DOE Releases Statement on Six Leaking Tanks at Hanford Site - NBC Right Now/KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA |

DOE Releases Statement on Six Leaking Tanks at Hanford Site

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Rachel Hoops, Newscast Producer - email
(AP Photo/Jackie Johnston, File). FILE -- In this March 23, 2004 file photo, workers at the tank farms on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., measure for radiation and the presence of toxic vapors. (AP Photo/Jackie Johnston, File). FILE -- In this March 23, 2004 file photo, workers at the tank farms on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., measure for radiation and the presence of toxic vapors.

NBCRightNow.com -- The Department of Energy has released a statement on the 6 leaking tanks at the Hanford site. 

DOE says the cumulative rate of seepage from the 6 tanks is estimated to be less than three gallons a day. 

"To put that amount in perspective, roughly 1 million gallons of material previously leaked into the soil from the single-shell tanks at Hanford over a period of decades. To address that tanks that were leaking, by 2005, the Department removed all the drainable liquid possible out of the single-shell tanks, into double-shell tanks. We have not observed any discernible change in the contamination levels in the monitoring wells, but continue to monitor it very closely," says DOE spokesperson Lindsey Geisler.

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