Friday, June 21, 2013

Hanford radiation leaking into soil and water

There's a huge problem at the Hanford Nuclear Reserve in Washington state -- and there is no solution in sight. It's the United States' version of Fukushima but until now, the media hasn't been reporting on it. They seem to think that saying anything about the abysmal status of nuclear sites in the U.S. would infringe on the industry's "rights", or something. But it's gotten so bad, even Sarah Palin's lamestream media is covering it today. (Mind you, they still play it down. It's much worse than this story indicates.)
At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford in the remote sagebrush of eastern Washington as part of a hush-hush project to build the atomic bomb. The site ultimately produced plutonium for the world's first atomic blast and for one of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and it continued production through the Cold War. 

Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades. The effort — with a price tag of about $2 billion annually — has cost taxpayers $40 billion to date and is estimated will cost $115 billion more. 
The government tries to hide these problems from us. Too much money involved. Here's how a watchdog sees the current situation:
"This is really, really bad. They are going to pollute the ground and the groundwater with some of the nastiest stuff, and they don't have a solution for it," said Tom Carpenter, executive director of Seattle-based Hanford Challenge. "There needs to be a shakeup at Hanford." 
The shakeup needs to involve the entire United States. We have absolutely no frickin' idea what to with all the spent nuclear fuel that's accumulated over the years. No idea at all!

PS: Artichoke Annie is covering this story like white on rice. G'wan over and read her stuff. She's secretly Nuclear Annie. Time for a name change.