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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
Editorial: Hanford resolution a hostage of politics
Death, taxes, and more time to clean up Hanford. Those are the certainties of life in Washington, but the state is pushing back against the latest federal request for permission …
Nuclear lessons: Hanford tours go to heart of Cold War facility
RICHLAND – At Hanford’s B Reactor, thousands of graphite blocks towered over Ernie Doyle’s head. On a recent public tour, the 57-year-old truck driver from Hillsboro, Oregon, seized the chance …
Cause of symptoms in workers at Hanford elusive
RICHLAND – About 12,000 air samples taken on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation this year after more than three dozen workers reported being sickened by chemical vapors have failed to find …
‘Atomic Man’ room set for cleanup
Workers are preparing to enter one of the more dangerous rooms on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation – the site of a 1976 blast that exposed a technician, later nicknamed the …
Feds reject state plan for Hanford cleanup
OLYMPIA — Washington rejected the U.S. Energy Department’s latest plan for the cleanup of leaking tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The federal government, in turn, rejected the state’s counteroffer, …
Washington state tells feds to hurry up on leaking Hanford tank
OLYMPIA – Washington wants the federal government to start pumping radioactive sludge out of a leaking tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation by September rather than waiting a couple of …
Federal Hanford cleanup plan falls short, Gov. Jay Inslee says
OLYMPIA – The federal government’s latest plan to clean up nuclear waste at Hanford is short on details and the state is considering its options to force a better one, …
Hanford contractors decline to comment on whistleblowers
WASHINGTON – Contractors handling the cleanup and redevelopment of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation wouldn’t answer questions from lawmakers on Tuesday about whether two employees were fired for raising safety concerns. …
Hanford cleanup money cut back in Obama budget plan
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has proposed cutting $67 million from efforts to clean up the Hanford nuclear waste site, drawing the ire of lawmakers from both sides of the …
Hanford 300 Area cleanup plan released
The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday issued its final cleanup plan for the 300 Area of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and …
Editorial: Hanford cleanup’s toxic legacy continues
The U.S. Energy Department says fat chance of meeting interim deadlines for cleaning up the nuclear site that produced Fat Boy, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, which accelerated the …
Oregon Sen. Wyden wants Hanford whistle-blower answers
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday demanded to know why a Hanford Nuclear Reservation whistle-blower has lost his job. Walter Tamosaitis last week was laid off by URS Corp. after …
More Hanford cleanup delays, agency warns
The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing more delays in the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the nation’s most-polluted nuclear site, the agency said Wednesday. The Energy Department issued …
One of last Hanford 300 Area buildings coming down
RICHLAND – One of the final buildings that will be demolished in the Hanford 300 Area is coming down. An industrial city once stood just north of Richland to support …
Court orders work to continue on Yucca repository
The federal government must resume work on a repository in Nevada that would take the high-level nuclear waste from Hanford, a federal court said today.
Inslee: Speed up Hanford cleanup
Gov. Jay Inslee called for the federal government to speed up plans to clean up nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation after reports that highly radioactive liquid may have …
Fixes promised for waste plant
RICHLAND – Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday he intends to have a new plan by the end of the summer for resolving technical problems with a waste treatment plant …
Ten managers indicted in Hanford timecard scheme
RICHLAND – A federal grand jury has indicted 10 current or former managers and supervisors for a contractor at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, accusing them of enabling timecard …
Hanford contractor CH2M Hill to pay $18.5 million for fraud
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday a deal to have the world’s largest engineering firm, CH2M Hill, pay $18.5 million to resolve criminal and civil violations arising from a scheme to overbill …
Hanford waste may move
RICHLAND – Federal officials are looking to ship some 3 million gallons of radioactive waste from Washington state to New Mexico, giving the government more flexibility to deal with leaking …
Spin Control: Explaining Hanford takes pivot to hoops
OLYMPIA – As most of official Olympia stared at their computers Thursday morning awaiting the state Supremes’ decision on tax supermajorities, a handful of legislators got a briefing on something …
New Hanford leak found
OLYMPIA – A new leak has been discovered in a nuclear waste storage tank at Hanford. Gov. Jay Inslee, in a hastily called news conference, said he was advised of …
New leak discovered at Hanford
A new leak has been discovered in a nuclear waste storage tank at Hanford, authorities disclosed today.
Report rips Hanford work
RICHLAND – A strongly worded new report from a congressional watchdog agency questions whether an often-delayed and increasingly expensive waste treatment plant at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site can …
Hanford manager replaced
RICHLAND – A top U.S. Department of Energy manager at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been replaced by the manager of the department’s Los Alamos Site Office in New Mexico. …
Hanford offers sent to hundreds
A law firm representing several nuclear contractors has sent confidential settlement offers to hundreds of plaintiffs exposed to radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation during World War II and the …
Hanford tower taken down during cleanup
RICHLAND – A guard tower that stood over the Columbia River at Hanford for half a century came crashing to the ground Wednesday. “It’s really an iconic symbol of Hanford …
Groups: Hanford study underpredicted levels
A $27 million government study to estimate radiation doses received by the public from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s weapons factories is being called into question by other scientific organizations and …
DOE offers to settle claims
The U.S. Department of Energy has tentatively agreed to settle the claims of 139 people with thyroid disease – the largest settlement so far in a massive civil suit brought …
U.S. settles with some Hanford downwinders
The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to settle the claims of 139 people with thyroid disease — the largest settlement so far in a massive civil suit brought by …
Novel depicts radioactive waste spill at Hanford
The plot: A deadly earthquake rips through the Hanford nuclear reservation, erupting a graveyard of radioactive waste and releasing a flood of doom that threatens thousands of Tri-Citians. A Silicon …
Lasting home elusive for used Hanford fuel
Critics challenging the safety of Washington state’s only commercial nuclear power plant say it should not get its license renewed until all questions about the integrity of its spent fuel …