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(Washignton) AG sends Notice of Endangerment and Intent to Sue to U.S. Dept. of Energy and its contractors to protect workers from hazardous Hanford tank vapors

November 19, 2014
SEATTLE -- Attorney General Bob Ferguson is sending the U.S. Dept. of Energy, and its contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), a Notice of Endangerment and Intent to Sue. Ferguson seeks to protect workers at the federal Hanford Nuclear Reservation from hazardous chemical vapors that continue to jeopardize worker health and safety.  Read the rest of the Washington state Att. General's press release. 

US state in new alert over nuclear waste leak
Saturday Jun 22, 2013  |  Agence France Presse

Heightened radioactivity levels were found outside a nuclear waste tank in the US state of Washington, officials said Friday, in a new alert about a site used to make Cold War-era bombs.

Governor Jay Inslee said there was no immediate public health threat, but urged federal authorities to accelerate action to deal with leaks at the Hanford site, which he sounded the alarm about four months ago.

In February, Inslee said that at least six tanks containing radioactive waste were leaking, based on decreasing levels within them, but no elevated radioactivity levels were recorded outside of the containers themselves.

Now, higher radiation levels have been recorded in a pit next to a double-shell tank at the the site, he said -- suggesting that waste material has leaked through both shells containing them.
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Wyden:  Hanford leaking unacceptable

Oregonian news story:  Feb. 19, 2013
RICHLAND, WASH. – Leaking tanks full of radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation pose "unacceptable threats" to the Northwest and Congress should make Hanford cleanup a top priority, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said Tuesday after a fact-finding visit to the nation's largest radioactive cleanup site.

The Oregon Democrat holds increased clout over Hanford cleanup as the newly installed chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

His visit Tuesday took on more urgency after the Department of Energy announced last week an apparent small leak in one of its huge single-shell tanks, the first leak detected since contractors finished partially draining and stabilizing the leak-prone tanks in 2005.                    
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