Feature Articles

Nuclear Mess at Hanford

Three Generations of Deceit

by Michael David McGuire

They lied to the original workers and experimented on their children and grand children… now, three generations later, it seems that the deceit continues at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. According to one report, a whole new generation of sick and injured workers is being created.

Covering almost 600 square miles of some of the most incredibly beautiful semi-arid desert territory in North America, the DOE Hanford Reservation is one of the most dangerous and toxic areas on Earth… and the site of one of the world's most expansive and expensive toxic cleanups. According to a recently published exposé in The New York Times, this vast chemical complex is the repository for 53 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks… with an additional 270 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater poised near the banks of the Columbia River. Stories of deformed animals roaming this nuclear reservation are legendary among locals.

According to Sarah Kershaw and Matthew L Wald writing in The New York Times, an army of workers numbering over 11,000 face the monumental task of cleaning up the mess created by more than half a century of war production. Some even speculate that the plant's inactivity over the past two decades may have created a sense of false security… which actually heightens the danger to workers. Early Hanford workers in the 1940's and 50's told stories of debilitating illness among their co-workers… stories that at the time were dismissed out of hand by government managers, but later publicly acknowledge by the DOE (successor to the old Atomic Energy Agency). Now, industrial and nuclear related illnesses have resurfaced as the DOE speeds up its clean up effort, slashing the time table for completion in half.

According to The New York Times, Washington State Attorney General Christine O Gregoire has started a new investigation into serious accusations that the DOE and its Hanford managers are ignoring the risks associated with cleanup. DOE denies that there are any significant risks to workers, but that denial rings somewhat false to this correspondent based on the lies and deceit of two and three generation ago. It also begs the question - Have you ever wondered why toxic manufacturing is never put in the backyards of Connecticut?



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