25 September 2009

Chopper seeks radioactive waste spread by animals at Hanford


Today at Hanford, a helicopter will be scanning unused areas of the reservation for radioactive contamination.  Animals are attracted to the radioactive salts sitting in areas where nuclear waste was discharged during the Cold War -- and they've inadvertently spread the contamination.  Contractors at Hanford hope that using the helicopter to survey for contamination will save them time and money, because the specific data gathered from the surveys will be used to determine how much soil needs to be excavated in cleanup efforts.  Read the entire article here.

2 comments:

  1. Well this is actually kind of cool. I hope it does save time and money and encourages them to cleanup quickly!

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  2. Even if they have "detection" sources to find contamination, they can only detect gamma and beta radiation in the air, not alpha or others. What are they gonna do once they detect it?

    Why are they using Hanford clean-up money to do this?! Aren't there some leaking tanks with plumes heading towards the Columbia?! Let's get our priorities straight folks.

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