It must be said this is still not a proven technology - mixing glass with nuclear wastes to create glass rods - but the hope is it will keep the wastes in a solid/non-fluid state to be stored in long-term underground location.
This 60 minutes video "Lethal and Leaking" from a few years ago shows the complications of the Vitrification Plant. It has has some fairly alarming parts, including the architects do not design more than 50% of the plant when the construction begins - it continually changes and morphs.
whew! 50%!! I wonder if they'll finish the plant for its new "hot-start" date of 2019. Or if vitrification will even work...
ReplyDeleteSome progress is not enough. This is scary!!
ReplyDeleteyour research is outdated and uneducated.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, care to expand?
ReplyDeleteWe're wondering what 50% complete actually means. Does it mean that they've spent 50% of the budget, that 50% of the scheduled time for building has passed, that 50% of it is engineered? Is the 50% some sort of average of the percentage built and the percentage engineered? What does this really mean?
ReplyDeleteThis is a good step toward a cleaner work environment for the clean-up workers at Hanford. But 50% isn't nearly enough for how long these plans have been in effect. And this for sure isn't the all-cure solution to Hanford's radioactive waste problem; it's "assumed" that the radioactivity in glass form will dissipate over time, but how long? There seems to be a lot of talk about projected plans and dates but without appropriate actions to make it happen, progress is minimal.
ReplyDelete