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Hanford Managers Focus on Flammable Gas in Waste Tanks

Associated Press
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Managers and scientists are working against the clock to solve a new possible problem at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

How much sludge can be dumped into a double-shelled radioactive waste tank before flammable gas might build up in a big bubble?

At a group of waste tanks called the C-Farm, workers are pumping the radioactive sludge out these old single-shelled tanks into the more stable double-hulled ones This radioactive witch’s brew constantly generates hydrogen and other flammable gases.

Scientists and engineers aren’t sure how much the newer massive double-hulled underground tanks can hold before the sludge burps up a major flammable gas bubble. All the sludge in the tan farm must be transferred by next September under a legally-binding deadline.

“That issue can be solved long-term, but from a perspective of meeting the 2014 milestone and being complete with C-Farm, it’s critical to solve to make that milestone,” said Tom Fletcher, assistant manager for Hanford’s tank farms.

Fletcher says that deadline to cleanup C-Farm is possibly in jeopardy. There’s a total of 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge at Hanford. That’s the leftovers from making plutonium for bombs during World War II and the Cold War.

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.