Six tanks containing nuclear waste have started leaking at a site in the US state of Washington. Source: AAP
AT least six tanks containing radioactive waste are leaking at a site that was used to make Cold War-era bombs in the US state of Washington.
Authorities in the state are urging more federal help to clean up the site, which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago
Washington governor Jay Inslee said that the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site was disturbing.
"There is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these newly discovered leaks, which are more than five miles from the Columbia River," he said, after meeting US Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Washington DC.
"But nonetheless this is disturbing news for all Washingtonians," he said.
The Hanford nuclear site, 185 miles (300 km) southeast of Seattle, was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II.
Output grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last reactor closed down in 1987. Its website says: "Weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment".
Millions of litres of leftover waste is contained in 177 tanks at the site, according to the Department of Energy, which in 1989 agreed a deal with Washington state authorities to clean up the Hanford Site.
A Department of Energy spokesman, Lindsey Geisler, confirmed that "there are six tanks at the Hanford site .. including the one announced last week, that show declining levels of fluid."
"There is no immediate public health risk. The Department is working with the State of Washington and other key stakeholders to address the issues associated with these tanks," he added.
Details of exactly what kind of waste was involved were not immediately available.
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