5 march 06

In light of the recent decision by the U.S. to assist India in developing nuclear energy I remembered images made in June, 2001 at the Hanford Nuclear Reactor when I lived in Richland. An engineer friend invited me out for a comphrensive 4-hour tour when the reactor was "down" for maintenance as they replaced cooling rods.

We visited all levels of the facility; control rooms, labs, turbines, an overview of the open reactor, waste containment areas, energy conversion and transmission lines to Seattle. In addition to generating nuclear energy, Hanford stores 53 million gallons of toxic waste. It is one of the world's most polluted sites.

The Energy Department manages cleanup at the contaminated Hanford site, created in the 1940s as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Cleanup costs are expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion and the work to continue until 2035.

But the department and its contractor have been harshly criticized for their roles in building the vitrification plant, which is being designed to treat highly radioactive waste left from decades of plutonium production.

The images were initially published on the "Hanford Watch" website and they are included here in a new gallery.

Their link is below with recent media articles on Department of Energy cost overruns and the political debate regarding cleanup expense and long range health and environmental implications.

..."Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. An atom of normal hydrogen has one negative particle, called an electron, and one positive particle, called a proton. An atom of tritium also contains two neutral particles, called neutrons. These extra particles make the tritium atom unstable and cause it to emit a very low-energy form of beta radiation."

"Beta radiation is a type of ionizing radiation. Ionizing refers to radiation that, when it passes through matter, has the potential to strip away electrons. When it passes through a human body, it can produce permanent changes in cells. There are three principal potential health effects: cancer, genetic effects and effects on fetuses," - Savannah River Site (SRS)

Hanford Watch