April 30 (UPI) -- An underground radioactive chemical waste tank stored in southeast Washington is leaking gallons of liquid a day into the soil, state officials said.
The Department of Ecology for the state of Washington announced the leak in a statement Thursday, identifying the tank as B-109 at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which is about 170 miles southwest of Spokane.
The department said the tank is one of its oldest on the site with an age of at least 75 years and has been leaking 3.5 gallons a day for an estimated 1,700 gallons since March 2019. It contains an estimated 15,000 gallons of liquid waste after most of its contents were previously emptied, leaving only "a very small amount of liquid waste in the tank," the site said.
"It's a serious matter whenever a Hanford tank leaks its radioactive and dangerous chemical waste," Ecology Director Laura Watson said. "Based on the information we have right now, the leak poses no immediate risk to workers or the public, but it added to the ongoing environmental threat at Hanford."
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The Hanford nuclear site started operating during the second world war, producing plutonium for weapons, including for "the bomb that brought an end to World War II," its website said.
In 1984, an agreement was made between the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology to clean up the site, it said, adding that it is one of the largest nuclear cleanup efforts in the world.
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation said in a statement it determined the tank was leaking after monthly monitoring detected a drop in its level of liquid, prompting a formal leak assessment that began in July 2020 and completed Thursday.
"Contamination in the area is not new and mitigation actions have been in place for decades to protect workers, the public and the environment," the site said.
The site explained it would take more than 25 years for any contamination from the tank to reach the water table, which is between 210 and 240 feet below it.
The state's ecology department said the Columbia River was also "miles away" from it.
"This leak is adding to the estimated 1 million gallons of tank waste already in the soil across the Hanford site," Watson said. "This highlights the critical need for resources to address Hanford's aging tanks, which will continue to fail and leak over time."
Local advocacy group Hanford Challenge called on politicians to do more to clean up the Hanford site.
"This new leak of B-109 puts a spotlight on the need for Congress and the Energy Department to act immediately to increase funding for cleanup and design and build new tanks, as soon as possible," the group said in a statement.
