Radioactive waste lost from Hanford nuclear site
Channel: onthewaytoextinction
Date: 2013-02-16

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

Japanese group assesses tsunami debris on US coast

A survey of debris associated with the March 11 tsunami is now being conducted along the west coast of the United States, more than 5,000 kilometers away.

A 7-member team of environmental organizations and other groups sponsored by the Japanese government searched the debris along the coast in the state of Oregon on Friday.

They collected fragments of plastic and polystyrene foam products that washed ashore with the help of 80 children at local elementary schools.

The team members were checking whether this debris floated from Japan. They will advise the government on what assistance Japan can provide to help clean up the debris.
One estimate has roughly 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris from the disaster 2 years ago drifting across the Pacific Ocean. In Oregon, a huge floating dock from Japan's northeastern coast was found in June of last year.

People living on the west coast are concerned about the possibility that a large quantity of debris might reach their shore in the near future.

The team plans to meet local government officials to discuss the issue on Saturday.

Feb. 16, 2013 - Updated 05:12 UTC (14:12 JST)

Radioactive waste lost from Hanford nuclear site

The US government has found that the level of radioactive waste liquid in an underground tank at a decommissioned nuclear site is decreasing.

The US Energy Department announced on Friday that liquid levels are dropping in one of 177 underground tanks storing nuclear waste at the Hanford site in the western state of Washington.

A department official said only that the rate of decrease could be in the range of 570 liters to 1,140 liters per year. But he did not disclose how much liquid nuclear waste was gone as a whole nor the cause of the loss.

The official added that there has been no change in radioactivity levels of the soil around the nuclear site.

Speaking to reporters, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee expressed concern.

The governor said there is no immediate health risk to residents, but it could pose a potential long-term threat to groundwater.

Inslee said he had asked the federal government to take comprehensive measures.

The Hanford site was a major nuclear production complex for the US government before it was completely shut down in 1989.

Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, western Japan, in 1945.

Feb. 16, 2013 - Updated 07:26 UTC (16:26 JST)

FAIR USE NOTICE: Any copyrighted (©) material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, which constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

Nuclear News and Updates:
http://www.fairewinds.com/
http://enenews.com/ 
http://fukushima-diary.com/   
http://capitoilette.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/MsMilkytheclown 
https://www.youtube.com/user/MsMilkytheclown1
http://www.youtube.com/user/redbuttonstudio 
http://www.youtube.com/user/ichicax4 
https://www.youtube.com/user/MissingSky101 
http://nukefree.org/  
http://www.llrc.org/ 
http://enformable.com/ 
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com  
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/ 
http://www.tmia.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Birdhairjp 
http://www.shutdownindianpointnow.org
http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/
http://sanonofresafety.org