Bids/Classifieds
Energy Dept.: Slow Leak in Hanford Waste Tank
It is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — There is a
slow leak in the oldest double-shell waste
tank at the Hanford nuclear reservation
that’s allowing highly radioactive and haz-
ardous waste to leak into the space between
the inner and outer shells, the federal
Department of Energy said Monday.
No waste is believed to have leaked from
the outer shell into the soil beneath the
underground tank on the south-central
Washington reservation, the agency said.
The Tri-City Herald reports that earlier
testing showed that some of the material
seen between the two walls of the tank was
radioactive waste. Now DOE has confirmed
a leak. While the exact amount isn’t known,
the agency said perhaps a couple table-
spoons of additional waste were seen
between the two tank walls between Thurs-
day and Sunday.
The tank is one of 28 double-shell con-
tainers used to hold waste from older, leak-
prone single-shell tanks. They hold 56
million gallons of radioactive waste from
the past production of weapons plutonium
until it can be treated for disposal.
The tank is roughly 40 years old and con-
tains about 850,000 gallons of sludge and
liquid waste.
Plans call for continued twice-weekly
visual inspections using cameras and regu-
lar checks of liquid levels inside the primary
tank, said Tom Fletcher, assistant manager
for the Tank Farms Project.
Fletcher added that his people are “work-
ing collaboratively” with the state Ecology
Department to determine what to do next
and to “ensure that we are effectively pro-
tecting the public and the environment.’’
Routine monitoring has not detected leaks
in any of the other double-shell tanks, the
Energy Department said. Expanded inspec-
tions are planned on six other tanks similar
to the one that is leaking.
The federal government created Hanford
in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Man-
hattan Project to build the atomic bomb.
Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated
nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last
decades.
Hanford’s twin KE and KW nuclear reactors in 2008 with the B Reactor in the
distance
Soldier
continued from page 1
have not discussed the evi-
dence in the case, but say
Bales has PTSD and suf-
fered a concussive head
injury during a prior deploy-
ment to Iraq.
The father of two from
Lake Tapps, Wash., sat
beside one of his civilian
lawyers, Emma Scanlan, in
green fatigues as an investi-
gating officer read the
charges against Bales and
informed him of his rights.
Bales said, ``Sir, yes, sir,’’
when asked if he understood
them.
Morse said Bales seemed
utterly normal in the hours
before the March 11
killings. With his col-
leagues, Bales watched the
movie ``Man on Fire,’’ a fic-
tional account of a former
CIA operative on a revenge
rampage.
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Just before he left the
base, Morse said, Bales told
a Special Forces soldier that
he was unhappy with his
family life, and that the
troops should have been
quicker to retaliate for a
roadside bomb attack that
claimed one soldier’s leg.
``At all times he had a
clear understanding of what
he was doing and what he
had done,’’ said Morse, who
described Bales as lucid,
coherent and responsive.
Bales is accused of slip-
ping away from the remote
outpost with an M-4 rifle
outfitted with a grenade
launcher to attack the vil-
lages of Balandi and
Alkozai, in a dangerous dis-
trict.
American officials have
said they believe Bales
broke the slaughter into two
episodes _ walking first to
one village, returning to the
base and slipping away
again to carry out the sec-
ond attack.
The prosecutor said Bales
returned to the base at one
point, telling a colleague
about shooting people at a
village. The soldier appar-
ently took it as a bad joke
and responded: ``Quit mess-
ing around.’’
Prosecutors played for the
first time a video captured
by a surveillance blimp that
showed a caped figure run-
ning toward the base, then
stopping and dropping his
weapons as he’s confronted.
There is no audio. Morse
said Bales was the caped
figure.
After being taken into
custody, Morse said, Bales
said: ``I thought I was doing
the right thing.’’
The hearing is scheduled
to run as long as two weeks,
and part of it will be held
overnight to allow video
testimony from witnesses,
including an estimated 10 to
15 Afghans, in Afghanistan.
Bales’ attorney, John
Henry Browne, said the
hearing will give the
defense a chance to see
what the government can
prove. They are expecting a
court martial.
Bales is an Ohio native
who joined the Army in late
2001 — after the 9/11
attacks — as his career as a
stockbroker imploded. An
arbitrator entered a $1.5
million fraud judgment
against him and his former
company that went unpaid,
and his attempt to start an
investment firm in Florida
also failed.
He was serving his fourth
combat tour after three
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stints in Iraq, and his arrest
prompted a national discus-
sion about the stresses
posed by multiple deploy-
ments.
Scanlan, his attorney,
declined to say to what
extent the lawyers hope to
elicit testimony that could
be used to support a mental-
health defense. Bales him-
self will not make any
statements because his
lawyers said he would have
nothing to gain.
Bales’ wife, Karilyn, who
plans to attend the hearing,
had complained about
financial problems on her
blog in the year before the
killings, and noted Bales
was disappointed at being
passed over for a promo-
tion.
Browne described those
stresses as garden-variety
— nothing that would
prompt such a massacre _
and has also said, without
elaborating, that Bales suf-
fered a traumatic incident
during his second Iraq tour
that triggered ``tremendous
depression.’’
Bales remembers little or
nothing from the time of the
attacks, the defense said.
Scanlan, who deferred an
opportunity to give an open-
ing statement, said the
Army had only recently
turned over a preliminary
DNA trace evidence report
from the crime scenes, but
defense experts have not
had time to review it.
Bales, who spent months
in confinement at Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., before
being transferred to Lewis-
McChord last month, is
doing well, Scanlan said.
``He’s getting prepared,’’
she said, ``but it’s nerve-
wracking for anybody.’’
November 7, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 7