Radioactive Waste Contamination of Soil and Groundwater at the Hanford Site

The Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State is the location of the largest nuclear waste storage area in the United States. Since plutonium production facilities at Hanford were shut down in 1987,cleaning up the leftover waste at the Hanford Site has become one of the largest environmental cleanup projects in history. Legal, political, technical, and social aspects of the cleanup contribute to the overall complexity of the situation. There is, however, a sense of urgency surrounding the cleanup efforts. Of the 177 underground nuclear waste storage tanks on the Hanford Site 67 are known to be leaking currently and a large proportion of the tanks are at or approaching the end of their design lives. Cleanup efforts are presently focused on removing the waste from the storage tanks and immobilizing it for long-term storage. While it remains a primary concern, it is currently unknown what the long-term ecological consequences of the leaked nuclear wastes will be.