Given the recent revelation that at least six tanks of high level waste at the Hanford site appear to be leaking, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) yesterday requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into the Department of Energy’s tank maintenance and monitoring procedures at Hanford. Wyden toured Hanford on Feb. 19, several days after it came to light that one single-shell tank was leaking waste. “These new leak announcements raise a lot of questions about the monitoring and management of the Hanford tank farms,” Wyden said in a statement.
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Wyden’s letter to the GAO yesterday included a number of questions on whether any changes should be made to the monitoring program for single-shell tanks. “When did DOE and its site contractors learn of these recent problems and did DOE and its contractors report them in a timely manner?” Wyden asked. “What are the current protocols for DOE and its contractors to report tank problems to regulators and stakeholders? Were these protocols followed in the case of recent disclosures and are they adequate? If they are inadequate, how should they be improved?”
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