An astonishing array of animals and habitats flourished on six obsolete weapons complexes — mostly for nuclear or chemical arms — because the sites banned the public and other intrusions for decades. Continue Reading Wildlife Read More
A wildfire continued burning today near the Hanford Nuclear Site. The Cold Creek Fire is burning sensitive, federally protected habitat. As of Friday afternoon it was estimated at about 18,000 acres and 10 percent containment. Read More
A new federal report says that a massive building at the Hanford Nuclear Site is worse off than managers thought. The so-called PUREX -- Plutonium Uranium Extraction -- plant isn’t clean. Starting in 1956 the plant processed loads of plutonium. Its walls are up to 6 feet thick, and it’s as long as three football fields. Read More
The state of Washington is setting new deadlines for cleanup at Hanford and the plutonium production site that contains a massive quantity of radioactive waste. Continue Reading Washington State Sets New Deadlines For Hanford Waste CleanupRead More
At the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington, and across the West, winter’s deep snow and a cool spring have produced lots of brush and grass. That’s a problem for the coming fire season. Continue Reading Big Spring Read More
A worker at the Hanford Nuclear Site was recently contaminated with a speck of radioactive material after work in a lab building scheduled for demolition. Continue Reading Worker At Hanford Contaminated In Lab Scheduled For DemolitionRead More
Federal watchdogs are looking into all types of parts at a $17 billion construction project at the Hanford Nuclear Site. The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Energy has found a sample of parts going into a large waste treatment plant at Hanford had problems. Read More
As nuclear and radioactive waste piles up, private companies are stepping in with their own solutions for the nation’s radioactive spent fuel. One is proposing a temporary storage site in New Mexico, and another is seeking a license for a site in Texas. But most experts agree that what’s needed is a permanent site, like Yucca Mountain, that doesn’t require humans to manage Read More
The project to stabilize and seal a large tunnel of radioactive waste has been completed at the Hanford nuclear reservation, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and its contractor.The so-called Tunnel 2 project started in October 2018, at the massive Washington cleanup site near Richland. Read More
On April 1, scientists will officially restart their search for gravitational waves after a year spent making improvements to massive twin detectors. Discoveries should soon start rolling in, and when they do, there's a good chance the news will be translated into a Native American language called Blackfoot, or Siksika. Read More
PHOTO: Anna King interviewing Jane Hedges, the now-retired head of Washington Ecology’s Hanford office. Hedges grew up swimming off the docks in Richland, but only understood the massive scope of the cleanup needed at Hanford later in life. CREDIT: Kai-Huei Yau / Daughters of Hanford You’ve heard Tri-Cities correspondent Anna King on the radio for years,… Read More
The federal government recently doled out two “green findings” to the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear reactor. The Columbia Generating Station, near Richland, is run by the utility Energy Northwest. Green findings are the lowest infractions for the nuclear industry, but it’s not the only time the plant’s been in trouble. Read More
A new proposal from the Trump administration could dramatically change the way the government cleans up radioactive tank waste at Hanford. What does that mean? Anna King explains. Continue Reading Explainer: Feds Want To Read More
The partial government shutdown is blocking some of important oversight at Hanford. In the past 10 years, the Environmental Protection Agency office in Richland has shrunk from nearly 10 experts working on Hanford issues to just three – including the top manager.
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In the middle of Hanford's desert, there’s a tunnel that stretches a third of a mile underground. Anna King got a first-of-its kind look at how work is progressing to prevent another collapse at one of the tunnels willed with radioactive waste. Read More
A fresh federal watchdog report about Hanford says after a major review, systemic fraud and inadequate oversight keep happening at the site, and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Continue Reading Read More
Many people drove as much as three hours to attend a rare public meeting about Hanford in Hood River Thursday night, Nov. 1. The common thread: concern about the Columbia River, and the health of their communities. Continue Read More
Officials at the Hanford Nuclear Site ordered workers to stay indoors Friday morning as a precaution. They discovered steam rising from an unexpected part of a tunnel filled with highly contaminated waste. By mid-day, officials had announced they found no contamination. Read More
Federal and state energy regulators will hold back-to-back meetings in Portland and Seattle for a proposal to reclassify some of the high-level nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site. Continue Reading State And Federal Regulators Read More
Keeping the Columbia River safe is at the core of several public meetings scheduled for Seattle and Portland next week. It all has to do with decisions being made hundreds of miles away in the desert at Hanford. The question regulators are tacking: How do you keep a mostly-empty radioactive waste tank safe for hundreds, thousands even a million years? Read More
Work began this week to fill a roughly 1.3-mile-long tunnel with grout at the Hanford Nuclear Site. The tunnel is filled with highly hazardous radioactive waste. Continue Reading Works Starts On Read More
Another large tunnel of radioactive waste will be grouted closed at Hanford. That was the decision Friday by the Washington Department of Ecology. The long process goes back to when another tunnel, simply called Tunnel 1, partially collapsed in May 2017. Read More
Last week, the state of Washington, a Hanford union and a Hanford watchdog organization said they have tentatively settled a three-year old lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy over workers being made sick from toxic vapors from Hanford’s underground tanks. Read More
The state of Washington has been after the federal government to keep Hanford cleanup workers from getting sick. On Wednesday, Sept. 19, they filed an agreement in federal court. Continue Reading Feds And Washington State Sign Fresh Read More
The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge sits on more than 5,000 acres of trees, wetlands and pristine rolling prairie about 16 miles northwest of Denver. It hosts 239 migratory and resident species, from falcons and elk to the threatened Preble's meadow jumping mouse. It also used to be the site of a federal nuclear weapons facility — and it's reopening to the public this Read More
Since the late 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been keeping track of big polluters through their Toxic Waste Inventory or TRI. The EPA has released their latest data for 2017. We crunched some numbers for Washington, and here are the results.
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Recently, several mayors in the Tri-Cities publicly called for Tunnel 2 to be filled in immediately. They’re worried a collapse of the tunnel could throw up a plume of dust exposing workers or the public. Continue Reading Meetings Seek Read More
Three major wildfires are burning in central Washington near the Columbia River in Kittitas and Grant counties. And the fires could make getting to a big three-day Phish concert at the Gorge Amphitheater more difficult. Continue Read More
In 1943, the Hanford Site was selected as the newest location for the top-secret Manhattan Project and began 75 years of innovation, discovery and leadership. To honor this legacy and the continued work at Hanford, Leidos will host panelists from Hanford’s past and present to share stories and discuss the evolution of this secret city.… Read More
A federal watchdog agency said Wednesday that it's hard to prove that Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant is safe. Continue Reading Federal Report Says Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant Construction Still In QuestionRead More
A Yakama Nation leader, Russell Jim, has died. The 82-year-old was well-known by tribes and environmentalists across the nation for his fight to clean up Hanford. Continue Reading Yakama Nation Environmental Leader Russell Jim Dies At Age 82Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy is launching a federal investigation into a demolition site at the Hanford nuclear reservation where radioactive waste from the site has been spreading in unexplained ways. Continue Reading Feds To Investigate Contamination Read More
In Central Washington, Grant Public Utility District officials have declared what they’re calling a “non-failure emergency” at the 1950’s-era Priest Rapids Dam northwest of Richland on the Columbia River. Continue Reading Read More
Northwest senators had a lot of questions for U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday. They grilled him on the safety of steel in a massive treatment plant under construction at the Hanford nuclear site. Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY Eugene Astley Northwest Public Television and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak to Eugene Astley, who started his career as a theoretical physicist before moving into a… Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY Bob Ferguson Northwest Public Television and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak to Bob Ferguson, a reactor physicist who started his career at Hanford. Ferguson went on… Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy is demanding thousands of pages of documentation from one of its top contractors at Hanford. They want to know exactly what grade of steel is being used in a massive radioactive waste treatment plant at the decommissioned nuclear site. Read More
Prompt communication between workers and management at the Plutonium Finishing Plant did not occur, so radioactive waste continued to spread at Hanford. That’s according to a new report. Continue Reading Report: Poor Read More
Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation Wednesday, March 7 aimed at helping workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The law will allow workers who have been exposed to toxic chemicals or radioactive waste to more easily access compensation for medical treatment. Read More
The National Academy of Sciences is conducting days of meetings in Richland, Washington, this week. On the agenda is what to do with a lot of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site. Continue Reading National Scientists Group Looks At How To Read More
As many as 11 workers may have ingested or inhaled radioactive contamination at the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition site at Hanford. Ten workers are confirmed to have tested positive and one needs more testing to confirm the results. Continue Read More
Hanford workers have called a “stop work” at a demolition site over worries of radioactive contamination inside government vehicles. It’s the same site where government contractors have struggled to tame the spread of contamination all winter. Continue Read More
Reaction in the Northwest was swift to President Trump’s proposed cuts to the cleanup budget at the Hanford Site. The budget request cuts $61 million from the budget for Hanford's Office of River Protection, and $169 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office. Read More
Washington health officials have penned an uncommonly stern letter to the U.S. Department of Energy. It details concerns over the radioactive contamination spread at a Hanford demolition site. Continue Reading Washington Health Officials Read More
Radioactive waste keeps spreading at a demolition site at Hanford. This week officials have found more contamination on a worker’s boot, on a work trailer and a personal vehicle. Now, a rental car that’s possibly contaminated has ended up in Spokane. Continue Read More
The discovery of high levels of radon gas has forced more than 100 workers at Hanford to move their offices. This follows a series of radioactive contamination issues at that same demolition project on the southeast Washington nuclear site. Continue Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY James Anderson Northwest Public Broadcasting and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak with James Anderson, a chemist at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation from 1961-2012. Anderson worked in Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY Robert Heinman Northwest Public Broadcasting and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak with Robert Heinman, he began his Hanford career as a security manager shortly after the… Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY Barbara Brown Tayler Northwest Public Broadcasting and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak with Barbara Brown Taylor, her father was a landscape architect in the early days of… Read More
OUR HANFORD HISTORY Catherine Borden Finley Northwest Public Broadcasting and the Hanford History Partnership produced a series of stories from people who lived and worked in the Richland area during the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s operational years. In this episode we speak with Catherine Borden Finley, a resident of White Bluffs, a town that ultimately became Read More
