RICHLAND — Just one of the older single-walled storage tanks appears to be actively leaking at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday.
The agency recently examined 20 of the underground tanks that showed decreased liquid levels, and found only one active leaker. The reduced liquid levels in the other tanks were attributed to evaporation.
Hanford is the nation’s most polluted nuclear weapons production site. The giant underground tanks contain radioactive wastes left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The Energy Department said the one tank that is leaking, known as T-111, appears to be stabilizing.
“We will continue to keep the state of Washington, Congress and other key stakeholders apprised of the situation as we continue to monitor the liquid levels inside the single shell tanks,” the Energy Department said in a press release.
Tank T-111 was constructed during World War II and was first suspected of leaking in 1974. Most liquids were pumped out of the 500,000 gallon tank then, but the tank has continued to leak. The Energy Department estimates that some 2,000 gallons of radioactive wastes have leaked over the years from the tank.
There are a total of 149 single-walled tanks at Hanford. Over the decades, as many as 67 are suspected of having leaked. But leaking was believed to end when most liquids were pumped from the older tanks into newer double-walled tanks.
A complex factory to turn the wastes into a glass-like substance for permanent burial has been under construction at Hanford for more than a decade, but work stopped a couple of years ago because of design concerns that have not been resolved.
The tanks are located on the sprawling Hanford site, which is half the size of Rhode Island, and far from population centers. But there are fears that the leaking wastes could migrate a few miles to the Columbia River.
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