leakage from the AY-102 tank was detected on Sunday, when an alarm was triggered on one of the storage tanks. This is the largest radioactive waste leak in history.

The complex in Washington State, where radioactive waste is stored, at one time included nine nuclear reactors and five chemical separation lines. Over 40 years of operation, it produced about 57 tons of plutonium - more than two-thirds of all plutonium produced by the US government. Many important discoveries in the production of radioactive materials were made here.

However, the precautions used in the early stages of production, as well as the methods of disposal of radioactive waste of that time were not sufficiently stringent. Official documents published by the US government confirm the facts of the discharge of significant quantities of radioactive materials into the atmosphere and waters of the r. Colombia, which had negative consequences for the population and the state of local ecosystems.
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In 2011, it became known about a small leak of radioactive waste that leaked through a hole in the tank number AY-102. It was alleged that the waste did not enter the environment, since only the inner wall of the tank was worn out. Double walls of the container were made specifically for security reasons, and these tanks were considered the most reliable of all storage facilities existing in the United States. A small leak allowed the waste to leak into the space between the walls, and then the liquid evaporated, leaving only scurf.

About the leak that occurred 5 years ago, Mike Gifre [Mike Geffre], who was then working in the complex, first learned. Jifr claims that the leak became known in 2011, but the servicing complex under a government contract by Washington River Protection Solutions did not want to admit the problem for a whole year. Moreover, even after recognizing the problem, the company for a very long time did not want to fulfill the requirements to eliminate the causes and consequences of the accident at that time, on the basis of the excessive cost of the work . Work on the elimination was started only last month.

And, perhaps because of this work, a much larger leak occurred last week — after the alarm went off, it became clear that this time the leakage of the liquid had become rampant. About 13 cubic meters of waste leaked into the inter-wall space of the tank, and about 75 cubic meters of waste remained in the tank itself.

So far, no one can say whether the waste has already penetrated into the environment. The management company claims that there is no threat to the environment, and that this leakage was, if not planned, then quite expected. True, the workers of the complex, whom King5 News managed to interview , claim that they had not heard anything about the possibility of such consequences.

Hanford complex - currently decommissioned complex for the production of radioactive materials, located on the banks of the river. Columbia in Washington State, used by the US federal government. The complex was known by various names, including "Complex W", "Hanford Plant", "Hanford Construction Management" and "Hanford Project". Built in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project , the complex became the location of Reactor B, the world's first reactor designed for the industrial production of plutonium. Plutonium produced in “Reactor B” was used to create a test device detonated at the Alamogordo test site and the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki in Japan .