Congressman Walden explains nuclear waste storage problem of Hanford site

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon says in debate on a nuclear waste policy bill that Americans are watching and expecting Congress to act, that the Hanford site on the mighty Columbia River was built during World War II, instrumental in projecting peace through strength during the Cold War but the 56 million gallons of toxic waste sitting in metal tanks were buried in the ground, built in the 1940s with single layers of shells to last 20 years and would be almost 100 years by the estimated end of their waste treatment, and that the Department of Energy had reported 67 of the tanks were assumed or known to have leaked waste into the soil.