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Encyclopedia > Hanford Site
Hanford Site plutonium production reactors along the Columbia River during the Manhattan Project.

The Hanford Site is a facility of the government of the United States established to provide plutonium necessary for the development of nuclear weapons. It was established in 1943 as the Hanford Engineer Works, part of the Manhattan Project, and codenamed "Site W." No longer used to produce plutonium, it is currently the United States' most contaminated nuclear site.[1] Hanford Site, 1945, from the Smyth Report. ... Hanford Site, 1945, from the Smyth Report. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the creation of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, known as the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the creation of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, known as the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ...


The site occupies 586 square miles (1,517 km²) in Benton County, south-central Washington, and is approximately equivalent to half the total area of the state of Rhode Island (centered on 46°30′00″N, 119°30′00″W.) The Federal government bought the towns of White Bluffs and Hanford and all of the surrounding farmland and orchards, and evacuated the residents to make room for the site. Benton County is a county located in the south central of the state of Washington. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... White Bluffs was a town in Benton County, Washington. ... Hanford was a small agricultural community in Benton County, Washington. ...


Plutonium manufactured at the Hanford site was used to build the first nuclear bomb, which was tested at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, and used to build Fat Man, the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The Trinity test was the first test of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945 at , thirty miles (48 km) southeast of Socorro on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo, New Mexico. ... Alamogordo is a city in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. ... This article is about the nuclear weapon used in World War II. For other uses, see Fat Man (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bomb (disambiguation). ... Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge) Nagasaki   listen? (長崎市; -shi, literally long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...


Currently, the Hanford Site is engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup, with many challenges to be resolved in the face of overlapping technical, political, regulatory, and cultural interests. The cleanup effort is focused on three outcomes: restoring the Columbia River corridor for other uses, converting the central plateau to long-term waste treatment and storage, and preparing for the future. The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ...


Although most of the original Hanford Site is in Benton County, approximately twenty percent was once across the Columbia River in Grant and Franklin counties. This land has since been returned to private use and is now covered with orchards and irrigated fields. In 2000, large portions of Hanford were turned over to the Hanford Reach National Monument. Benton County is a county located in the south central of the state of Washington. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ... Grant County is a county located in the state of Washington. ... Franklin County is a county located in the state of Washington. ... The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. State of Washington. ...

Contents

History of the Hanford Nuclear Site

Hanford High School, before and after operation of the Hanford Nuclear Site

The Uranium Committee of the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) decided to sponsor an intensive research project on plutonium. At this time, plutonium was a rare element that had been isolated in a University of California laboratory only nine months earlier. The OSRD placed the contract with the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab). Communities surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington were exposed to radionuclides, particularly iodine-131, released during the period 1945 to 1951. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) that superceded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later grew into the Manhattan Project. ... In June of 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) superseded the committee structure [of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)]. The OSRD projects gave the United States and Allied troops more powerful and more accurate bombs, more reliable detonators, lighter and more accurate weapons, safer and more... This article is about the concept. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Berkeley Davis Irvine Los Angeles Merced San Diego Santa Barbara Santa Cruz UC Office of the President in Oakland The University of California (UC) is a public university system in the state of California. ... This sculpture by Henry Moore marks the site at the University of Chicago where Metallurgical Laboratory scientists created the worlds first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. ...


Selecting the Hanford site

In June 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers formed the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) to construct industrial-size plants to manufacture the plutonium and uranium for the Met Lab scientists. In November 1942, the DuPont Company was recruited, and reluctantly agreed, to be the prime contractor for the construction of the facility. DuPont recommended that the plutonium production facilities be located far away from the existing uranium production facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and described the ideal site: United States Army Corps of Engineers logo The United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is made up of some 34,600 military men and women. ... Control panels and operators for calutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ... This sculpture by Henry Moore marks the site at the University of Chicago where Metallurgical Laboratory scientists created the worlds first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. ... Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, or du Pont may refer to: // E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the worlds third largest chemical company Du Pont Motors Gilbert Dupont, a French stock brokerage part of retail banking network Crédit du Nord ST Dupont, a French manufacturer of fine... Oak Ridge is an incorporated city in Anderson and Roane Counties in East Tennessee, about 25 miles northwest of Knoxville. ... Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ...

  • A large and remote tract of land,
  • A "hazardous manufacturing area" of at least 12 by 16 miles (19 by 26 km),
  • Space for laboratory facilities at least 8 miles (13 km) from the nearest reactor or separations plant,
  • No towns of more than 1,000 people closer than 20 miles (32 km) from the hazardous rectangle,
  • No main highway, railway, or employee village closer than 10 miles (16 km) from the hazardous rectangle,
  • A clean and abundant water supply,
  • A large electric power supply,
  • Ground that could bear heavy loads.

Although General Leslie Groves considered five other locations, the Hanford Site was chosen in December 1942 as "ideal in virtually all respects" (Matthias 1987), except for the farming towns of White Bluffs and Hanford. General Groves then established the Hanford Engineer Works. Beginning in February 1943, the Federal Government acquired 670 square miles (1,740 km²) from ~1,300 people (Gephart 2003). Because of wartime food shortages, the Manhattan Project used American prisoners to harvest the fields and orchards. Leslie Groves Leslie Richard Groves (August 17, 1896 – July 13, 1970) was a United States Army officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and was the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Descended from French Huguenots who... The Manhattan Project resulted in the creation of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, known as the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ...


Construction begins

The Hanford Engineer Works (HEW) broke ground in March 1943, and immediately launched a massive construction project. Before the end of the war in August 1945, the HEW built 554 buildings (in addition to building living quarters and the City of Richland, Washington), including: Richland Police Station in foreground. ...

  • Three reactors: 105-B ( 46°37′50″N, 119°39′00″W), 105D( 46°42′00″N, 119°32′00″W), and 105-F ( 46°39′47″N, 119°26′50″W),
  • Three 250 meter long plutonium processing canyons: 221-T ( 46°33′45″N, 119°37′05″W), 221-B ( 46°33′25″N, 119°32′25″W), and 221-U ( 46°32′49″N, 119°37′05″W),
  • Away-from-reactor below-grade decay storage basins: 200-N ( 46°35′30″N, 119°34′37″W—coordinates show above-grade structure of the central of 3 railheads with access to the basins)
  • Gable Mountain vault for Plutonium storage ( 46°35′27″N, 119°27′54″W—coordinates show access area to the former in-mountain vault)
  • 64 underground high-level waste storage tanks,
  • Uranium fuel fabrication facilities, laboratories and test reactors in the 300 area ( 46°22′20″N, 119°16′40″W),
  • 386 miles (621 km) of roads,
  • 158 miles (254 km) of railway,
  • 50 miles (80 km) of electrical transmission lines,
  • Four electrical substations,
  • Hundreds of miles of fencing.

The Hanford Engineer Works used 780,000 cubic yards (600,000 m³) of concrete and 40,000 tons of structural steel and consumed US$230 million dollars between 1943 and 1946. The short ton is a unit of mass equal to 907. ...

Image of the surface of waste found inside double-shell tank 101-SY at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington State. April 1989.

Download high resolution version (1880x1286, 603 KB)Original caption This is the surface of waste found in double-shell tank 101-SY at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington State. ... Download high resolution version (1880x1286, 603 KB)Original caption This is the surface of waste found in double-shell tank 101-SY at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington State. ...

Building the reactors

The DuPont Company started to build the first Hanford nuclear reactor, B pile (building 105-B), in August 1943. (Fission reactors were originally called "piles".) Construction was completed more than a year later, on September 13, 1944. Testing started on July 12, 1944, and B pile was charged with uranium slugs on September 26, 1944 (Gephart 2003). The uranium slugs were short cylinders, 8 inches (20.3 cm) tall with a 1.4 inch (3.55 cm) diameter (Gephart 2003). Plutonium production began on September 26, 1944 (Gephart 2003). B reactor went critical in late September 1944, and after overcoming nuclear poisoning, produced its first plutonium on November 6, 1944. This plutonium was then refined in the 221-T plant and shipped to Los Alamos, beginning on December 26, 1944 (Gephart 2003). The first shipment was on February 5, 1945, leading the way to future shipments which were used in the Trinity Test and Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, or du Pont may refer to: // E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the worlds third largest chemical company Du Pont Motors Gilbert Dupont, a French stock brokerage part of retail banking network Crédit du Nord ST Dupont, a French manufacturer of fine... Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ... The B-Reactor at Hanford Site, Washington, was the first large scale plutonium production reactor ever built. ... is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 193rd day of the year (194th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For information on radioactive toxins see Radiation poisoning A nuclear poison is a substances with a large neutron absorption cross-section in applications, such as nuclear reactors, when absorbing neutrons is an undesirable effect. ... is the 310th day of the year (311th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Trinity test was the first test of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945 at , thirty miles (48 km) southeast of Socorro on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo, New Mexico. ... This article is about the nuclear weapon used in World War II. For other uses, see Fat Man (disambiguation). ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...


After starting construction on B pile, DuPont started construction on two identical reactors, 105-D, which started production in December 1944, and 105-F, which started production in February 1945. All three reactors (105-B, 105-D, and 105-F) initially operated at 250 megawatts (MW). The megawatt (symbol: MW) is a unit for measuring power corresponding to one million (106) watts. ...


As no one had ever built an industrial-scale reactor before, the scientists and the DuPont engineering team were unsure how much heat would be generated by fission during normal operations. Seeking the greatest margin of error, DuPont engineers installed ammonia-based refrigeration systems with the 100-D and 100-F reactors to further chill the river water prior to its use as the reactor coolant.[2] For other uses, see Ammonia (disambiguation). ... Refrigeration is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space, or from a substance, and rejecting it elsewhere for the primary purpose of lowering the temperature of the enclosed space or substance and then maintaining that lower temperature. ...

Reactor name Start-up date Shutdown date Initial power (MWt) Final power (MWt) notes
B-reactor September 1944 February 1968 250 2210
D-reactor December 1944 June 1967 250 2165
F-reactor February 1945 June 1965 250 2040
H-reactor October 1949 April 1965 400 2140
DR-reactor October 1950 December 1964 250 2015
C-reactor November 1952 April 1969 650 2500
KW-reactor January 1955 February 1970 1800 4400
KE-reactor April 1955 January 1971 1800 4400
N-Reactor December 1963 January 1987 4000 4000 dual-purpose

[3]

Plutonium separation plants

Plutonium was produced in the Hanford reactors when a U-238 atom in a fuel slug absorbed a neutron to form U-239. The U-239 rapidly undergoes beta decay to give Np-239, which rapidly undergoes a second beta decay, giving Pu-239. The irradiated fuel slugs were transported by rail to three huge remotely operated chemical separation plants called "canyons", that were located about 10 miles (16 km) away. A series of chemical processing steps separated the small amount of plutonium that was produced from the remaining uranium and the fission waste products. General Name, symbol, number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, period, block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Standard atomic weight 238. ... In nuclear physics, beta decay (sometimes called neutron decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (an electron or a positron) is emitted. ... General Name, Symbol, Number neptunium, Np, 93 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight (237) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f4 6d1 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 22, 9, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ...


After the plutonium was extracted and refined in these plants, it was delivered to Los Alamos for use in the Trinity test device and the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... The Trinity test was the first test of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945 at , thirty miles (48 km) southeast of Socorro on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo, New Mexico. ... This article is about the nuclear weapon used in World War II. For other uses, see Fat Man (disambiguation). ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...


One issue the duPont team needed to tackle with these plants was that once they began processing irradiated slugs, the machinery would become radioactive to the point that it would be unsafe for humans ever to come in contact with it. They therefore had to devise methods to allow for replacement of any component via remote control. They came up with a modular cell concept, which allowed major components to be removed and replaced entirely by an operator sitting in a heavily shielded overhead crane. The method required early practical application of two technologies quite familiar to us today: Teflon, used as a gasket material, and closed-circuit television to give the crane operator a better view of what he was doing.[4] Teflon is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polymer of fluorinated ethylene. ... This article refers to a surveillance system. ...


On March 10, 1945, a Japanese fire balloon descended in the vicinity of the site. This balloon caused a short circuit in the power lines supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power almost immediately.[5] March 10 is the 69th day of the year (70th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Shotdown fire balloon reinflated by Americans in California The term fire balloon can mean a small unmanned hot air balloon for festivities; this is also called a sky lantern. ...


Cold War era

During the Cold War, the HeW built H-Reactor, with 400 MW, that started in 1949, and DR (for D-Replacement) Reactor, with 250 MW, started up in 1950. C-Reactor (105-C), at 600 MW, was located next to B-Reactor and started in 1952, and soon became the chief development and testing machine at the Hanford site. Within three months of its startup, C-Reactor's primary function was experimentation for the design of the "twin" K-Piles (KE and KW) - the 1955 "jumbos", each outputing 1,800 MW. For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...


By the early 1960s, extensive modifications and upgrades had allowed the five reactors that were built in the 1940s to achieve power levels ranging from 2,015 to 2,210 MW each, C-Reactor achieved a power level of 2,500 MW, and the K-Piles achieved power levels of 4,400 MW each.


The Hanford B-Reactor continued to operate during the Cold War and produced tritium for the hydrogen bomb. B-Reactor was deactivated on February 12, 1968. Since then, most of the surrounding structures have been removed and buried and the other Hanford reactors have been entombed ("cocooned") to allow radioactivity to decay. The B-reactor has not been mothballed and is planned to become a museum. For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... The basics of the Teller–Ulam configuration: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel. ... is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...


All nine nuclear reactors were built along Hanford Reach on the Columbia River. With an average individual life span of 22 years, the reactors were closed down between 1964 and 1987. The Hanford Reach is a free-flowing section of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington State, named after a large Northward bend in the rivers otherwise Southbound course. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ...


The Hanford reactors required a huge volume of water from the Columbia River to dissipate the heat that was produced by the nuclear reactions. Huge water systems drew cooling water from the Columbia River and after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned water to the river. Before being pumped back into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basins for up to six hours. Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several terabecquerels entered the river every day. By the early 1960s, there were protests from the health departments of Oregon and Washington, as well as the U.S. Public Health Service. There were also numerous gas plumes of radioactive steam, which threw toxic iodine isotopes into the air; the winds would then carry the fallout into eastern Washington and Idaho where the farmers would develop leukemia[citation needed]. The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ... For other uses, see Isotope (disambiguation). ... The becquerel (symbol Bq) is the SI derived unit of radioactivity, defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. ... Official language(s) (none)[1] Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 9th  - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 2. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... Template:Higher standard // History of the United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (PHS) was founded first by President John Adams in 1798 as a loose network of hospitals to support the health of American seamen. ...


Because of the demands for increased plutonium production, the Hanford Reactors had an increasingly severe problem with "slug failures"—the undesirable penetration of a fuel element's aluminum jacket by cooling water that caused the uranium to swell and block the coolant flow within the process tube and melt the slugs within that tube. No slug failures occurred during World War II, but by December 1945, 125 slugs with "blisters" had been found by visual inspection in the irradiated fuel storage basins at the rear of the three reactors. For the next seven years, blistered and ruptured fuel elements were opened and examined using a special underwater lathe in steel tanks located in the 111-B Test Building. After the 327 Post Irradiation Test Facility was ready, with its hot cells, the 111-B Building continued to be used as an examination facility for sections of corroded and failed process tubes. Aluminum is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air. ... Conventional metalworking lathe In woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, and glassworking, a lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material so that when abrasive, cutting, or deformation tools are applied to the block, it can be shaped to produce an object which has rotational symmetry about an axis... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ... For the hazard, see corrosive. ...


When fuel ruptures did occur, the process tube containing the failure was emptied into the irradiated fuel storage basin. Sometimes, severe ruptures had to be removed with a rotary reamer and a hydraulic ram, with the damaged process tube then split with a special tube splitter, and then pulled out and chopped into short lengths with a unique Hanford Site instrument known as the "guillotine". Table of Hydraulics and Hydrostatics, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... This article is about the decapitation device. ...


Cleanup era

Grand opening of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF).

During the 25 years that the site operated, many puzzles relating to the practicalities of nuclear piles were solved and new machines developed to improve operating efficiencies. However, while technical operating challenges progressed well, waste disposal solutions remained elusive, and effluents continued to be released to the Columbia River. Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) Grand Opening Courtesy of DOE File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) Grand Opening Courtesy of DOE File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... In the context of creating Plutonium at the Hanford Site, effluent refers to the cooling water that is discharged from a nuclear reactor that may or may not be radioactive. ...


Most of Hanford's reactors were shut down in the 1960s but nuclear waste still remains at the site. Parts of the 560 square mile (1,450 km²) site are highly contaminated. Examples of the scale of the problem are: Political Punk band from Victorville, Ca WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NUCLEARWASTEX ...

  • Some 54 million U.S. gallons (204,000 m³) of radioactive liquid and sludge is stored in 177 underground tanks of which about a third were reported as leaking in 2001.
  • Nearby aquifers were not protected and contain an estimated 270 billion gallons of contaminated ground water[6]
  • More than 40 billion gallons (151 million m³) of contaminated water were dumped directly onto the soil and there have been radioactive leaks from storage ponds and tanks
  • The site includes 25 million cubic feet of solid radioactive waste[6]

Cleanup to a nationally accepted level will likely take until 2030 and cost at least $50 billion.[7]. Bechtel, the San Francisco based construction and engineering firm, has been hired to coordinate the clean up, but their "treatment complex" is vastly over budget (overage estimates run into the billions of dollars) and years behind schedule. Estimates are that it will not go online until after 2019.[6] At present, about 11,000 workers work to consolidate, clean up, and mitigate waste, contaminated buildings, and contaminated soil. The gallon (abbreviation: gal) is a unit of volume. ... Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 9th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel had 40,000 employees as of 2006 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $20. ... Loess field in Germany Surface-water-gley developed in glacial till, Northern Ireland Technically, soil forms the pedosphere: the interface between the lithosphere (rocky part of the planet) and the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. ...


Under the present cleanup plan, lower-level hazardous wastes are buried in huge lined pits that are sealed and that will be monitored with sophisticated instruments for many years. The high-level nuclear waste, as well as tanks full of highly toxic chemicals, pose a much more difficult problem. As an example, plutonium has a half-life of 24,100 years, and a decay of ten half-lives is required before a sample is considered to be safe. Disposal of plutonium and other high-level radioactive wastes and toxic chemicals is a difficult problem that continues to be a subject of intense debate. The Department of Energy is currently building a vitrification plant on the Hanford site. Vitrification is a method that will combine these dangerous wastes with glass to render them stable. General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. ... A vitrification experiment for the study of nuclear waste disposal at Pacific Northwest National Labs Vitrification is a process of converting a material into a glass-like amorphous solid which is free of any crystalline structure, either by the quick removal or addition of heat, or by mixing with an...


Clean land released to other uses

  • Arid Lands Ecology Reserve (ALE), 125 square miles (320 km²) on the slopes of Rattlesnake Mountain above and to the west of the Hanford Project. This land was once used as a defensive ground-to-air missile base.
  • National Environmental Research Park, 580 square miles (1500 km²) north and west of WA 240. This area includes the ALE.
  • Hanford Reach National Monument, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Includes areas open to the public and areas reserved for ecological research. The Wahluke Slope, 90,000 acres (360 km²) on the north bank of the Columbia River (across from the reactor complex), was released in 1999.

The Arid Land Ecology Reserve is the largest track of shrub-steppe ecosystem remaining in Washington state. ... Rattlesnake Mountain is a windswept treeless sub-alpine ridge 3,527 ft (1,060 m) high overlooking the Hanford nuclear reservation. ... Washington State Route 240 is a busy state highway servicing the Tri-Cities of Washington and the Hanford Site. ... The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. State of Washington. ... The USFWS logo The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that is dedicated to managing and preserving wildlife. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ...

Contemporary Hanford

Highway sign on one of the roads entering Hanford Site.

Although uranium enrichment and plutonium breeding have been slowly phased out at Hanford, its strong legacy remains in Richland, Washington, which was transformed from a sleepy farm town to a bustling city by the Hanford project. As the nearest city to the site, the feat of feeding the United States' vast nuclear program in a cold war world created a strong community of highly skilled scientists and engineers. Entry sign at Hanford Site, Washington. ... Entry sign at Hanford Site, Washington. ... Richland Police Station in foreground. ...


Hanford became the location of the Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory owned by the United States government and operated by Battelle Memorial Institute just north of Richland. A map of the site can be found on the Benton County Emergency Services web site[8] The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. ... The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a one of nine United States Department of Energy multiprogram national laboratories. ... Headquarters in Columbus The Battelle Memorial Institute is a private not-for-profit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. ...


Other facilities located at Hanford Site:

Aerial view of the Fast Flux Test Facility The Fast Flux Test Facility is a 400 MW nuclear test reactor owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. ... LIGO stands for Lesser Inner Greater Outer. ... Livingston is a town located in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. ... The Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear power station, is a General Electric boiling water reactor located on the Hanford Site, 12 miles (19 km) NW of Richland, Washington. ... This article is about applications of nuclear fission reactors as power sources. ... Energy Northwest is a municipal corporation in Washington state tasked with building and operating power plants. ...

References

  • D'Antonio, Michael, Atomic Harvest: Hanford and the Lethal Toll of America's Nuclear Arsenal (New York: Crown, 1993). ISBN 0-517-58981-8
  • Gephart, Roy, Hanford: a Conversation about Nuclear Waste and Cleanup. Columbus: Battelle Press, 2003. ISBN 1-57477-134-5
  • Gerber, Michele et al., National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form - Historic, Archaeological and Traditional Cultural Properties of the Hanford Site, Washington, DOE/RL-97-02, Chapter 5: The Manhattan Project and Cold War Eras, Plutonium Production at the Hanford Site, Washington, December 1942-1990" (February 1997)
  • Weisskopf, Gene, "Historic American Engineering Record B Reactor (105-B Building)," HAER No. WA-164 (December 2000) This Report has been scanned but is not yet online.
  1. ^ Dininny, Shannon. "Feds to assess damage to nature at Hanford", The Olympian, The Associated Press, 4 April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. 
  2. ^ Sanger, S. L., Working on the Bomb: an Oral History of WWII Hanford, p.70
  3. ^ Plutonium: the first 50 years: United States plutonium production, acquisition, and utilization from 1944 through 1994. U.S. Department of Energy.
  4. ^ Sanger (interview with Genereaux)
  5. ^ History of the Plutonium Production Facilities at the Hanford Site Historic District, 1943-1990 Retrieved 27 April 2007
  6. ^ a b c Wolman, David. "Fission Trip", Wired Magazine, April 2007, p. 78. 
  7. ^ "A River Dammed" by Fen Montaigne. National Geographic, April 2001, pp. 24-25.
  8. ^ http://www.bces.wa.gov/hanford%20site%20map.htm

is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

  • Official Hanford Site website
  • Hanford Site Environmental Report Detailed annual report on radioactive concentrations measured in the environment on and around the Hanford Site.
  • B Reactor Museum Association A collection of Hanford-related documents from a group fighting to preserve the B-100 Reactor at Hanford.
  • Hanford Site superfund information
  • Plume creeping toward Columbia River
  • Avoiding a radioactive Columbia River
  • Chromium Speciation and Mobility in a High Level Nuclear Waste Vadose Zone Plume PDF
  • Heart of America NW, the largest Hanford watchdog group
  • Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 46.536389° -119.520000°
    • WikiSatellite view at - WikiMapia
    • Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local
    • Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
    • Topographic map from TopoZone
    • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Site W: Hanford, WA A map of Manhattan Project Era Hanford, Washington
  • Atomic Heritage Foundation Historic Preservation of Manhattan Project Sites at Hanford

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