SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19 -- The northwest U.S. state of Washington said Wednesday that the federal government has agreed to pay 925,000 U.S. dollars to improve workers' safety at the country's most polluted nuclear waste site in the state.
Washington State Attorney General (AG) Bob Ferguson told reporters in Seattle that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)) will conduct testing and implementing a new system to treat or capture hazardous tank vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the next three years as part of a settlement agreement between the state and the DOE.
The agreement "marks the first time in the history of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that Energy will destroy or capture tank vapors at their source, thereby eliminating the hazard to workers," Ferguson said in a statement.
The settlement accord requires the DOE to pay nearly 1 million dollars in fees and costs to Washington state and Hanford Challenge, an advocacy group that has fought for decades to protect the safety of the workers at the Hanford nuclear waste site.
Ferguson filed a lawsuit in 2017 against the DOE and its contractor Washington River Protection Solutions LLC to seek better protection for the workers after 20 years of the employees getting sick from vapor exposure.
The tanks at the Hanford site contain more than 50 million gallons (204 million liters) of radioactive and chemical wastes left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
【国际英语资讯:U.S. state announces accord with federal govt on nuclear waste site】相关文章:
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