Anna King
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.
Called the Plutonium Finishing Plant, it’s a massive factory building that the government is trying to tear down. But since last year, forty-two demolition workers have been found to have radioactive contamination in their bodies, dozens of cars were contaminated and more windblown specks of radioactive waste were found near a public highway.
The demo project has been idled since the winter — even though the project is a year behind its “slab on grade” deadline. The state Department of Ecology and EPA have called for work to stop until officials can prove contamination won’t spread further.
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The DOE continues to work on shoring up a large debris pile that is thought to be the source of much of this escaped material. It’s also doing a “root cause evaluation” and study what can be done to safely complete the demolition.
The Plutonium Finishing Plant was a large factory at Hanford that turned liquids containing plutonium into solid plutonium “buttons” during the Cold War.
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