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
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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
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RICHLAND – A top U.S. Department of Energy manager at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been replaced by the manager of the department’s Los Alamos Site Office in New Mexico. …
McMorris Rodgers backed national park at Hanford
McMorris Rodgers backed national park at Hanford
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 …
Plans progressing for Hanford history museum
Plans progressing for Hanford history museum
Cancer Claims Lake City Downwinder
Cancer Claims Lake City Downwinder
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 …
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. …
Fed audit says millions wasted to avoid sending Hanford, Wash. jobs to Idaho
Fed audit says millions wasted to avoid sending Hanford, Wash. jobs to Idaho
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 …
Another Green Monday
Another Green Monday
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.