Hanford Engineer Works

Northwest site produced plutonium

Web posted Thursday, November 9, 2000

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

By Brandon Haddock
Staff Writer

Los Alamos, N.M., is known as the birthplace of the atomic bomb. But a remote part of Washington state delivered the radioactive fuel that powered the bomb's destructive fury.

In 1943, after an extensive search, the Army Corps of Engineers selected Hanford, Wash., to be the site of a massive effort to produce plutonium, a carcinogenic, radioactive metal that is one of the world's most dangerous materials.

Click on graphic for larger image

The site's remote location, its access to the waters of the Columbia River and its excess of available electric power made it the best choice for a plutonium-production facility, according to a history published on Hanford's Web site.

Within a year, scientists and engineers had transformed nearly 429,000 acres of remote forest and farmland into a bustling hub of wartime activity. The site brought about 19,000 people to the region.

In mere months, dozens of buildings appeared at the complex, including nine nuclear reactors; plants to manufacture the fuel used in those reactors; and reprocessing plants to separate the treasured plutonium from the irradiated fuel.

By 1945, Hanford Engineer Works had produced enough plutonium to power both the first atomic bomb test - named ``Trinity'' - and the ``Fat Man'' bomb that killed from 60,000 to 80,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan. Hanford continued to produce the radioactive metal throughout the Cold War.

Although the site's contributions to the arms race achieved the intended goal - a victory over the Soviets - it exacted a terrible price on the environment.

During decades of production, the site released large amounts of radiation into the air, water and soil, polluting the Columbia River and more than 75,000 square miles of land, according to the Hanford Health Information Network, a former collaboration between state agencies in Washington state, Oregon and Idaho and nine Indian nations.

The network estimated that more than 2 million people were exposed to radioactive materials released from Hanford from 1944 to 1972. Numerous health studies have been performed to determine what, if any, effects those exposures had on the public health, but researchers concede that the results might never be known.

Now, the bulk of the site's $1.6 billion annual budget funds efforts to clean up pollution at the site, and to monitor the environment for the effects of past releases.

Submit Your Opinion Name: Email: Enter your comments here