Radioactive waste is suspected to be leaking from third tank in Hanford

The Washington State Department of Environmental Conservation announced that it was notified yesterday by the Department of Energy that a third tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is now suspected of leaking radioactive waste. This third tank is the second from the “T-Farm” that is either suspected or known to be leaking waste. There are 16 tanks buried at the T-Farm.

Tank T-111, which is believed to be leaking about 300 gallons per year, was first discovered leaking in 2013. Then in 2021, the Department of Energy discovered that Tank B-109 at B Farm was also leaking. That tank is believed to be leaking between 1,200 and 1,500 gallons per year.

In a statement to Newsradio 610 KONA, Ed Dawson, program analyst and spokesman for the Department of Energy Management and Control, said:

…it was determined that T-101 most likely releases a small amount of contaminants into the soil beneath the tank.

Dawson continued:

The decline in liquid level in tank T-101, which could be due to a number of factors, is relatively small, equating to up to 200 gallons per year.

According to Dawson, more than 1 million gallons of waste are believed to have leaked from over 60 tanks. Other situations such as tank overfills and intentional and unplanned releases are responsible for over 10 million gallons of contamination in and around the T-Farm.

What does this mean?

According to Dawson, efforts to mitigate spills have been underway for decades, and new measures are continually being implemented.

Active groundwater pumping and treatment systems near T-101 capture and remove contaminants that could enter groundwater, helping to protect the Columbia River. The Department of Energy also plans and will build a surface barrier across T Farm to prevent rain or meltwater from seeping into the ground.

In a message sent to employees, the DOE confirmed that the discovery came after a leak assessment by Washington River Protection Solutions after noting a smaller basin size coupled with a slowly declining fluid level in the tank.

T-101 is a 530,000-gallon single-wall tank built between 1943 and 1944 and filled between 1945 and 1979. The Department of Energy pumped as much liquid as possible out of T-101 in 1993 during a successful site-wide campaign to remove liquids from the single-wall tanks, called interim stabilization. Approximately 93,000 gallons remained in T-101, with the majority of that being solid waste. Residual liquid also in T-101 is believed to be causing the leak.

DOE and the Western Australia Department of Environment are working to resolve the likely leak from Tank T-101. Hanford's 149 single-wall and 28 double-wall tanks store the site's most hazardous waste and are well past their 25-year shelf life. It is estimated that over 55 million gallons of waste remain to be treated.

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