Topics
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
-
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
Hanford downwinder succumbs to illness
Deborah Clark, who was among those suing Hanford contractors over her thyroid cancer, has died.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers decry Hanford payment offers
Sparks flew in U.S. District Court in Spokane Wednesday over settlement offers to 234 people with thyroid cancer who were exposed to radiation from Hanford in the early rush to …
Hanford radiation plaintiff near death
A woman suing Hanford contractors over her thyroid cancer, whose request for an expedited federal trial was denied last year by a Spokane judge, lies near death in a Longview, …
Hanford downwinder Clark moved to hospice care
A woman suing Hanford contractors over her thyroid cancer, whose request for an expedited federal trial was denied last year by a Spokane judge, lies near death in a Longview, …
Deputies say deaths may be suicides
The Chattaroy couple found dead in a trailer home Friday tried to commit suicide in mid-October by overdosing on medication, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said. The …
Heavy security part of Hanford plant’s past
HANFORD, Wash. – The Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford has lost much of its sinister look. Metal detectors, razor wire, guns and dogs have become part of its past.
Rail track recycling saves money on Hanford cleanup
RICHLAND – Hanford railroad track, some of it more than a century old, is being pulled up to get yet another life – but after testing for radioactivity. Washington Closure …
DOE suggests tearing down reactor at Hanford
RICHLAND – A key Department of Energy report is recommending that the K East Reactor be torn down rather than put into long-term storage like most of Hanford’s other reactors. …
Outside view: For Hanford to improve, Yucca must be an option
This commentary from the May 9 Tri-City Herald is presented in place of the customary Spokesman-Review editorial. They aren’t exactly breaking new ground. A coalition of Northwest environmental groups recently …
Hanford deadlines changing
TRI-CITIES, Wash. – The Department of Energy and its regulators have agreed to new legally binding environmental cleanup deadlines for radioactive waste that has been temporarily buried at central Hanford …
New Hanford radiation cleanup deadlines proposed
The Department of Energy and its regulators have agreed to new legally binding environmental cleanup deadlines for radioactive waste that has been temporarily buried at central Hanford since 1970.
Washington sues to keep Yucca alive
YAKIMA – Washington state filed suit Tuesday to stop the federal government from permanently abandoning the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, marking the latest clash in a long-standing dispute over …
Hanford waste stranded by Yucca Mountain decision
The tanks are still there, 177 in all, packed with 53 million gallons of radioactive waste. One million gallons have leached into the desert soil.
Judge denies sick woman’s motion for speedy trial
A judge today denied a sick woman’s motion for an expedited trial in the long-running Hanford “downwinders” lawsuits.
Sick downwinder seeks trial
With the fingers of her right hand, Deborah Clark presses firmly on a gaping surgical hole in her neck. It’s the only way she can speak. The words that emerge …
Hanford’s risks are large
Even after billions of dollars are spent cleaning up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, radioactive waste could threaten the Columbia River for thousands of years to come. A government analysis shows …
In brief: Energy Department to discuss Hanford
The cleanup of underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation will be the topic of a public meeting from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. tonight at the Red Lion …
More Hanford downwinder claims going to trial
More Hanford downwinders could be going to trial to have their claims heard in a 19-year-old case.
State’s stimulus take hefty
In the race for stimulus dollars, Washington is well ahead of the pack in winning valuable government contracts. Federal contracts awarded to companies and government agencies in the state are …
Excavators unearthing a bottled-up history
RICHLAND – A glass beer bottle with a faded label that says “brewed in Walla Walla.” Two children’s marbles. A 1938 Buick Roadmaster hubcap. Heavy white ceramic shaving mugs. And …
Editorial: Abandoning waste site undoes years of planning
In 1987 – a full 42 years after the onset of the Manhattan Project – Congress settled on Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the permanent repository for more than 14,000 …
Study: Higher cancer rates for Hanford workers
Former Hanford construction workers have an increased risk of death from a blood cancer linked to radiation and another cancer linked to asbestos, according to a new study.
Hanford landfill may tell of history
RICHLAND – Fifty-thousand people produce a lot of trash. Who knew their dumpsite could be listed on the National Register of Historic Places? A dusty, rural stretch of southeast Washington …
Editorial: Hanford assurances too familiar to taxpayers
Residents of the Pacific Northwest can be forgiven if they don’t share the confidence and enthusiasm that a lineup of state and federal officials showed last week when they announced …
Hanford gets new timeline
RICHLAND – Washington state and federal officials announced a court-enforceable schedule Tuesday for cleaning up the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, ending more than two years of negotiations that followed …
Hanford plant shows progress
RICHLAND – Workers at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site are approaching a turning point in building a massive waste treatment plant there, more than two years after the federal …
Hanford landfill draws concerns
RICHLAND – A landfill for low-level radioactive waste at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site has room to expand, but an advisory board is concerned about the levels of radioactivity …
Workers dig up contaminated nests at Hanford
YAKIMA – Workers at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site are conducting a sting operation to dig up radioactive wasp nests that could number in the thousands. Mud dauber wasps …
Radioactive wasps causing a buzz at Hanford
Workers at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site are conducting a sting operation to dig up radioactive wasp nests that could number in the thousands.
Study probes interruptions at Hanford
RICHLAND – Work to clean out nuclear waste from underground tanks and to build a plant to treat the waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was stopped 31 times over …
Hanford violators will get stimulus
RICHLAND – Federal contractors that were heavily fined for environmental and safety violations at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site will receive much of the $2 billion in economic stimulus …
Hanford contractors ready to settle
For the first time in the protracted Hanford downwinders lawsuit, the lead lawyer for government contractors said Tuesday his companies are ready to offer cash settlements to a few of …