Hanford Reactor Site, Washington
During World War Two, the US government built a secret city in Washington state to make plutonium for atomic bombs.
Workers rushed to beat the Nazis, but safety came second.
Decades of hasty waste disposal left behind a toxic mess that still leaks into the Columbia River today.
Here’s how that happened. And yes, you can actually tour it today.
The Secret Manhattan Project Origins
The Army picked Hanford in December 1942 after Colonel Matthias and DuPont engineers searched for the perfect spot.
They chose this area because it was far from cities, had plenty of water from the Columbia River, and got electricity from Grand Coulee Dam.
The government forced residents to leave their homes within just 30 days. Workers then built B Reactor, the world’s first full-size plutonium production reactor, in only 13 months.
The public knew nothing about Hanford’s real purpose until after the bombing of Nagasaki.
Irresponsible Cooling Water Practices
Early Hanford reactors pumped water straight from the Columbia River through the reactor cores to cool them. This water absorbed heat and radiation before flowing back into the river almost untreated.
In the 1940s, Hanford put about 400 curies of radiation into the Columbia every day. As production grew, radiation releases got worse, reaching 20,000 curies daily by 1959.
Contaminated water flowed all the way to the Pacific Ocean 200 miles away, harming fish, soil, and shorelines throughout the Columbia Basin.
The Green Run Experiment
On December 2-3, 1949, Hanford officials ran a secret test called the “Green Run.” They processed nuclear fuel that had cooled for only 16 days instead of the normal 90-125 days.
Workers turned off the plant’s air filters during the test to release maximum radiation. The name “green” meant the fuel was still highly radioactive.
The test released 7,000-12,000 curies of iodine-131 and 20,000 curies of xenon-133 into the air. This radiation spread over 8,000 square miles across Washington and Oregon.
The government kept this test secret for nearly 40 years.
Hazardous Waste Disposal
Hanford workers dumped about 440 billion gallons of liquid waste using methods now known to be harmful. They poured waste into unlined soil pits, trenches, and ditches across the site.
Officials wrongly thought the desert soil would filter out radiation before it reached groundwater. Between 1944 and 1972, Hanford released 739,000 curies of iodine-131 into the air and ground.
Radioactive iodine damages the thyroid gland when people breathe or eat it.
The government hid information about these disposal methods until the 1980s.
Massive Tank Storage Problems Begin
Workers built 177 underground tanks between the 1940s and 1980s to hold liquid radioactive waste. The earliest tanks had just a single steel wall with concrete around it.
These single-shell tanks were meant to last only 25 years but stayed in use much longer. The first leaks were found in the late 1950s but kept secret.
The Department of Energy finally admitted in 1973 that tanks were leaking. Later they confirmed at least 67 of 149 single-shell tanks had leaked radioactive waste into the soil.
Cold War Expansion Compounds Issues
Fear of the Soviet Union led to rapid growth at Hanford after 1947. The government built six more reactors between 1947 and 1963, creating nine active plutonium factories.
Making more plutonium became more important than safety or protecting the environment. By 1965, the site had nine reactors, five processing plants, hundreds of buildings, and 177 waste tanks.
Each new facility created more waste that needed disposal. Workers and nearby towns remained in the dark about growing dangers from contamination.
Growing Environmental Contamination
By the 1980s, polluted groundwater had spread across 80 square miles under Hanford. Toxic chemicals and radioactive materials seeped through soil into the water table.
The underground contamination contained plutonium, uranium, technetium-99, strontium-90, and chemicals like hexavalent chromium. Many of these remain dangerous for thousands of years.
At least 1 to 1.5 million gallons of waste had leaked from tanks into the soil. This toxic groundwater began moving toward the Columbia River, threatening the Northwest’s most important waterway.
Production Ends As Truth Emerges
The last Hanford reactor shut down in 1987, ending four decades of plutonium production. Attention turned to the massive job of cleaning up the site.
In 1988, after public pressure, the government released 19,000 pages of secret documents showing how bad the pollution really was. People learned for the first time about the Green Run and other radiation releases.
Local newspapers helped expose these secrets. Public anger led to the creation of health studies to track illness in people living near Hanford.
The Legacy of Leaking Tanks
Today, Hanford’s tanks hold about 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste. This would fill 80 Olympic swimming pools with some of the most dangerous material on Earth.
In 2013, Washington’s governor announced six tanks were actively leaking. One tank was losing up to 300 gallons per year into the surrounding soil.
The problem continues. As of 2024, at least three tanks still leak toxic waste into the ground. Polluted groundwater from Hanford flows into the Columbia River despite cleanup efforts.
Worker and Community Health Impacts
Hanford workers face health risks from tank vapors containing over 1,800 toxic chemicals. These vapors escape during waste handling and through vents.
Workers suffer nosebleeds, lung disease, brain damage, and cancer from these exposures. A study found the cancer risk from tank vapors could be as high as 1 in 10.
People living downwind from Hanford show more thyroid problems and certain cancers. After years of denial, Washington State passed a law in 2018 to help sick workers get medical benefits.
Visiting the Hanford Reactor Site
You can visit Hanford through the Department of Energy’s tour program that runs April through October. Tours are free but require advance registration through the Hanford website starting each March.
The B Reactor National Historic Landmark offers both public and scheduled group tours.
Find the visitor center at 2000 Logston Blvd, Richland, WA 99354, open Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-4pm.
For more context, visit the REACH Museum at 1943 Columbia Park Trail, Richland, WA 99352 ($12 adult admission).
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