Chernobyl? Sure .. Ozyorsk? Sellafield? Yeah - But HANFORD Washington?

This post is a bit of an achievement for me - Would you believe it's number 1,000 off my computer. - I've learned some stuff along the way.
.. Anyway:

For some 13,000 years, in Washington State, three native American tribes lived near the Colombia River - Nez Perce, Umatilla, & Yakama.

Nowadays, The "TRI-CITIES" (aka Atomic Town) of Kennewick, Pasco, & Richland - much like Sellafield in UK's Cumbria - ignoring the nuclear dangers - is rated (by Kiplinger business publishing) as being one of the top ten places in USA to raise a family !

Kiplinger Publishing

Hanford Site - Contract Built By Du-Pont.

 When in 1943 the US military needed somewhere to make plutonium to develop the nuclear bombs - as part of the Manhattan Project they took the land at HANFORD - relocated 1,500 people - and then built nine nuclear plants along the Columbia River - where they produced enough plutonium to make SEVENTY THOUSAND NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

A Plutonium 238 Pellet Glowing In It's Own Light.

It is said that when tasted - Plutonium tastes metallic😏.

And in much the same way as was done at the UK's Sellafield and in Russia's Ozyorsk (City 40) - those military scientists dumped what they couldn't use out of sight and into the ground and water.

In HANFORD Washington they dumped 120 MILLION Gallons of horrific high-level waste liquid AND 444 BILLION gallons of contaminated waste .... into the ground where it is moving towards the Columbia River. Massive filled steel tanks leaking/degrading/cooking.

When operational - this plant employed around 9,000 staff. - Currently they have a similar number engaged in trying to clean it up and prevent a disaster.

- It's a big story .. check out Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site

.. "a great place to raise a family" ..

(& let's BAN civilian guns !)

Marty K.
Russia's Ozyorsk  City 40  - was modeled after Hanford Project's Richland in 1947 - to produce weapons grade plutonium for bombs. - Like Hanford USA (and Sellafield in UK), Ozyorsk is rated as possibly the worlds most polluted of areas - but the Russians dumped a major part of their waste DIRECTLY into a nearby river and a 45 hectare lake.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozyorsk,_Chelyabinsk_Oblast

MK.
After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870