[caption id="attachment_3526" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Nuclear plume at Hanford"]
[/caption]To understand the issues involving Hanford, one must travel back to its history, which began in 1943 with the development of nuclear weapons. Hanford was one of the key sites in that development. It is located several miles outside of Richland, Washington, and was placed in the middle of farmlands, and gradually expanded with additional reactors. Former President Kennedy visited Hanford in the early 1960's to celebrate the building of one of them.
The plant was closed due to safety violations in 1986. Since then there have been lawsuits involving the health of residents of Central Washington State as well as environmental questions. At the time of closing, the Department of Energy expressed concerns that workers at the plant had violated rules that could lead to a nuclear explosion.
Members of the Tri-Cities communities, consisting of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, have met with federal officials over many years in relationship to environmental and health concerns. Agencies even in Canada have been concerned enough about the environmental impacts to have studied the effect on geese in a region within the Hanford reach. Elevated toxins have been found, however they have not been significant enough to warrant concern. However, other scientists continue to raise questions about the health and environment of the area.
Leonard Schroeter, an attorney, wrote a comprehensive narrative relating his concerns, as an attorney, about what he considered to be a series of cover-ups involving Hanford and the experimentation he believes became the lot of people and the environment of the area. His was one of a number of voices raised over the years. Other books, including Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide point to the increase in lupus of the Nez Perce who live along the Columbia River. Wikipedia has an expanded list of notations on adverse health effects linked to the Hanford Plant, despite the fact that some courts have examined individual and class action claims and not supported them. Whereas these sources may be questioned by researchers, mental experts have recently noted the overall accuracy in medical reporting by this online reference site. While cases continue in court on health claims of people known as the "Downwinders," science has shown women exposed to higher than normal radiation have more risk for cancer than men and also a higher rate of birth defects and infertility.
The Hanford Advisory Board is a watchdog that advises the Department of Energy, Washington Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency (the Tri-Party Agencies--TPA) on the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The Board says, “ The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the largest nuclear waste dump in the Western Hemisphere and a major Northwest environmental issue. It is a serious long-term threat to the Columbia River, which Oregon depends on for power generation, farm irrigation, fishing, transport and recreation.”
The thesis of the Advisory Board is further developed in an article entitled, “Big Cleanup Questions Still Loom for Hanford” where the author points out the huge costs so far of cleanup that more than two decades has not been completed, with $12.9 billion in funding to date. The cleanup plant is only half constructed and the problems of waste removal and protection of the environment have yet to be resolved for 53 million tons of radioactive waste. The problem references easte held in concrete and carbon-steel tanks that are past their recognized expiration date for safety. A million gallons of radioactive goo has already spilled into the ground, on its way to the Columbia River, according to the author of this article, who further describes the problems that can be caused by dangerous gases and explosions.
An online newspaper describes how Hanford is “America’s nuclear bomb.” The author quotes Stewart Udall:Stewart, who served as secretary of the interior under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, who reportedly called Hanford the "most tragic chapter in American Cold War history." He goes on to write, about journalist Michael D'Antonio and his 1993 book Atomic Harvest, " their tale is one of thousands of horror stories that took place in the area surrounding Hanford, Washington, the site of America's first full-scale plutonium production facility. The site haunts the locals to this day -- and imperils them.
Hanford is America's original atomic sin. At this giant facility sprawled over 586 square miles (1,517 square kilometers), a four-hour drive southeast of Seattle into the vast emptiness of Eastern Washington, the United States once produced most of its nuclear raw materials for the Cold War. Though it was decommissioned in 1988, it remains the most contaminated location in the entire Western Hemisphere."
While the author of Atomic Harvest and sources outside the United States, as well as scientists, have their detractors, the potential environmental risks remain of serious agreed concern by experts from a variety of sources.
Yet the government and the media have not highlighted the issue, critics say, of what might have the potential to be a terrible nuclear accident of major proportions given the present risks.
