Researchers take up environmental challenge at Hanford
The Hanford nuclear site, built to produce plutonium for the nation's first atomic weapons, occupies 560 square miles of desert in southeastern Washington State. Only 29 months after ground was broken at the site in March 1943, the Hanford project delivered the plutonium used in the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. Secrecy surrounding the nuclear weapons program continued through the Cold War years, concealing the fact that for decades, hazardous and radioactive wastes were discharged to the ground, water, and air at Hanford. Only in 1986 were documents finally declassified--tens of thousands of them--describing the construction, operation, and maintenance of the Hanford facilities, allowing a picture to be pieced together of the environmental cost there of the nuclear weapons buildup. That cost may never be completely tallied. But Westinghouse Hanford, Co., the principal operations contractor on the site, and Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNL), operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the Department of Energy (DOE), have now begun working together to develop new technologies that are needed to address the short-term and long-term challenges of environmental restoration at Hanford. The paper discusses the problems and possible solutions that are being investigated.
- OSTI ID:
- 6291186
- Journal Information:
- Chemical and Engineering News; (United States), Journal Name: Chemical and Engineering News; (United States) Vol. 71:25; ISSN 0009-2347; ISSN CENEAR
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540250 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (1990-)
540350 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (1990-)
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
CLEANING
COORDINATED RESEARCH PROGRAMS
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DISPERSIONS
ENGINEERING
GROUND WATER
HANFORD RESERVATION
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INVENTORIES
IRRADIATION REACTORS
ISOTOPE PRODUCTION REACTORS
LAND RECLAMATION
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PONDS
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTORS
REMEDIAL ACTION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY ENGINEERING
SETTLING PONDS
SOILS
STORAGE
STORAGE FACILITIES
SURFACE WATERS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES
WATER
WATER RECLAMATION
WEAPONS