After almost two decades of work, the government has nearly finished removing radioactive wastes from a first group of underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Work began 19 years ago to remove radioactive sludge and salt cake from 16 underground tanks known collectively as the C Tank Farm. The wastes are left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons at Hanford.
The U.S. Department of Energy said last week that a contractor is in the final stages of removing waste from tank C-105, a 530,000-gallon capacity tank that has stored radioactive wastes since 1947, and is a suspected leaker. (AP)
