Open Intelligence / Energy

Underground landfill near tons of nuclear waste is burning raising serious health and safety concerns...

Thousands of open uranium mines excavated beginning in the 1950s continues to release radiation today. There have been inadequate measurements but the limited measures done show ongoing leaks larger than Fukushima. How did we get here? It is estimated that 60 to 80 percent of uranium in the US is located on tribal land, particularly in the lands of the Navajo and Great Sioux Nations.

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, along the Columbia River in Benton County, was built in our own back yard in 1943 to produce plutonium as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. Hanford's 56 million gallons of the most contaminated nuclear waste in the western hemisphere is a true horror story. There are 177 storage tanks holding this waste; 149 of these are older single-shell carbon steel tanks, some there since the 1940s. Many have a life span of merely 20 years. There is no surprise that tanks are decaying.