A tank at America's most contaminated nuclear site is leaking
radioactive liquids, raising concerns about the integrity of
other storage facilities at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in
Washington state. Officials say the single-shell tank could be
leaking up to 1,135 liters per year, creating a long-term threat
that could impact groundwater or rivers. Washington state
Governor Jay Inslee said Friday, "we were told this problem was
dealt with years ago." A cleanup of the site would cost billions
of dollars and last decades. The tank holds nearly 1.7 million
liters of sludge, the radioactive by-product of decades of
plutonium production for nuclear weapons. Authorities say the
tank is the first confirmed leak since all Hanford tanks were
stabilized in 2005. The facility was created during World War II
for plutonium production when the country was secretly building
an atomic bomb. Some information for this report was provided by
AP.