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Hanford
Summary
In 1943, the federal government chose Hanford, in Washington state, to make plutonium for the Manhattan Project, a secret wartime effort to build an atomic bomb. That military mission ended in 1988, launching a cleanup effort that continues to this day. In 1994, S-R reporters Karen Dorn Steele and Jim Lynch wrote a five-day series called Wasteland detailing the money spent on Hanford’s cleanup.
In an agreement reached in the early days of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government agreed to indemnify the nuclear contractors making plutonium at Hanford, including corporate giants General Electric and E.I. DuPont de Nemours.
That means U.S. taxpayers have also been paying the legal bills for the Hanford contractors’ defense in lawsuits by “downwinders” who say they were sickened by pollution from the facility – over $60 million so far – as well as any settlements to individual plaintiffs and favorable verdicts in the Hanford case.
Key places
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B Reactor
The B Reactor was the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor and produced the plutonium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. This World War II-era file photograph taken by the federal government shows the B reactor during its early plutonium production days. It was shut down in 1968 and in 2008 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
More information
Latest updates in this topic
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‘Downwinders’ claims
Summary of claims in the massive “downwinders” lawsuit involving Hanford Nuclear Reservation. These documents were obtained from Kevin Van Wart, lead attorney for the contractors who are the defendants. Only …
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U.S. Supreme Court: Downwinders defendants’ petition
A petition from defendants including DuPont and General Electric appealing damages awarded to downwinders by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal Monday, …
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Appeals court decision backing downwinders
A U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals finding clearing the way for 1,000 to 2,000 Hanford ” downwinders” to sue Hanford contractors for radiation damages.