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Article: Treatment of uranium shavings wraps up at Richland, Wash., nuclear reservation.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- September 27, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 27--Hanford is about to put another environmental headache behind it.
In 1998, workers digging up an old waste burial site just north of the 300 Area in southeast Hanford began finding deteriorating drums with shavings of depleted uranium, just yards from the Columbia River.
Hanford officials had expected to find the unexpected in the burial pit, but the drums of uranium were a particularly nasty surprise.
Depleted uranium can spontaneously ignite if exposed to air. To prevent that, oil had been added to the uranium. But the drums were so ...