The federal government began construction at Hanford in the spring of 1943, and within 18 months had begun operation of the world's first production-scale nuclear reactor. During World War II's Manhattan Project, a total of three nuclear reactors and two chemical processing plants were built and operated at Hanford. These facilities produced the plutonium that was used in the world's first nuclear explosion, the Trinity test in New Mexico (July 16, 1945), as well as the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki (August 9, 1945).
The United States Government has paid billions of dollars to private contractors to oversee the production of nuclear weapons' materials. These contractors include DuPont and General Electric.
Because of the war-time rush, the Hanford plutonium plants processed the irradiated fuel without allowing the radioactivity enough time to decay. For still unknown reasons, Hanford kept processing this very radioactive fuel even after Japan surrendered. As a result, vast quantities of pollution, especially iodine-131, were discharged into the air. In 1945 alone, more than a half million curies of Iodine-131 were released. The accident at Three Mile Island was estimated to have released about 20 curies. People were exposed to the airborne radiation by breathing the air and consuming certain foods, especially milk from goats or cows that grazed on contaminated vegetation.
Our research has already established that health officials for the Manhattan Project knew as early as the spring of 1943 that the ingestion of stable, nonradioactive iodine could protect both workers and the public from Iodine-131 exposure. One of these early health officials was Dr. W.D. Norwood, who later served as Hanford's medical director.
It was not until 1948 that Hanford installed the first crude filters on the plant stacks. Even after this, Hanford continued to spew radioactive materials and hazardous chemicals into the environment, both into the air and into the Columbia River. Some of these releases were in the form of "hot radioactive particles" that contained plutonium, ruthenium, strontium and cesium. Our research shows that Hanford tracked these particles as far as Idaho, and even into Montana.
As the Cold War continued, Hanford added additional reactors and processing plants to the nuclear reservation. The first reactor began operation in September 1944, and by 1955 there were eight reactors in operation along the Columbia River. They used the river water to cool the intense heat at the core of the reactors. In doing so, the water became contaminated with radioactivity, toxic chemicals and excessive amounts of heat. Within as little as 15-20 minutes, the contaminated water was released back into the river, allowing radiation to concentrate in the bodies of fish and other aquatic life. Local game animals, especially waterfowl, also became contaminated. People were then exposed when they ate the fish or game, drank the water or swam in the river.
Hanford's operations discharged over 440 billion gallons of contaminated liquids into the ground, resulting in approximately 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater beneath Hanford. By the mid-sixties, the government began shutting down the reactors and other plants. There was essentially no plutonium production at Hanford from 1972 to 1983. One reactor and a processing plant operated in the eighties, but were shut down after citizens' groups showed that the facilities could not be operated safely, nor in compliance with environmental laws.
Since 1986, several million pages of Hanford documents have been made available to the public. While much has been learned from this material, many important questions remain. The government has admitted that it has more than seven billion pages that have not been released about the operations of Hanford and the other nuclear weapons plants.
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