Most polluted US nuclear site becomes national park
The most polluted nuclear weapons production site in the United States has been designated as the country’s newest national park.
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, Washington, which is the home to America’s largest collection of radioactive waste, is expected to attract about 10,000 curious visitors next year, according to US Energy Department.
The park is part of a three-unit project dubbed the Manhattan Project National Historic Park, which was signed into existence in November to commemorate the historic properties of the Manhattan Project, a research and development project that led to the creation of the first US nuclear weapon during World War II.
It features the story of the 50,000 workers and scientists behind the program and the 300 residents who were displaced because of it, said Chip Jenkins of the National Park Service.
The problem with Hanford, the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western hemisphere, is that the nine reactors that operated during the Cold War to make plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal created more than 56 million gallons (212,000 cubic meters) of radioactive waste that cost more than $1 billion to maintain and clean up annually.
According to a report by the Washington Examiner, the US government has so far failed to treat even a single drop of the toxic waste held underground, despite pouring more than $19 billion into the site over 25 years. The site closed its uranium-related operations in 1987.
The most recent treatment project began 15 years ago and was expected to be finished by 2011, with a total cost of $4.3 billion. But in 2006, the completion date for the project was extended to 2019 at a cost of $12.3 billion, another estimate that was annulled in 2011.
Consequently, the Energy Department proposed two new projects in 2013 aimed at treating some of the radioactive waste before the main project’s completion. According to official estimates, however, those projects would also take from six to eight years and would need at least $1 billion.
"Everything is clean and perfectly safe," Colleen French, the US Department of Energy's program manager for the park said. "Any radioactive materials are miles away."
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