krem | KING 5 News has learned there’s been a series of unexpected hydrogen gas
releases from a tank holding radioactive waste at Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
Confidential sources say it began on March 16 and lasted for several
days, much longer than usual, and they worry a single spark could have
set off an explosive release of radioactivity.
This comes two days after a report
by a government panel expressing concerns about the release of
flammable gasses at Hanford and the government's inability to respond to
them.
Our confidential sources and government representatives are giving
dramatically different versions of what has happened. Both agre a
million-gallon tank holding nuclear waste at Hanford had a build-up of
hydrogen gas.
Our confidential sources say it was of a magnitude larger than anything
teams there have seen in at least two years and "burped" days longer
than normal.
Workers who toil above the buried Hanford tank farms constantly monitor
the tanks for gas build-ups and will conduct controlled releases to
reduce pressure. We're told this was a spontaenous release, not
controlled.
Hydrogen gas is constantly being produced in some tanks by the extremely
high temperatures of nuclear waste. They are like dozens of underground
crock pots just simmering away. Sometimes, they can boil over.
