Title – Science Friday – Hanford Nuclear Waste Cleanup

By – Frank Virzi

Primary Subject – Science

Secondary Subjects – Social Studies

Grade Level – 9 – 12

Here are a set of questions that I ask my students to answer as they are listening to the program. Feel free to copy and use with your classes.

This radio program was aired on National Public Radio on April 3, 1998. It is available at the Science Friday Archives (RealAudio required) at

NAME______________________________

Questions

1. How many of the 177 underground storage tanks at the
Hanford nuclear reservation are leaking? ____________

2. Who was the Secretary of Energy in 1993?

___________________________________

3. Name 2 kinds of materials other than nuclear wastes that are stored in the tanks at Hanford.

_______________________________________________________

4. About how far below the surface of the ground are
the tops of the tanks? ___________________

5. What does the term “preferred pathways” refer to?

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

6. About how many gallons of radioactive waste have
leaked out? __________________

7. The “edge effect” refers to the interaction of

(A) granite and iodine

(B) granite and stontium

(C) mica and technetium

(D) mica and cesium

8. How many square miles of contaminated ground water
are there around Hanford? _____________

9. How many gallons are being held in the single and
double-shelled tanks? ___________

ANSWERS: 1. 68 2. Hazel O’Leary 3. caustics, organics, sludges, salts 4. 20-40 ft. 5. channels in soil that wastes could travel

through 6. 1,000,000 7. D 8. 85 9. 54 million

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Frank Virzi

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