{"id":144631,"date":"2019-10-07T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=144631"},"modified":"2019-10-15T09:30:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T08:30:13","slug":"inside-americas-most-toxic-nuclear-waste-dump-where-56-million-gallons-of-buried-radioactive-sludge-are-leaking-into-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/10\/inside-americas-most-toxic-nuclear-waste-dump-where-56-million-gallons-of-buried-radioactive-sludge-are-leaking-into-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside America&#8217;s Most Toxic Nuclear Waste Dump, Where 56 Million Gallons of Buried Radioactive Sludge Are Leaking into the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_144632\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144632\" class=\"wp-image-144632\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons6.jpg 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144632\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stacks of two Department of Energy production reactors fall in a simultaneous demolition at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash., Saturday, Aug. 14, 1999.<br \/>Jackie Johnston \/ AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the most polluted area in the United States. Buried beneath the complex is 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that need to be dealt with.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The reservation produced the plutonium for Fat Man, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in Japan, as well as for the United States&#8217; atomic weapon stockpile during the Cold War.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>In June 2019, President Trump&#8217;s administration announced it would downgrade the threat levels of some radioactive waste to save the government <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/jun\/05\/us-to-label-nuclear-waste-as-less-dangerous-to-quicken-cleanup\" >$40 billion on cleanup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The announcement has been criticized as a way to make cleaning up nuclear waste easier, without actually doing the clean-up part.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Trump&#8217;s administration also wants to cut Hanford&#8217;s funding by $416 million. But the cleanup <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/radioactive-waste-still-flooding-columbia-river-epa-says\/\" >needs more funding<\/a>, not less.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144633\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144633\" class=\"wp-image-144633\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144633\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hanford is built on a desert in Washington spread out over 586 squares miles. AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>23 Sep 2019 &#8211; <\/em>Sitting on 586 square miles of desert in Washington, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/welcome-most-toxic-place-america-n689141\" >most toxic place in America<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Buried beneath the ground, in storage tanks, are 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. Many of them are leaking into the ground.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/welcome-most-toxic-place-america-n689141\" >According to NBC<\/a>, some nuclear experts have said Hanford is &#8220;an underground <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/photos-abandoned-chernobyl-exclusion-zone-after-nuclear-disaster-david-mcmillan-2019-4?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=ingest\" >Chernobyl<\/a> waiting to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hanford produced the plutonium to build Fat Man, the atomic weapon that was detonated above Nagasaki at the end of World War II, and for the United States&#8217;s nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>In 1989, after years of dismissing concerns about contamination, the reservation&#8217;s management finally admitted the site needed to be cleaned up. But cleaning up nuclear waste is difficult. It can&#8217;t be burned or buried. The plan is to build a waste management plant that will turn the waste into glass, which can be stored away for thousands of years. It&#8217;s a slow, costly process.<\/p>\n<p>As <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/at-the-hanford-nuclear-reservation-a-steady-drip-of-toxic-trouble\" >The Daily Beast reported<\/a>, &#8220;Hanford is the worst kind of mess: the kind that humanity is capable of making, but not capable of cleaning up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The longer the contaminated materials are left, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/wine-countrys-nuclear-threat\" >the worse they become<\/a>. Here&#8217;s what the nuclear reservation is like.<\/p>\n<p>The government was wary of the repercussions of a major incident and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pnnl.gov\/main\/publications\/external\/technical_reports\/PNNL-13605rev4.pdf\" >chose an isolated location<\/a>, away from cities on the East Coast. But it&#8217;s in an area prone to wildfires and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/wine-countrys-nuclear-threat\" >possible earthquakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The last big earthquake in the area was in 1936. But another sizeable one could release radiation, like what happened with the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144634\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144634\" class=\"wp-image-144634\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons-columbia-river.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144634\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Columbia River passes Hanford to the north and the east by a few miles, and it&#8217;s downstream from two dams. Elaine Thompson \/ AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The government wanted the site to be close to dams for electricity, and close to the river so it had a source of cool liquid to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/at-the-hanford-nuclear-reservation-a-steady-drip-of-toxic-trouble\" >cool the reactors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the EPA said contaminated groundwater was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/radioactive-waste-still-flooding-columbia-river-epa-says\/\" >flowing freely<\/a> into the river.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144635\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144635\" class=\"wp-image-144635\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons2.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144635\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hanford Nuclear Reservation began operating on September 6, 1944.<br \/>Hulton-Deutsch \/ Hulton-Deutsch Collection \/ Corbis \/ Getty<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Hanford played a vital part in the top-secret Manhattan Project, which was the government&#8217;s research and development program for nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>The government purchased the land in 1943, and gave about 1,500 people <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/04\/travel\/escapes\/04Amer.html\" >30 days to leave<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144636\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144636\" class=\"wp-image-144636\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons3.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144636\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first reactor was built in 11 months, and the majority of the 50,000 person workforce did not know what it was that they were working on&#8230; Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Sources: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/surrounding-nuclear-site-natural-treasure-fire\/\" >Court House News<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/travel\/la-trw-hanford13-2008aug13-story.html\" >Los Angeles Times<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144637\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144637\" class=\"wp-image-144637\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons4.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144637\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8230;until the first nuclear bomb was detonated over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.<br \/>Elaine Thompson \/ AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/surrounding-nuclear-site-natural-treasure-fire\/\" >Court House News<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_144638\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144638\" class=\"wp-image-144638\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Hanford-Nuclear-Reservation-washington-usa-waste-weapons5.png 1242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-144638\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">To keep the nuclear complex secret, the government banned trespassing and set up a buffer zone called Hanford Reach.<br \/>Elaine Thompson \/ AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Instead of the land being developed by farmers and ranchers, it&#8217;s been left untouched for 75 years, and wildlife has boomed. In 2000, former President Bill Clinton made the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/04\/travel\/escapes\/04Amer.html\" >195,000 acre area<\/a> a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/radioactive-waste-still-flooding-columbia-river-epa-says\/\" >National Monument<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the area, there are herds of elk, Chinook salmon breed in stretches of the river in Autumn, and there is also an abundance of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/surrounding-nuclear-site-natural-treasure-fire\/\" >birds<\/a>, including burrowing owls, Swainson hawks, and sagebrush sparrows.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/inside-americas-most-toxic-nuclear-123900510.html\" >TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original \u2013 news.yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022\tHanford Nuclear Reservation is the most polluted area in the United States. Buried beneath the complex is 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that need to be dealt with.<br \/>\n\u2022\tThe reservation produced the plutonium for Fat Man, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in Japan, as well as for the United States&#8217; atomic weapon stockpile during the Cold War. {Read on\u2026}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":144632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,65,147],"tags":[1161,1188,1058,853,232,1242,244,120,354,1014,401,1268,1207,267,260,487,866,504,179,291,91,429,1323,1361,1360,1362,635,1301,1129,450,897,109,894,287,1102,278,985,1363,639,292,70,126,118,172,75],"class_list":["post-144631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-anglo-america","category-energy","tag-arms-industry","tag-arms-race","tag-arms-trade-treaty","tag-atomic-weapons","tag-capitalism","tag-chernobyl","tag-china","tag-conflict","tag-economics","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-european-union","tag-fukushima","tag-geopolitics","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-japan","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-nuclear-ban-treaty","tag-nuclear-club","tag-nuclear-disaster","tag-nuclear-energy","tag-nuclear-meltdown","tag-nuclear-power","tag-nuclear-war","tag-nuclear-waste","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-pacific-islands","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-power","tag-public-health","tag-russia","tag-social-justice","tag-three-mile-island","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-west","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}