Concern over hydrogen in nuclear waste tanks Two more problems bubbled up last week at the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex. A new study described possible buildup of potentially flammable or explosive hydrogen gas in an under ground nuclear waste storage tank at DOE's Hanford site in Richland, Wash. And 28 kg of plutonium, dou ble previous estimates, were report ed lost as dust in air ducts at the de partment's Rocky Flats facility near Denver. Hanford has been storing nuclear wastes produced by defense-related operations in underground tanks since 1944. It has 149 single-shell tanks, built until 1964, and 28 dou ble-shell tanks, first used in the 1970s. The 1 million gal doubleshell tanks have walls 1.5-feet thick, made of reinforced concrete with two steel liners, and are covered by 6 to 8 feet of soil. Twenty tanks contain organic wastes, including the complexing agent ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, which decompose to produce hydrogen, nitrous oxides, and nitro gen. Scientists from contractor Westinghouse Hanford Co. obtained an exhaust stack reading on one tank with a "spike" of 5% hydrogen con centration. This suggests that hydro gen may be building up in pockets trapped beneath the crust formed on the surface of the thick slurry in the tank. The 1 million gal tank contains 586,000 gal of high-level radioactive waste. No high hydrogen levels have been found in the other tanks. Hydrogen is considered flamma ble at 4% in dry air, and explosive at 18%, so concern has been aroused in the state of Washington about a pos sible explosion, with widespread re lease of radioactive material from the tank. But DOE and an outside advisory panel say the risk is low. Moreover, safety analyses show the tank should withstand any accident. Nevertheless, steps have been tak en to keep ignition sources away from the tank. DOE and Westinghouse will study the issue to see if there is a problem, and if so, how to deal with it. If required, they hope to have a plan by June.
Underground 1 million gal storage tanks for high-level radioactive waste, now covered with 6 to 8 feet of earth, were built in mid-1980s at Hanford Meanwhile, on a n o t h e r front, DOE Secretary James D. Watkins is sued six directives to implement the recommendations of an advisory panel on DOE epidemiologic activi ties that submitted its final report last week (C&EN, March 19, page 7).
As expected, Watkins called for de velopment of a memorandum of un derstanding transferring long-term epidemiology research to the De partment of Health & Human Ser vices. Richard Seltzer
States to get grants for science education reform A new initiative from the National Science Foundation seeks to catalyze reform in precollege science and math education through grants to individual states. NSF has structured the initiative to provide states with the flexibility to come up with creative ideas for improving education. "We will look for comprehensive plans to improve statewide science and mathematics education significantly—not simply to tinker with the details," says NSF director Erich Bloch. "Plans will need to deal with teacher prepara tion, retention, and continuing edu cation; with curriculum improve ments; with student motivation; and with upgrading educational facili ties." However, plans will not have to address all these areas to qualify. Ac cording to Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, NSF assistant director for science and engineering education, "One state might do Κ through 6 mathe matics, another state might focus on the preparation of middle school sci ence teachers, still a third might choose to look at incorporating
high-quality materials . . . into the teaching of high school biology." The initiative emphasizes cooper ation and consensus. "All elements of each state's education system and the political institutions that support state education will have to be in volved," says Bloch. This includes governors, chief state school offic ers, presidents of local colleges, teacher organizations, and legisla tive and corporate leaders. NSF expects state programs to be supported through long-term fiscal commitments from state legislatures and other sources. Thus, the initia tive is aimed at catalyzing change, not supporting it totally or perma nently. For the four to eight states selected in the first year of the pro gram, NSF will make grants total ling $5 million to $10 million over the expected five-year life of each grant. NSF hopes to add other states in succeeding years. Chemical education specialists contacted by C&EN hailed the ini tiative. John W. Moore of the Uni versity of Wisconsin, Madison, chairman of the precollege subcomApril 2, 1990 C&EN 5
