For years, the usual excuses not to solve the leaky tank problems at Hanford Nuclear Reservation have been budget overruns and technological challenges. I am appalled that the vitrification plant is still not operating and that not one single glass brick of toxic waste has been produced.
I believe the Department of Energy and their contractors have spent too much time hiding alarming realities from the public and not enough time solving Hanford’s toxic waste problems. We are a smart people. In 1943 we gathered all the best and brightest scientists and 50,000 workers to support them and built the atomic bomb in two years. If we were to decide that the toxic waste at Hanford is indeed the very urgent problem that it is, we can solve this problem in very short order.
I wish Gov. Jay Inslee well as he pleads with the Washington, D.C., folks for help. I appreciate The Columbian’s raising public awareness about Hanford’s dangers by putting the news of it on its Feb. 23 front page, “Six Hanford waste tanks leaking: Governor’s D.C. visit reveals problem is worse than reported.”
Judi Malinowski
Yacolt
