I'm absolutely sure they've thought of this, but I do wonder why they don't just divert the rivers around it and mine the entire place like an open-pit mine. Cart the square km or two of material off to some processing location and be done with it. It'd likely cost less than what's been spent already.
Again, I'm sure this has been thought of and rejected for a good reason. Still, doing it piecemeal doesn't seem to be working.
Open-pit mining produces dust, and in this case that dust would be heavily contaminated, and could then end up being blown away to contaminate some new site, making the problem worse.
> and mine the entire place like an open-pit mine.
That bit specifically evokes memories of choking clouds of dust having to be sprayed down to reduce the worst of it but still creating plumes of air borne particles spreading and settling over surrounding areas.
Now with the addition of post WWII nuclear weapons refining by products.
The current discharge of the Columbia River upstream of Richland is 118,000 ft3/s. That is a fifth of the Mississippi River. It is also quarter to half mile wide.
Once upon a time commenters here used to refrain. The “I’m sure they have thought” or “I have no experience but” or “Can anyone” is a reddit spillover. It’s not peak, this is post-peak decline unless we improve the discourse.
Also sarcasm and cynicism is cheap karma. It’s better to only comment constructively.
I say all this because you me and GP have been around here a while.
This “shut up so you seem smarter” attitude is so annoying, especially online. You are not allowed to be curious about something without becoming an expert on the subject. People too wrapped up in their own egos.
The Columbia River is massive - think the Siene, or Danube, or Rhine.
And the topology there is far from flat - it’s at the bottom of a valley. Trying to get that much water going anywhere it isn’t already going to go will require a project similar in scale to the Hoover Dam or California Aquaduct system.
It’s a bit like asking why we can’t ‘just’ build some walls to stop hurricanes from screwing over Florida. It sounds simple enough, right?
Those kind of questions themselves suck -- but generally here on HN the reply chain is interesting, and even such basic questions produce such interesting and sometimes 'expert' responses that I end up learning something from them.
so, I guess I mean to say that without the dumb questions I wouldn't get to enjoy the expert answers, so I appreciate them for that.
I guess the related question is - the half life of Cs137 and St90 are both about 30 years. Can the place just be secured well enough to prevent it from being disturbed for the next few hundred years? Why keep poking at it?
>I guess the related question is - the half life of Cs137 and St90 are both about 30 years.
Which is disturbing because this spill has been there for about 45 years already - it must have been as hot as hell to start with and you've got to wonder how many workers have been zapped by it over the years.
Someone should start combing through records and finding out who's been in near proximity.
My parents live in Richland. To get to my parents I drive past the Berkley Pit in Butte, MT, Anaconda's Smelter cleanup, Silverbow Creek cleanup, Clarkfork River cleanup, and the Milltown Dam cleanup supersites.
Again, I'm sure this has been thought of and rejected for a good reason. Still, doing it piecemeal doesn't seem to be working.