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Gregoire Reacts To Leaked Hanford Waste Report

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says construction on a waste treatment plant at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation must continue. This despite serious safety concerns raised by two high-level whistleblowers. There's also a newly leaked report that warns plutonium levels in Hanford tank waste could be much higher than previously thought.

Gregoire says those issues should be taken seriously, but the clean-up has already taken too long.

"If there's a good and valid reason for us to stop, to slow down, we will listen to any legitimate concern," Gregoire says. "But in the meantime I cannot continue to allow US Department of Energy to delay and delay and delay. The Columbia River is at stake, all of that area and its vitality."

The concern is sludge in aging underground tanks could seep into the Columbia if it's not retrieved and turned into safer glass logs. The waste treatment plant is currently under construction.

But the head of nuclear safety for the project is the latest whistleblower to tell our Richland correspondent, Anna King, that the plant is under-designed and vulnerable to major malfunctions.

On the Web:

Hanford Nuclear Safety Manager Questions Waste Treatment Plant

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=145326474

Leaked Hanford report:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78550588/Plutonium-Report

Hanford Waste Treatment & Immobilization Plant Project:

http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/WTP

Waste treatment fact sheets:

http://www.hanfordvitplant.com/newsroom/fact_sheets/

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.