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Post by Ex_Nuke_Troop on Mar 16, 2014 3:22:57 GMT
Digital Journal : Op-Ed: Hanford — The most contaminated nuclear waste site in AmericaBy Karen Graham Mar 1, 2014 in Environment Located in central Washington state, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the largest nuclear waste dump in the Western Hemisphere. It has also become a major environmental issue for the United States, yet little is known about what is happening there. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation (HNR) occupies an area of approximately 586 square miles in south-central Washington, along the Columbia River. To get an idea of just how big an area it covers, it is half the size of the state of Rhode Island. While little has been in the headlines of late, it is now making news in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The HNR was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, and was home to the B Reactor, the first plutonium production reactor ever built. Plutonium made at this site was used in the first nuclear bomb tested at White Sands Proving Ground, then called the Trinity site, southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, as well as Fat Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in WWII. Continues: digitaljournal.com/news/environment/op-ed-hanford-the-most-contaminated-nuclear-waste-site-in-america/article/373845
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