RICHLAND, Wash. – Oregon Senator Ron Wyden will be asking the federal Government Accountability Office to investigate the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s tank monitoring and maintenance program. This after Friday’s revelation that a total of seven tanks are leaking at Hanford, and there might be more.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu Friday. The Democratic governor says Chu told him that the agency is looking for faster ways to secure the leaking underground tanks of waste. Inslee called the news ‘disturbing’ and said the new information comes because the Department of Energy hadn’t interpreted data correctly in the past.
“The bottom line is that the data that has been generated for years at least in my view has not been properly evaluated," Inslee said. "And we’ll need to have that evaluation for those tanks. We are essentially in the process of that now, and it’s not been completed.”
The tanks holding the leftovers from World War II and Cold War plutonium production aren’t far from the Columbia River. The Department of Energy says there is no immediate public health risk.
On the Web:
Gov. Inslee's statement on leaking tanks at Hanford - Office of the Governor
