A huge radioactive site which is planted on almost 600 acres of desert land has been compared to an “underground Chernobyl” with warnings that it is a disaster waiting to happen.
The Hanford Site in Washington, US, was constructed during World War II and is known as one of the country’s most radioactive chemical contamination sites. The area was built as part of the Manhattan Project, where workers made plutonium to put together an explosive which was eventually set off in Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. According to experts, the site’s most hazardous waste is hidden in the tanks and unlined trenches. Washington’s Department of Ecology has warned that there are 177 leaky storage tanks buried on the property, holding 56 million gallons of radioactive waste.
Now, the site has been proposed as a potential location for AI development by the Department of Energy. Richland has been included on the list as it is home to the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which could result in a partnership with developers on advanced hardware for next-generation data centres and power systems needed to run them.
The 295 acres in Richland, however, is former Hanford nuclear site land, which was transferred to the Department via the Tri-City Development Council to the city of Richland in 2015 to be developed as part of a new Advanced Clean Energy Park. But the land has a long, deadly, history.
The toxic facility was so dangerous that it was nicknamed “death mile” in 1985 after local farmers were being diagnosed with cancers. The string of incidents was linked back to the residents breathing in the chemical, Iodine 131. Iodine 131 is used in medicine to treat thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism.
Government officials gave locals a mere 30 days to leave the area, with residents being paid for their land. However, indigenous tribes weren’t given any compensation.
The War Powers Act which was put in place prior to its 1973 resolution allowed the government to use land for military purposes. Under the act, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt acquired over 600 square miles of land.
The shock request saw up to 55,000 men and women taken to the area to start work on the undercover development. A lot of them knew very little about what they were working on, with most being unaware it was for the war. It was reported that only 5 per cent actually knew why they were hired.
The secret workers were given access to almost ten dining halls, a hospital, a post office, barbershops and a cinema. The Department of Ecology revealed that they were also given entry into dance halls and bowling alleys to keep them entertained outside of working hours.
It was reported that its first full-scale plutonium production reactor was finalised within 13 months. The operation was launched in 1944. Physicist Leona Libby, 23, and her team created the first nuclear chain reaction which later helped create the bomb.
Once the explosive was released, the workers were given further insight into the circumstances behind the project. After WWII had finished, the production site continued its operation during the Cold War. In 1963, the last reactor was constructed.
When the site was in use, more than 400 billion gallons of contaminated liquids were dumped into the ground. According to the Department of Ecology, that dumped material then came into contact with groundwater and even reached parts of the Columbia River. The Department of Ecology was launched in 1970 and assessed any concerns surrounding the site. By 1989, it was forced to close its doors due to a potential red flag which was highlighted in 1987. Despite, discussions about clean-up efforts taking place, the Hanford Site is still viewed as an environmental concern.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
