WISE - NIRS Nuclear Monitor 626

What happened 25 years ago? We go back to news from our 1980 WISE Bulletin, comparing anti-nuclear news then and now.

Then
In WISE Bulletin vol. 2 nr. 2 we wrote about leaking waste tanks at the U.S. Hanford site: "Two former employees at the Hanford nuclear reservation testified at US Senate Hearings that the Energy Department and Hanford management covered up reports of leaking underground nuclear waste. [...] They said that some leaks continue, undetected, while others are detected but not labelled as leaks by the management". (WISE Bulletin vol. 2 nr. 2, January/February 1980)

Now
Several former nuclear weapons production sites in the U.S. are severely contaminated due to bad waste management in the 1950-1970s. Radioactive and toxic contamination has damaged the health of thousands of Energy Department workers and people living nearby facilities. The Department of Energy began to address the environmental harm only after years of public pressure. A special "Environmental Management" program was started in 1989.

Almost from its inception, the program itself has been target of reforms, focused on a faster and cheaper cleanup. The quite predictable result of spending less money and less time is less cleanup. An example: in 2001 the Bush adminstration announced the goal to "shave" US$ 100 billion from the government's own estimates of total remediation costs. (Alliance for Nuclear Accountability fact sheet, spring 2004)

According to a 2000 estimate, cleaning up environmental damage from the nation's nuclear weapons program will cost the incredible amount of something between US$168 billion and US$212 billion. Compared to estimations two years before by the Energy Department, this was even up to 44% more. According to the DoE, there are 113 nuclear weapons sites nationwide to be cleaned up. The DoE is responsible for cleaning up 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated ground water, 100 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid, 2,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and 18 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. (1 gallon = 3.78 liters)

Some details about the most contaminated sites: US$55.6 billion to clean up Hanford and an estimated end of the cleanup in 2046. US$36.8 billion to clean up Savannah River and a cleanup deadline of 2038. US$21.4 billion to clean up the Idaho laboratory by 2050. US$7.7 billion to clean up Rocky Flats by 2006 and US$1.9 billion to clean up contamination at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by 2015. (WISE News Communique 529, 5 May 2000)

The situation at the Hanford waste tanks is very complex and dangerous. An estimated 206,000 cubic meters (54 million gallons) of high-level radioactive waste, mostly from the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel to extract plutonium, are stored in 177 large underground tanks. In addition to the problems faced in other high-level waste projects, remediation of Hanford's high-level waste is complicated by the sheer volume of waste, mixtures of waste from dozens of processes, and deterioration of the tanks themselves.

Estimates for management and treatment of the waste in the tanks have ranged from US$13 billion to over US$30 billion. These costs estimates do not include treatment of the large volumes of contaminated soil, groundwater, residual waste in the tanks, nor dismantlement and disposal of the tanks themselves. Nor do they include the costs of disposing of the waste in a geologic repository. (Containing the Cold War Mess, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research IEER, October 1997)

WISE-Amsterdam/NIRS

ISSN: 1570-4629

Reproduction of this material is encouraged. Please give credit when reprinting.

Editorial team: Dirk Bannink and Tinu Otoki (WISE Amsterdam), Michael Mariotte (NIRS). With contributions from Ecoclub, NIRS, Public Citizen, Tri-Valley CAREs, WISE Amsterdam and Laka Foundation.

The next issue (627) will be mailed out May 13, 2005.

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