Highly Radioactive Dumping Ground near Columbia River is Clean, Returns to Nature

摘要

In the '50s large cask trucks, heavily shielded to provide protection against radiation, drove north from near Richland with loads of highly radioactive waste that Hanford officials did not want buried too close to town. At a site along the main Hanford highway six miles north of the city, they would back into position to dump their loads down pipes deep into the ground. In between loads, each layer of waste would be topped with soil or grout to reduce the radiation emanating from the pipe. One of the most hazardous burial ground cleanup projects along the Columbia River at Hanford, it was left as one of the last waste sites to be tackled. But this week, after a decade of work to figure out what was buried there and then safely dig it up, the site is quiet. Late last week crews finished replanting the area with 76,000 shrubs plus grasses and other native plants. "It's nice to see the area match the surrounding terrain and get back to what it used to look like," said Mike Kruzic, the site's revegetation project manager for Department of Energy contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co.