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I live not far from where Columbia river comes out to US from Canada, in US portion of Selkirk Mountains. This is north of Coulee Dam. It's good that salmon ca

I live not far from where Columbia river comes out to US from Canada, in US portion of Selkirk Mountains. This is north of Coulee Dam. It's good that salmon can come into this area but smelter from Trail, BC has been polluting upper Columbia river for about hundred years. With chemicals and smelter sludge. Fish is not edible, sand is black from sludge. Salmon may have reached upper Columbia river, but water in that part of the river is heavily polluted. And south of Coulee Dam, there is storage of nuclear waste, just north of Richmond, WA - Hanford site. Nuclear waste already leaks into Columbia river, north of Tri-Cities area. So in my opinion, human created disasters in the Columbia river, rank in this order: nuclear waste at Hanford site > smelter at Trail, BC > Dams without passage for fish. Sorry for typos, typing from phone.

igorstellar 6y ago
How nuclear waste leaves power plant? I always was under impression the core is heavily isolated and water is just cooling or used for turbines.
- tima101 6y ago
  No active reactor but 53 million US gallons (200,000 m3) of high-level radioactive waste stored within 177 storage tanks, an additional 25 million cubic feet (710,000 m3) of solid radioactive waste, and areas of heavy Technetium-99 and uranium contaminated groundwater beneath three tank farms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site Federal government promised to clean up but failed.
- AareyBaba 6y ago
  Cleaning Up the Cold War’s Nuclear Legacy at Hanford https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/a-glass-nightmare-cleaning-up-the-cold-wars-nuclear-legacy-at-hanford https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/a-glass-nightma... "During Hanford’s plutonium-production heyday, workers discharged some 1.7 trillion liters of waste liquids into soil disposal sites, which developed into vast underground plumes of toxic chemicals, including the carcinogens hexavalent chromium and carbon tetrachloride [PDF], that infiltrated aquifers."
  - scottlamb 6y ago
    Interesting that the two chemicals mentioned in that quote aren't radioactive. Carbon tetrachloride apparently was once used as a household spot cleaner, [1] so I think it's fair to say folks who dealt with nuclear waste would have been relatively unconcerned with carbon tetrachloride. Of course, knowing what we do now, they absolutely are dangerous. It's horrible they've leaked into the aquifer. Reminds me of the trichloroethylene plumes in Silicon Valley. Also a solvent once considered pretty benign, now known to be a carcinogen. (And actually linked to quite a few cancer cases I believe, unlike many chemicals "known to the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.") [1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=194&tid=35#:~:text=In%20the%20past%2C%20carbon%20tetrachloride,to%20kill%20insects%20in%20grain https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=194&tid=35#:~:text=....
- Stevvo 6y ago
  That's how it should work, but there have been ~15 or so reactors built there, with many of them in the 40s and 50s before there was adequate safety. There was also the issue of "waste" being removed from those reactors for processing into more than 60,000 weapons.
- i_am_proteus 6y ago
  The waste is leftover from cold-war-era plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
- smegger001 6y ago
  Hanford predates commercial nuclear power this is manhatten project era site. they made the plutonium for trinnity Nagasaki and they really didn't know much about how to handle radio active materials back in the early 40's. Hanford the idea was hey this stuff is dangerous lets through it in the vat of other dangerous stuff* we need to get rid of. * other dangerous stuff being fun things like mustard gas and nerve agents This was supposed to be cleaned up purified put into safe modern radioactive waste containment vessels and stored deep in Yucca mountain until the NIMBY folks got involved.
908B64B197 6y ago
BC claims to be extremely environmental but they have a really poor track record with polluting waterway. The Columbia river is one instance. The strait of Juan de Fuca is another [0]. The citizens of Victoria only stopped dumping raw untreated sewage in it earlier this year! [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-crd-wastewater-treatment-ends-untreated-sewage-dumping-1.5844830 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-crd...

igorstellar 6y ago

How nuclear waste leaves power plant? I always was under impression the core is heavily isolated and water is just cooling or used for turbines.

tima101 6y ago
No active reactor but 53 million US gallons (200,000 m3) of high-level radioactive waste stored within 177 storage tanks, an additional 25 million cubic feet (710,000 m3) of solid radioactive waste, and areas of heavy Technetium-99 and uranium contaminated groundwater beneath three tank farms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site Federal government promised to clean up but failed.
AareyBaba 6y ago
Cleaning Up the Cold War’s Nuclear Legacy at Hanford https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/a-glass-nightmare-cleaning-up-the-cold-wars-nuclear-legacy-at-hanford https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/a-glass-nightma... "During Hanford’s plutonium-production heyday, workers discharged some 1.7 trillion liters of waste liquids into soil disposal sites, which developed into vast underground plumes of toxic chemicals, including the carcinogens hexavalent chromium and carbon tetrachloride [PDF], that infiltrated aquifers."
- scottlamb 6y ago
  Interesting that the two chemicals mentioned in that quote aren't radioactive. Carbon tetrachloride apparently was once used as a household spot cleaner, [1] so I think it's fair to say folks who dealt with nuclear waste would have been relatively unconcerned with carbon tetrachloride. Of course, knowing what we do now, they absolutely are dangerous. It's horrible they've leaked into the aquifer. Reminds me of the trichloroethylene plumes in Silicon Valley. Also a solvent once considered pretty benign, now known to be a carcinogen. (And actually linked to quite a few cancer cases I believe, unlike many chemicals "known to the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.") [1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=194&tid=35#:~:text=In%20the%20past%2C%20carbon%20tetrachloride,to%20kill%20insects%20in%20grain https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=194&tid=35#:~:text=....
Stevvo 6y ago
That's how it should work, but there have been ~15 or so reactors built there, with many of them in the 40s and 50s before there was adequate safety. There was also the issue of "waste" being removed from those reactors for processing into more than 60,000 weapons.
i_am_proteus 6y ago
The waste is leftover from cold-war-era plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
smegger001 6y ago
Hanford predates commercial nuclear power this is manhatten project era site. they made the plutonium for trinnity Nagasaki and they really didn't know much about how to handle radio active materials back in the early 40's. Hanford the idea was hey this stuff is dangerous lets through it in the vat of other dangerous stuff* we need to get rid of. * other dangerous stuff being fun things like mustard gas and nerve agents This was supposed to be cleaned up purified put into safe modern radioactive waste containment vessels and stored deep in Yucca mountain until the NIMBY folks got involved.

908B64B197 6y ago

BC claims to be extremely environmental but they have a really poor track record with polluting waterway. The Columbia river is one instance. The strait of Juan de Fuca is another [0]. The citizens of Victoria only stopped dumping raw untreated sewage in it earlier this year! [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-crd-wastewater-treatment-ends-untreated-sewage-dumping-1.5844830 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-crd...