Challenges And Innovations In Hanford Nuclear Waste Cleanup

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation holds a significant place in Unites States history, with much of it well documented. The nuclear reactors produced the plutonium that went into " Fat Man ", the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan that effectively ended World War II. Roughly 25 years later, the driving force behind Hanford's continued operation began to wind down.

The decommissioning of the B Reactor began in the mid to late 1960s with the last operating nuclear reactor ( the N Reactor ), shut down in 1987. The cleanup of the 586 square mile reservation began in 1989 after the Tri-Party Agreement was signed by Washington State, the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ), and the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ).

The ensuing 36 years has seen ebbs and flows in the cleanup proce