Hanford Site WA

By bensr

  • Construction began

    Construction began
    • Construction began on the Hanford Site after being selected for the Manhattan Project
    • The site's main purpose was to extract Plutonium for the first atomic bombs that were constructed
    • Relocation of the towns of Hanford and White Bluffs and the resettlement of the of the people from the nation of Wanapum, the tribes of the Yakama nation the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla nation, and the Nez Perce Tribe
    • Chosen for its immediate access to water from the Columbia R

  • Going critical!

    Going critical!
    • The height of construction for the site, 50,000 workers lived on site ranging from singles to families.
    • The first reactor, production B reactor, goes critical and goes online
    • The plant produces its 1st Plutonium on November 6th 1944

  • War comes home

    War comes home
    • The hanford sites reactors had the ability to shut down in 2.5 secs, but would still generate heat.
    • If electrical power failed then steam pumps would take over and continue to supply water
    • March 10th 1945 a Japanese Balloon attack struck a high tension line and caused an electrical surge in the lines to the reactors. Safety devices were initiated and the lines were not badly damaged.
    • The Hanford site was the only U.S. nuclear facility to come under attack during WWII.

  • N reactor

    N reactor
    • N reactor became operational and would become the last of the nine Plutonium reactors out of the Hanford Site
    • Its decommission in 1987 saw 1 million gallons of contaminated water in its storage basin and ⅓ of Hanfords supply of irradiated uranium fuel rods, where afterwards the water was disposed of and the remaining fuel rods were stored in another basin.
    • 2012 the N reactor is “coccooed” where it is sealed up and is given electricity by steam generators.

  • I am Atomic Man!

    I am Atomic Man!
    • "Atomic Man” Harold Mccluskey a technician at the Hanford site. At the age of 64 received the largest recorded dose of Americium, a Plutonium byproduct, after a glove box accident.
    • Exposed Harold to 37 MBq of americium-241 and nitric acid
    • Harold was placed in Hanford Emergency Decontamination Facility for five months to reduce exposure to others
    • 1977, his body's radiation count had fallen by about 80%. When McCluskey returned home
    • 1987 Died of natural causes

  • The Thyroid enters the fray

    The Thyroid enters the fray
    • Congress mandated the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, determine the radiation exposure of the populace.The study would also determine whether the Hanford site could be held responsible
    • “Did exposure to iodine-131 result in increased incidence of thyroid disease?”
    • The HTDS data show that the risk of thyroid disease was about the same regardless of the radiation doses people received from Hanford. In other words, no associations between Hanford's iodine-131 and thyroid disease were observed

  • You me and the EPA

    You me and the EPA
    • With WSDE, EPA, and DOE enter into a Tri party agreement comprehensive cleanup and compliance agreement.
    • As cleanups continue better information becomes available the TPA agencies revise the cleanup schedules.
    • The original TPA had 161 enforceable milestones and target dates. It now contains more than 1,500 milestones and target dates.
    • 2019, only three gallons of nuclear waste had been disposed of
    • The remaining cleanup was estimated to cost $600 billion and take more than 100 years

  • We're gonna need a bigger moat

    We're gonna need a bigger moat
    • 1,000,000 US gallons (3,800,000 L) of radioactive waste was traveling through the groundwater toward the Columbia River.
    • This waste was expected to reach the river in twelve to fifty years if cleanup does not proceed on schedule.

  • One step forward 10 steps back..

    One step forward 10 steps back..
    • Hanford Lifecycle Scope Schedule and Cost report, the 2014 estimated cost of the remaining Hanford cleanup was $113.6 billion
    • $3 billion per year for six years, with a lower cost projection of approximately $2 billion per year until 2046.
    • Originally scheduled to be complete within thirty years, the cleanup was less than half finished by 2008
    • Of the four areas that were formally listed as Superfund sites on October 4, 1989, only one had been removed from the list.

  • Donna Busche

    Donna Busche
    • Contractor for the DOE at Hanford nuclear facility has been ordered to reinstate an environmental specialist and pay more than $220,000 in back wages and other expenses after it fired an employee for voicing nuclear and environmental safety concerns, a violation of federal whistleblower provisions.
    • OSHA's acting regional administrator. "Employees must never be punished for sounding an alarm when they see a problem that could injure, sicken or kill someone, or harm the environment."

  • How it's going so far

    How it's going so far
    • DOE announced a change in cleanup at Hanford’s 324 Building.
    • 324 Building is the same building where workers encountered a startling radioactive surprise—a large amount of highly contaminated soil underneath the building, in an area outside the expected radioactive zone.
    • The sampling results reveal a disturbing new reality—a new soil hotspot capable of generating a radiation dose of 984 R/hr, very close to the Columbia River.Due to radioactivity levels