podcast mark 2

The Hanford Nuclear Plutonium Enrichment Plant produced nuclear waste. The waste was stored in the Hanford Waste Facility, but it fell into disrepair causing nuclear runoff. The cleanup is expected to be completed by 2084. The waste will be transported to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility and contained in cells. The cleanup process involves vitrifying the sludge by mixing it with glass-forming materials and high heat. The waste will decay over 13 million years. Native Americans, communities along the Columbia River, and the ecosystem have been affected by the waste. The long-term effects and the communities where the waste will be transported are important social considerations. Now I am become death, the despair of girls. The atom bomb requires lots of work, and some of that work was done at the Hanford Nuclear Plutonium Enrichment Plant that has led to nuclear waste. My name is Reef, I am here with my co-host Simone, say hello Simone. Hi. And today, we are going to be interviewing the crazy, the awesome, Neil DeGrasse Neil. What's up guys? Now... What we really want to know about is the Hampton Waste. Alright, so, what is the Hampton Waste? So, the Hanford Nuclear Waste, we used to enrich plutonium in the Hanford Nuclear Facility due to the abundance of plutonium in the area. However, while enriching plutonium, we had to get it from plutonium 235 to 238, which is heavier and better for building a nuclear bomb, which is what that plutonium was used for. So, while enriching that, we would have a lot of excess radioactive waste, and that would turn into radioactive glass at cheap. However, as the Hanford Waste Facility fell into disrepair, we began to experience nuclear runout. That's crazy, man. Alright, so other than that, that was crazy. Now, we are going to go over our environmental stuff, is that right, co-host? Yes. That is right. Alright, we're going to go over the environmental facts, guys. Then, we're going to go over the history and stuff. And then, we're going to end it off with some community and social justice. Not social, just justice. Alright, so, what would you say the status of the cleanup is right now so far? What do you think is going on? It will most likely be cleaned up in 2084 because of the 54 million gallons of radioactive sludge. It will also have to be able to enter the site to even clean it up, which in itself is difficult to do because, you know, when you touch raw plutonium, you die. Oh, wow. There will be multiple ways to clean up the waste, and it depends on the waste characteristics. Most of the waste will be transported to a facility called the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. The waste will be shipped there, and it will be regulated by the U.S. EPA. And it will contain the waste in cells, eight of which are 500 feet wide, 1,000 feet long, and 70 feet- Huge, man. Uh-huh. Two of which are supercells that are twice as large. Wow. I know. 2.8 million tons per each normal cell. And then, the waste is covered in dirt and will permanently remain there until it decays 13 million years later. And how- will the earth be gone by then? No. We expect life on earth to end, as we know it, in 700 million years. Dang. Unless we actually try to protect that, because 700 million years is when we would be hit by an asteroid the size that wiped out the dinosaurs. And it would lead to high amounts of- low amounts of CO2 in the air, thus leading to the death of all life on earth. I can't remember the dinosaurs. Yes, that's what happens to the dinosaurs. All right. Now, what about the others? Because you said- you had said, like, most of it. What about the other waste that is there? Oh, some of it will be stored in underground tanks, and then it will be cleaned up. To do so, we have to vitrify the sludge. In order to do that, the sludge is mixed with glass-forming materials and then introduced to high heat. So it's the waste bonds with the glass, which is, you know, the radioactive glass. It's what Hanford scientists tried to do in the 1950s. However, their plan was unsuccessful because it still left off half a barrel- half a barrel of active sludge for every other half that they mixed in. So they did remove some, though? They were able to remove it into radioactive glass. However, they didn't store that glass. And as the facility wanted to disrepair it, this glass would just go into the ground. All right. So you've got any questions? I didn't get that. Could you- Sorry, Siri's on my phone. Anyway, you've got any questions? No. I think that's all covered. All right. What about the- So where is the vitrification happening, then? It's happening- It's in a facility that will be constructed at Hanford, which will perform the vitrification work. It's called the Low-Activity Waste Vitrification Facility, or the LOF facility. All right. That's pretty- That's pretty cool, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now, so like, what's the history? We didn't really cover the history. This is actually my specialty. You didn't- I haven't asked you enough about it? Yes. I got you, man. So what we did here was we built a nuke. I already told you about the plutonium that we used to build the nuke. And it wasn't necessarily a one-time thing. We used- Like the one from the movie, you mean? Oppenheimer? Yes. The one from the movie, Oppenheimer. We used it to build the nuclear atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Trinity Test Site. Was it from BART? No. Just Oppenheimer. At the same time. Yeah. Mixed others. You know. Who are the major human organizations and groups? That's a good question. Yeah. I thought about it. Yeah. The American government, the Japanese government, the Nazi German government. So the Germans were intentionally trying to get the bomb with- They called it the Heisenberg device because the lead scientist on it was Heisenberg. However, they were not able to get the bomb because a heavy water shipment that was coming in from the only heavy water plant in Norway, which is- The heavy water is deuterium instead of hydrogen, so deuterium-2-O. What are the environmental challenges to solving this environmental issue? Well, as you know, if I touch plutonium, I die. And also, nuclear waste is, you know, sort of hard to get rid of because its lifespan is 13 million years. Who's affected by this issue? There are a lot of people affected by this issue. I mean, for one, the Native Americans who this land was stolen from. Two, the people along the Columbia River and the salmon and the Native Americans who relied on that salmon were also affected because the hand for nuclear waste has been shown to leak into the Columbia River and the affected lands near Yakima. So you're telling me that the people there just were dying? Yes. Oh, that's just messed up, man. That's crikey. What else did you learn about your solution that we should be considering? I was thinking we could contain it and move it very, very slowly. Oh, like to the vitrification- Like to the vitrification, yes. Or to the EPA facility, yes. That'd be cool. Uh-huh. So this is the stuff they used to make the nuclear bombs for World War II? Yes. And a few more after that. Wow. That's crazy, bro. All right. Now, let's get to that community part of it. So Neil pretty much covered it, but the communities affected by this issue are like Yakima people, the Native Americans, and like the ecosystems in the Columbia River. Yeah. Are we correct by that? Yeah, for sure. I mean, a lot of that nuclear waste polluted the general area, because that's what nuclear waste does. Yeah. I know what you're getting at. Mm-hmm. Are there any like animals, such as plant communities, though, that we'd say were affected? I would say, well, the fish are actually quite important, because the salmon are vital to the ecosystem of the Columbia River as a whole. And we've already dammed the Snake River, which means that a lot of those salmon, that there is a drastic decline in salmon populations. So when we have that drastic decline in salmon populations, we also see a drastic decline in other populations that rely on that salmon. So I would say the whole ecosystem as a whole has been generally on the decline, because of the Hanford nuclear waste and the Snake River Dam. And so you would say that this does affect disproportionately like one group over another? I would say disproportionately, this affects the Native Americans who relied on the land and the salmon who are there. However, I'm sure that some experts on this can also disagree with me here. All right. So, yeah, we got just like a minute left, so we don't have much time. But in our last minute, what do you say? Are there any other social science questions you believe we could consider? I think we have to consider the long-term effects of this and what communities that nuclear waste will be transported into, because we see with other types of waste that it's transported into traditionally black and brown communities and poorer communities. So we want to make sure that this nuclear waste is far away from human contact and safely contained. This is all some crazy stuff we learned today. It's vast history and it's had environmental effects and social issues. Thank you guys so much for listening and we will see you next time.