'Take cover' emergency declared at Hanford Nuclear Reservation

[Geordie]

Hanford Emergency Information website

[gillianren]

Eh.  It's hardly apocalyptic.  Of course, I live upwind from Hanford, but a friend of a friend works there.

[Geordie]

  I agree. This line from the information website is telling: "No action is currently required for residents of counties surrounding the Hanford Site."

  I found it to be more of an item of interest, (it did make the local news here on the day of a general election,) than disastrous.

[VQ]

  I agree. This line from the information website is telling: "No action is currently required for residents of counties surrounding the Hanford Site."

  I found it to be more of an item of interest, (it did make the local news here on the day of a general election,) than disastrous.

It is good that they were not hesitant to use their emergency shelter-in-place protocol while the risk was being assessed, though. Hanford is, objectively speaking, quite the mess.

[nomuse]

A co-worker had CNN on the entire day. They've been proudly rolling out Michio Kaku as science advisor. Was he staying within known science? Let me just say if the next thing he warned of was the Blue Undead from original-edition Morrow Project it wouldn't be a reach.

[Geordie]

It is good that they were not hesitant to use their emergency shelter-in-place protocol while the risk was being assessed, though. Hanford is, objectively speaking, quite the mess.

  'Andreas Christen, an associate professor in UBC's micrometeorology research group, said a cave-in event like this poses little risk to British Columbians, or even those near the site in Washington.
 
  "We essentially need an explosion or a fire that ejects the material into the atmosphere [for contamination to spread]," Christen said. "It cannot simply evaporate from the source, so we are pretty safe."'

  '[...] It is the largest repository of nuclear waste in the United States, holding 211 million litres in underground storage tanks.'

  source

[Glom]

A co-worker had CNN on the entire day. They've been proudly rolling out Michio Kaku as science advisor. Was he staying within known science? Let me just say if the next thing he warned of was the Blue Undead from original-edition Morrow Project it wouldn't be a reach.

These celeb scientists do find it too irresistible to go tabloid for the sake of their own ratings.

[Geordie]

A co-worker had CNN on the entire day. They've been proudly rolling out Michio Kaku as science advisor. Was he staying within known science? Let me just say if the next thing he warned of was the Blue Undead from original-edition Morrow Project it wouldn't be a reach.

These celeb scientists do find it too irresistible to go tabloid for the sake of their own ratings bank balance.

  FTFY 

[gillianren]

For the curious, that green stripe down the state is the Cascades.  So not only am I upwind here in Olympia, there are mountains in the way.

On the other hand, I found out yesterday that a friend has religious objections of a sort to splitting atoms--it's not about danger for her; it's a belief that we should leave atoms whole.  I don't know what to say to her about that, so I just kept scrolling.

[VQ]

For the curious, that green stripe down the state is the Cascades.  So not only am I upwind here in Olympia, there are mountains in the way.

But the blue stripe is the Columbia River, which flows past Hanford and then along the WA/OR border, through Portland, and to the Pacific. Some of the liquid waste at Hanford is still too radioactive to robotically photograph, so changes in containment command attention.

[gillianren]

Past Hanford, maybe, but Hanford is big, and it's not as though the containment is on the riverbank.

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

On the other hand, I found out yesterday that a friend has religious objections of a sort to splitting atoms--it's not about danger for her; it's a belief that we should leave atoms whole.  I don't know what to say to her about that, so I just kept scrolling.

We only spilt suicidal atoms.

[Geordie]

On the other hand, I found out yesterday that a friend has religious objections of a sort to splitting atoms--it's not about danger for her; it's a belief that we should leave atoms whole.  I don't know what to say to her about that, so I just kept scrolling.

We only spilt suicidal atoms.

  The split and about to be split atoms need only to leave it to the Lord:

23 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together - spirit, soul, and body - and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. 24 The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it!

  The fine print: If anybody is offended in any way by this post, please message me or an administrator directly, and I will remove it immediately and will not post similarly again. See Rule 1.

[Geordie]

For the curious, that green stripe down the state is the Cascades.  So not only am I upwind here in Olympia, there are mountains in the way.

But the blue stripe is the Columbia River, which flows past Hanford and then along the WA/OR border, through Portland, and to the Pacific. Some of the liquid waste at Hanford is still too radioactive to robotically photograph, so changes in containment command attention.

This article seems to represent the worst case scenario:

 Conroy, B. (2015, March 28) Wine Country’s Nuclear Threat, retrieved from The Daily Beast

  The Hanford Site, a former nuclear-weapons production facility located in southeastern Washington State near the Oregon border, is one natural disaster away from a Fukushima-like catastrophe, according to environmental groups who also claim the site—which sits near some of the state’s best vineyards—is leaking radioactive groundwater into the nearby Columbia River.

[gillianren]

Apparently, the breach in containment involved a place where they're storing contaminated equipment, not any kind of waste that could get into the river, which is miles away in any case.