The Columbia River Blues
Since the beginning of the nuclear age, scientists and their governments have deliberated over what to do with nuclear waste. For decades, the public had little concern for their safety based on limited knowledge and thus the nuclear community showed no regard and dumped their sludge wherever they pleased including both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. By 2009, 100,000 tons of nuclear waste had been dumped into the ocean by countries such as the US, Russia, Japan, France and the worst contributor, Great Britain.
The United States believed they had a better solution in the small agricultural town of Hanford, Washington.
Before we begin, let’s elaborate on what exactly is nuclear waste and why is it so dangerous.
There are three levels of nuclear waste: High, intermediary and low level. This article will concentrate solely on high-level.
High-level waste consists mainly of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors. The rate of fission in a rod decreases over time to a point where the rod is no longer efficient and needs to be removed. The removed rods are known as spent fuel rods and are highly radioactive, containing a number of radioactive elements created by the fission process. These elements decay at different rates and will remain dangerous for thousands of years. Atoms are contained in the spent, exhausted fuel cells after they come out of the reactor. They are the remains of the fuel's Uranium and Plutonium nuclei after they split (fission). These pieces are known to us as nuclear waste atoms. The waste is a radioactive poison, and includes hundreds of different isotopes or radiation-producing substances. Radiation can break down the structure of cells, cause cancers, genetic defects, and an overall weakening of the immune system. Some wastes last for hundreds of thousands of years. Mind you, the one-hundred thousand number is disputed by nuclear aficionados who insist it is only five hundred years.
See? That’s much better (sarcasm). Can you imagine arguing something like this and not worry that everyone else in the room thinks you’re a monster.
Another article detailing the actual costs to run a nuclear facility is in the works. For now…welcome to Hanford, Washington.
Prior to 1943, Hanford was a small agricultural community in the State of Washington, United States. It was condemned and depopulated in order to build a nuclear production facility known primarily as the Hanford Site. The site was the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world and the plutonium manufactured at Hanford was used in the bomb that devastated Nagasaki, Japan.
The site expanded exponentially during the Cold War years but safety and disposal processes did not equally increase with expansion and as a result tons of radioactive waste and isotopes were released into the air and into the Columbia River.
In the early sixties, swimmers preferred bathing around Hanford because the water was warmer than upstream. What they weren’t aware of – what was not shared by the local authorities – was that water from the Columbia River was used to cool the reactor and the released again into the river. Normally the water would be released into a retention basin for two to six hours thus allowing for short lived radiation to decay but from the mid-fifties to early sixties when five new reactors were constructed, significantly more water was needed and the coolant water spent less time in the retention basin; sometimes only twenty minutes. As a result, the radiation didn’t decay and was discharged into the Columbia. The same radiation reached the Pacific Ocean and contaminated sea life. The billions of gallons of waste that was dumped into the soil alongside the river has contaminated groundwater, food and animals.
Hanford now has 54 million gallons of the high-level waste liquids and sludge in 177 aged and decaying tanks. In the 1980s, the Department of Energy (DOE) divulged that up to 69 of the tanks were leaking. The most recent leak disclosure in February brings the total to seventy-five. These tanks had been leaking for years and the DOE has admitted that they expect all the tanks to eventually leak. Proof has shown that the leaked radioactive waste has already reached the groundwater and is already part of the food chain.
Aside from Cold War Cancer from plutonium, residents living close to the river have had to put up with ridiculous amounts of industrial waste. Fish have been tested for frightening levels of PCB, Mercury and PVDE’s. Keep in mind that PCB is a legacy toxin that has been illegal for decades yet it has not been diluted within the Columbia River. After all these years, it’s still lethal.
Yet this isn’t front page news outside of Washington State. Detroit’s water was front page for about a month but we don’t hear much about it anymore. The problem hasn’t gone away…just the media coverage.
Cancer rates don’t rise significantly in a year or two after leaks. For children to be affected, you may see thyroid problems within five years but the norm is ten or longer. Adults may not see debilitation for several decades. It can take that long for the radiation to eat your insides or whittle away at your bones. The IAEA depends on this fact. Given the time frame, cancers will be blamed on cigarettes or industrial toxins or bad food choices but never on radiation.
The terminology, “Downwinders”, refers to individuals living downwind from a nuclear reactor. This term applies to citizens along the Columbia River. In 1986, the Energy board was forced to release nineteen thousand pages of proof that the Hanford site spoiled the waters and the surrounding regions around the Columbia River. The Downwinders filed suit but litigation, like all suits against Nuclear Energy, has been long and unsuccessful.
On a final note, cleanup has begun but has been slow moving and well over budget. There is no money to control this anymore and to make matters worse, local and federal government are trying to send more nuclear waste to the Hanford site. The problem will worsen and won’t go away.
In the nineteen-forties, Hanford was depopulated to allow access for a nuclear power plant. In the very near future, Hanford will be depopulated again. To save everyone from the nuclear power plant.