"As that work began, contaminated soil was discovered in a wider area beneath the building, where it was not expected. DOE paused work in April, and Pacific Nor

"As that work began, contaminated soil was discovered in a wider area beneath the building, where it was not expected. DOE paused work in April, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the DOE national laboratory in Richland, was called upon to help Hanford officials understand the extent of the underground contamination. PNNL confirmed the findings of the Hanford contractors that the spill was both broader and deeper than thought when the plan to excavate it from within the hot cell was developed." Eh, no? They basically said "oh shit this is a bigger problem let's re-evaluate" not "oh man we goofed but have a new plan". "However, DOE said the building currently is in a safe and stable configuration. The contaminated soils at it have remained stable for decades, it said." Except, they just learnt they were wrong about the contamination extent. I'm not sure how much I trust this evaluation to be correct. I would HOPE they are doing something like, using geiger counters with a groundwater well in a different location to check radiation levels. Another comment mentioned cesium and strontium, which at least cesium has a half life of 30 years, meaning if this spill happened 30-40 years ago a majority of the radiation may already have dissipated. Shouldn't we be able to determine the age of the spill using the cesium half life?