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Leaking at Hanford nuclear site worse than thought

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Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images file

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

The leaking of radioactive liquids at the Hanford, Wash., Nuclear Reservation is more extensive than previously reported, with six storage tanks affected, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.

In a conference call with reporters Friday after a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Inslee disclosed that six of the 177 tanks were leaking at the nuclear facility in Richland, in eastern Washington about 50 miles southeast of Yakima. 

Inslee said Chu told him that evaluation system of the tank levels wasn't used correctly, raising the prospect that there may be even more leaks. But he said he was told that there was no immediate threat, a point the Energy Department reiterated in a statement Friday evening.

Hanford — which houses millions of gallons of radioactive waste left over from plutonium production for nuclear weapons — is already considered one of the most contaminated sites on Earth, the U.S. government says.

Last week, the U.S. Energy Department said that only one tank was leaking at Hanford.

"We need to get to the bottom of this," Inslee said. He called the disclosure "very disturbing news" and contended that the Energy Department needed a new plan to remove liquid from tanks that can't be repaired.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and an outspoken critic of containment efforts at Hanford, toured the site this week — before Friday's announcement — and judged conditions there "an unacceptable threat to the Pacific Northwest for everybody," NBC station KING of Seattle reported.  The Associated Press quoted Tom Towslee, a Wyden spokesman, as saying the senator will be asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate Hanford's tank monitoring and maintenance program.

An estimated 1 million gallons of waste has seeped out of the underground tanks and reached groundwater that will eventually reach the Columbia River, scientists say. The U.S. plans to build a plant to turn the waste into low-level radioactive glass for safe storage, but that facility is years behind schedule for its projected opening in 2019.

In a statement Friday evening, Inslee warned that the federal budget impasse — which could lead to a "sequestration," or cuts, of $1.2 trillion in federal spending over 10 years — made the Hanford predicament even more alarming.

"Frankly, the state Department of Ecology is not convinced that current storage is adequate to meet legal and regulatory requirements," Inslee said.

"With potential sequestration and federal budget cuts looming, we need to be sure the federal government maintains its commitment and legal obligation to the cleanup of Hanford," he said. "To see Hanford workers furloughed at the exact moment we have additional leakers out there is completely unacceptable."

Graham Robertson of NBC News contributed to this report.

China World's Top Nuclear Power Generator by 2030

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Tank at Hanford nuclear site leaking radioactive liquids, Washington governor says

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U.S. Department Of Energy

The disposal facility for mixed and low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is shown in an aerial image.

By Mike Baker and Shannon Dininny, The Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A tank that holds radioactive liquids is leaking at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, Wash. Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, raising concerns about the integrity of other storage facilities at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing in one of 177 underground tanks at the nuclear reservation. Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels, the agency said. Inslee said the leak could be in the range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year.

"I am alarmed about this on many levels," Inslee said at a Friday afternoon news conference. "This raises concerns, not only about the existing leak ... but also concerning the integrity of the other single shell tanks of this age."

The tanks hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Inslee said the state was told such problems had been dealt with years ago and were under control.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the federal government must not waiver in its commitment to clean up the highly contaminated site, Inslee told reporters.

The tank in question contains about 447,000 gallons of sludge, a mixture of solids and liquids with a mud-like consistency. The tank, built in the 1940s, is known to have leaked in the past, but was stabilized in 1995 when all liquids that could be pumped out of it were removed.

Inslee said the tank is the first to have been documented to be losing liquids since all Hanford tanks were stabilized in 2005.

At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford in the remote sagebrush of eastern Washington as part of a hush-hush project to build the atomic bomb. The site ultimately produced plutonium for the world's first atomic blast and for one of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, effectively ending the war.

Plutonium production continued there through the Cold War, but today, Hanford is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. Cleanup will cost billions of dollars and last decades.

Central to that cleanup is the removal of millions of gallons of a highly toxic, radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — from 177 aging, underground tanks. Over time, many of those tanks have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the neighboring Columbia River, the largest waterway in the Pacific Northwest.

Construction of a $12.3 billion plant to convert the waste to a safe, stable form is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Technical problems have slowed the project, and several workers have raised lawsuits in recent months, claiming they were retaliated against for raising concerns about the plant's design and safety.

North Koreans among 40 dead at Iran nuke plant

WND/ Reza Kahlili

The explosions at Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility Jan. 21 killed at least 40 people, including two North Koreans, WND learned Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamic regime is labeling WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” for its exclusive reporting of the blasts.

The bodies of 11 of the technicians and scientists are beyond recognition, a member of the security forces at the facility told WND. According to the source, 60 others are in critical condition and have been transferred to the central base of the 27th Division of Mohammad Rassool Allah. The base, between Tehran and Qom, is equipped with a modern medical facility.

At the time of the explosions, the source said, 203 Iranian scientists and technicians along with 16 North Koreans had been logged in at the site, though the initial report listed 240 people.

The day before the explosions, the North Koreans had brought in new equipment, described by the source as touch-screen monitors the size of TVs that were installed in the monitoring room and some new parts that were installed in the centrifuges before the start of the enrichment process.

Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.”

The explosions were reported exclusively by WND Jan. 24, with updates Jan. 27, Jan. 29, Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.  WND previously reported the trapped workers included 16 North Koreans: 14 technicians and two military attaches.

The source said many of the centrifuges have been destroyed and rescuers have still not accessed the reserves of the stock of 20-percent enriched uranium to assess the level of radiation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not visited the site since the explosions despite media rumors, the source said. Because the regime’s Ministry of Defense covers the project at Fordow, officials of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization were allowed to visit it Jan. 5.

In an unusual move, the IAEA issued a brief statement Jan. 29: “We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations.”

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor emailed that response to reporters. However, when pushed by WND, Tudor could neither confirm nor deny the incident had taken place and did not say whether inspectors had visited the site after the explosions, despite media reports.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, representatives of the supreme leader and intelligence officers from both the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards have visited parts of the site that have been cleared as secure. A counterintelligence committee has been formed to investigate the incident, which already has been called an act of sabotage, with Israel the prime suspect.

The regime is debating how to explain the incident at a later date depending on the level of destruction, the source said. But because of internal rifts among President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Majlis (parliament), Ahmadinejad or others connected to his team will soon reveal the incident.

Regime media have solely based their denial that the explosions occurred on a statement by White House spokesman Jay Carney, who told reporters Jan. 28: “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the (WND) report, and we do not believe the report is credible.”

However, the Islamic regime’s official news agency, IRNA, in a report Jan. 30, called WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” and its reporting mere propaganda by the West before the start of renewed negotiations between Iran and the 5-plus-1 powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany.

IRNA’s report said: “WND, which publishes under the direct control of the CIA, on Thursday, Jan. 24, reported that an explosion took place at Fordow that destroyed much of the facility and trapped 240 personnel. WND in its report interestingly touches on the previous sabotage at Fordow and in a coordinated effort, the White House denies having information and the Israelis state their happiness of such an event. The propaganda by the West continues with the BBC reporting that Iran has denied the report put out by Reza Kahlili, a former CIA spy in the Revolutionary Guards.”

IRNA, in its extensive report, covered all the recent WND revelations about Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s involvement. It said, “Two days prior to the publication of the explosion report, WND reported that an Iranian spy in the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, has informed the Islamic republic that Tel Aviv and certain Western countries have plans on covert ops for the destruction of Iranian nuclear sites. This news agency (WND) in another report states that the recent negotiations between the IAEA and the Iranian counterparts for the inspection of the Parchin military site was a failure and that Iran will resort to publication of documents from the Shah era to further pressure the U.S.”

IRNA concluded that “the West knows this is psychological warfare (and it) will not disrupt the goals of (Iran) in the negotiations, but it tries to fill that void with propaganda against clear and logical policies of the Islamic Republic, which is the result of their hatred against the government of Iran.”

The regime media have also attacked Hamidreza Zakeri, the former officer of Iran’s ministry of intelligence, now living in Europe, who has provided information on the Fordow explosion and other valuable insights into the regime’s illicit activities.

The Fordow nuclear site was central to the regime’s nuclear bomb program, built 300 feet under the belly of a mountain where over 2,700 centrifuges were enriching uranium to the 20 percent level. That level could within weeks be further enriched to nuclear-weapons grade.

In a letter to the IAEA two days after the reported explosions, Iran said it planned to install thousands of its upgraded centrifuges at the Natanz facility. The source stated the move was a direct result of the explosions at Fordow.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/north-koreans-among-40-dead-at-iran-nuke-plant/#pVZh2MwCyYfmQDQl.99

Massive Explosion Reported At Iran's Fordow Nuclear Facility

businessinsider
Robert Johnson

Google Sat. Image

Fordow (click to expand)

Reports of an explosion at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility have surfaced and are being both confirmed and denied by multiple sources.

The Jerusalem Post cites a report by Reza Kahlili that says: “The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran- Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast.”

Kahlili's report says the Fordow nuclear facility was severely damaged in an explosion and up to 240 workers trapped inside. The explosion was reportedly confined to the plant, suggesting that if it were an airstrike, it was highly localized. But this possibility is no more or less likely than sabotage, or an accident, assuming the explosion occurred at all.

Jay Carney told reporters in a press conference, that the White House had no information on the report: "We [the U.S.] have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible. We don't believe those are credible reports."

Iran's official news agency, says the same thing, with the IRNA, promptly denying the explosion, claiming the news was simply the result of the Western media-fueled "propoganda machine."

That might have ended the story there, but The Times of London's Israel correspondent Sheera Frenkel is confirming the incident through her own independent sources:

An explosion is believed to have damaged Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, which is being used to enrich uranium, Israeli intelligence officials have told The Times. Sources in Tel Aviv said yesterday that they thought the explosion happened last week. The Israeli Government is investigating reports that it led to extensive structural damage and 200 workers had been trapped inside.

One Israeli official said: “We are still in the preliminary stages of understanding what happened and how significant it is.” He did not know, he added, if the explosion was “sabotage or accident”, and refused to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft were seen near the facility at the time of the explosion.

Frenkel goes on to mention that Tehran has yet to evacuate the surrounding area, but it's unclear if that's because no harmful substances have been released or if the government is trying to avoid panicking local residents.

The Fordow nuclear enrichment site is buried deep within a mountain and fortified to withstand attack. The only bomb believed capable of striking the facility and inflicting any real damage is the U.S. massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) bomb.

The 30,000 pound piece of ordnance was just certified ready to use by the Pentagon. 

The Pentagon’s director of operational testing, Michael Gilmore, confirmed weeks ago that tests conducted with the heavy GBU-57 (MOP) GPS-guided bomb, thought able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before exploding, have demonstrated that the redesigned bomb is able to hit and destroy deeply buried targets.

The enhanced MOP features tail-fin modifications to fix bugs identified in testings as well as a second fuse to destroy hardened underground targets.

Gilmore’s report says that the modifications were tested with five bomb drops from a B-2 stealth bomber on the White Sands Missile Range, conducted between June and October, and two ground tests.

The Pentagon tells us the B-2 is the only platform in the U.S. Air Force inventory able to carry and release its heaviest bomb, even if B-52s were used in previous tests.

The MOP is the bomb experts believe Israel needs if it wants to derail Iran's nuclear program for any length of time. While Israel has a fresh supply of GBU-28 bunker busters, they are one-sixth the size and far less capable.

The MOP might actually be the only conventional bomb to best Iran's concrete technology, which is perhaps the most advanced in the world. The country lies on a very active seismic fault, making earthquakes a part of Iranian life. In response, Tehran's concrete industry has developed Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) doped with quartz and poured under the country's own high-demand blend of international codes.

This is the stuff military planners and field officers think of when they cite the MOP's 200-foot concrete penetration capability; and why the already super-capable Boeing bomb was sent back to the drawing board for additional work in the first place.

We'll update this report as additional news becomes available.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/massive-explosion-reported-at-irans-fordow-nuclear-facility-2013-1#ixzz2JJUJ5TUR

Analysts play down higher-grade uranium find in Iran

Military Space News/

Fordow nuclear plant of Iran/ Reuters

Analysts on Friday played down the UN atomic agency's discovery of higher-grade uranium traces in Iran, saying it was likely due to a technical glitch rather than a covert attempt to enrich to arms grade.

The agency's latest report, seen by AFP, did however say that satellite imagery showed "extensive activity" at the Parchin military site, which it said could hamper investigating claims of suspected nuclear weapons research there.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also revealed that its head, Yukiya Amano, wanted in a visit to Tehran on May 21 to "conclude" a deal on clarifying accusations of such research.

But Amano returned empty-handed, saying only that he and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili made a "decision" to reach an agreement, and that he expected this to be signed "quite soon."

The agency report said that the traces found at the Fordo site, inside a mountain near Qom, were of uranium enriched to purities of 27 percent.

Iran has told the IAEA that the site was enriching only to 20 percent, which was already of concern to the watchdog since the capability to do so shortens the theoretical time needed to enrich to weapons-grade uranium of 90 percent.

"Iran indicated that the production of such particles 'above the target value' may happen for technical reasons beyond the operator's control," the report said.

"The agency is assessing Iran's explanation and has requested further details. On 5 May 2012, the agency took further environmental samples from the same location.... These samples are currently being analysed," it added.

Analysts played down the discovery, with Mark Fitzpatrick from the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank in London saying it was "probably a technical glitch."

"There are good reasons to worry about Iran's enrichment work but this probably isn't one of them," he told AFP.

Mark Hibbs, nuclear proliferation expert at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, agreed, telling AFP that the discovery "isn't proof that Iran is clandestinely enriching uranium to over 20 percent."

"It can happen," a senior official who wished to remain anonymous said.

Hibbs added however that Amano "has to be concerned about that possibility because of Iran's track record of concealment and failure to declare nuclear activities."

Parchin Military Site/ currentnewsarticle.com

A diplomat in Vienna told AFP that it was "is possible that 27 percent particles are the result of the start-up of centrifuge cascades."

"It is not necessarily a sign that Iran is enriching to levels beyond what it has declared. We wait for the agency's analysis," the envoy told AFP on condition of anonymity.

They added however that multiple UN Security Council resolutions had called on Iran to cease all enrichment activities because of the IAEA being unable to verify that they were purely for peaceful purposes.

The P5+1 powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- proposed in a meeting with Iran this week that Iran stop 20-percent enrichment and a suspension of all activities at Fordo, diplomats said.

Iran is however loath to do any such thing without the prospect that UN and unilateral sanctions imposed on the country in recent years -- more will hit on July 1 -- would be eased.

The P5+1's proposals stopped short of this, offering instead a series of lesser incentives that state media reports in Iran indicated Tehran thought were woefully insufficient.

The two days of intense talks in Baghdad achieved very little other than agreeing to meet again in Moscow on June 18-19.

The IAEA report also said that new satellite imagery indicated "extensive activities" were taking place at buildings at the Parchin military site near Tehran which the IAEA says it would like to inspect but Iran has denied it.

The IAEA said that "virtually no activity had been observed for a number of years" and that the apparent new work "could hamper the agency's ability to undertake effective verification."

Iran says Parchin is not a designated nuclear site and thus it is not obliged to permit IAEA inspections, although it last did so in 2005.

It says if it did allow inspections of the site, they would have to be part of an agreed "road map" that would address the IAEA's concerns in a set order.

Regarding Amano's sought-after accord with Iran, the IAEA report said "some differences remained" but that Jalili, who also represented Iran in Baghdad this week, "made clear that these were not obstacles to reaching agreement."

"The Director General invites Iran to expedite final agreement ... and urges Iran to engage the agency on the substance of the issues as soon as possible, including by providing early access to the Parchin site," it said.

The full report was not made public but was sent to member states. It can be found however at: http://tinyurl.com/d2wb8aa.

ALERTA/ La central nuclear de Onagawa sufre filtraciones de agua

Desde El Nacional

Vista de los destrozos registrados en la localidad de Onagawa | EFE

La central nuclear de Onagawa, en la provincia de Miyagi (noreste de Japón), sufre filtraciones de agua tras el fuerte terremoto de ayer aunque no se ha detectado por el momento un aumento de la radiactividad, informó la cadena NHK.
Otras dos centrales nucleares del este de Japón han tenido que recurrir a generadores de emergencia tras perder el suministro eléctrico externo por el fuerte terremoto de 7,4 grados de anoche en la costa de Miyagi, que causó al menos dos muertos y más de un centenar de heridos.

La planta de Onagawa, muy cercana al epicentro del seísmo, ha perdido dos de sus tres líneas eléctricas externas, aunque por el momento está refrigerando sus piscinas de combustible usado con la línea de suministro restante, informó la Agencia de Seguridad Nuclear de Japón.

Onagawa, que estaba parada desde el devastador seísmo del 11 de marzo, sufrió la suspensión temporal de los sistemas de refrigeración tras el terremoto de ayer, aunque finalmente los técnicos los recuperaron.

La central de Higashidori, en Aomori, se quedó tras el terremoto sin el suministro eléctrico externo y ahora está funcionando con generadores diesel de emergencia, aunque en el momento del seísmo estaba siendo revisada y no se ha informado de problemas.

También en Aomori, la central de procesamiento de residuos nucleares de Rokkasho se quedó sin electricidad y opera con generadores de emergencia.

En la central de Fukushima Daiichi, afectada por graves filtraciones por el terremoto y posterior tsunami de hace casi un mes, no se ha detectado un aumento de la radiación fuera de lo normal, según la agencia nuclear.

Las plantas de Fukushima Daiini y Tokai (Ibaraki) tampoco han registrado problemas y registros fuera de lo normal.