A Case Of Hanford Nuclear Reservation Site

Then he went to teach at Berkley University.4 Another main person in the research project was Enrico Fermi. Fermi was a graduate of the University of Pisa, where he received his Ph.D. Fermi then went to the University of Rome teaching chemistry and biology. Fermi played a major role in the development of the bomb by creating a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction, which was critical to making the atomic bomb.4 Richard Feyman was another scientist which worked on the atomic bomb. Feyman graduated from Princeton where he excelled in physics and other scientific studies. Feyman's big duty on the Manhattan Project was to break big problems into smaller easier to do problems.4 The Manhattan Project, also had to have facilities for the research and testing of the atomic bomb. Some of the facilities built by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included: power stations, factories, steel works, hospitals, laboratories, and housing for everybody that worked on the project.. Other facilities that were built for the construction of the bomb were plants to make the radioactive material needed to construct the bomb. Oak Ridge, Tennessee was used to make uranium which was used as an explosive to react with plutonium. The plutonium itself was made in Hanford, Washington.5 To make this explosion possible, a piece of uranium was fired at another piece of uranium to make the critical mass that was needed for an explosion. Critical mass is the exact amount of

The objective of this project was to test and produce mass quantities of plutonium to produce the Atomic bomb. This site appeared to have the correct specifications, according to Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, one of the members of the Manhattan Engineer District (page 18). Even though the Hanford was dealing with the some of the most dangerous materials in the world, little attention was given to the possible contamination of the Columbia. The War Department began the process of recruiting workers to build nuclear

The southern portion is being cleaned up by the Air Force under Superfund. The reason the northern portion of the base is being clean up under the Safe Drinking Water Act is because it is currently still being used for training by the Army. The Air Force no longer uses the southern portion for training purposes. There are 10 major plumes of concern. Each site has been contaminated by chemical/fuel spills, fire training activities, landfills, and drainage structures.

The Institute for Energy and Environment offered and alternative in 1999 for the management of nuclear waste. For short term storage the Institute for Energy and Research (IEER) recommended nuclear waste should be stored as near and safely as possible from where it was produced. IEER suggests that the sites need to be dry and as close as possible to the place where the waste was generated to avoid a potential terrorist disaster. The funding for the extra storage on the site should come from the Federal Governments Nuclear Waste Fund. For short term storage the Institute for Energy and Environment Research (IEER) recommended nuclear waste should be stored as near and safely as possible from where it was produced. IEER suggests that the sites need to be dry and as close as possible to the place where the waste was generated to avoid a potential terrorist disaster. The funding for the extra storage on the site should come from the Federal Governments Nuclear Waste Fund. Many repositories should be looked and studied for more than a decade and none prioritized. Finding a permanent and safe solution is very difficult and would require a lot of time because of the want for good science (Ledwidge,

The Hanford nuclear site in Benton, Washington was established in 1943 to produce the raw

Even before the outbreak of War, the United States was concerned with a fascist regime in Europe researching in nuclear weapons. In retaliation, the United States began to fund an atomic weapon development program which became known as “The Manhattan Project” led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next several years, the Manhattan project started obtaining key materials such as Uranium-235 and Plutonium and testing prototypes until they reached a working model (Coroner).

Prior to the late 1950s the site was used as an excavation pit for sand and gravel. The quarry was subsequently used for the disposal of waste materials from 1950 until 1966. 10 acres of the 28-acre site has been used as a disposal area for several hazardous waste contaminants that included volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, tetrahydrofuran, toluene, vinyl chloride and xylene; other organics such as phenols and PCBs as well as lead. The main area of contamination is in the southern half of the 10 acre area which encompasses about 6 acres which

Disposal of the high level nuclear waste that comes from nuclear power plants continues to be a big problem. It has been challenging and costly to find safe ways to store this waste. According to a report from the U.S National Academy of Sciences, it will take 3 million years for radioactive waste stored in the U.S. as of 1983 to decay to background levels (thinkquest.org). Who wants this amount of waste stored in the environment where they live? Currently in the U.S. nuclear power plants produce 3,000 tons of this high level waste each year (thinkquest.org). If nuclear power continues to be produced, this amount of waste will only continue to increase, causing a bigger dilemma as to what to do with the waste. As the waste is removed from the plant it still contains a high level of radiation. Exposure to radiation whether it occurs in the moving process or leakage from storage not only has a negative impact on the environment but also can pose a major health threat to humans. Based on the level of exposure, symptoms to humans can range from nausea and headaches to damage of nerve cells, loss of white blood cells and even death (think .org). The potential risk of exposure is not worth human life.

However, this seemly simple situations gets extraordinarily complicated when every dimension is explored. The area was designated as a site for plutonium production in World War II by the United States Department of Energy, the same group that is in charge of the cleanup of the area. While they were widely successful at the nuclear power production, they have not been nearly as successful at cleaning up this area. In fact, they continue to stall today, and it was recently announced that the Tri-party agreement had been revised, and they had further delayed the deadline to begin cleaning up until 2019. Heart of America Northwest, is a citizen group that is attempting to put pressure on the anyone who has influence over this cleanup progress, by informing the citizens of the dangers of this lack of progress. This terribly complex issue could easily be related to many aspects of the course including pollution, environmental law, environmental ethics, and even waste. However, the work that I was involved with, informing people about the issues involved with Hanford, made the history of the environmental movement and the energy section resonate with me the

Arjun Makhijani, a prominent researcher for The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, claims that today’s emission rate of carbon dioxide is about nine gigatons annually and that the Earth only has the capability to absorb 3 gigatons annually—thus a problem arises. Furthermore, Makhijani states that about 2/3rds of the carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. With those shocking statistics in mind, fossil fuel’s emission of carbon dioxide is thought to be the leading cause of climate change—which is responsible for irreversible and catastrophic changes to the Earth. Yet, scientist had tremendous difficulty finding a safe, effective, and efficient form of energy supply that will met the great consumption rate. Many prominent scientist suggest that nuclear power is the most plausible explanation and solution to the fuel crisis. However, despite nuclear power having a exponentially lower emission rate, it presents its own hazards and threats—such as the Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island incidents. These accidents have many activists and politicians cautious about the prospect of using nuclear power as a complete alternative to fossil fuels—regardless nuclear plants are responsible for 11% of the energy supplied to the world annually (World Nuclear Association.) What many of the activist and politicians seem to overlook is that fossil fuels are an indefinite energy supply and will quite possible run out within

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has been safely storing and disposing radioactive wastes since 1979. The WIPP is located in Carlsbad, New Mexico and could be potentially harmful to future populations. The nuclear waste is held approximately 2,157ft below the Earth’s surface, and within the layers of the Salado Formation. If the WIPP does form into a nuclear and radioactive disposal plant, then we will need to warn future populations about the hazardous waste that will remain in New Mexico for the next ten thousand years. The main goal of creating a solution for this problem would be to protecting the future population of New Mexico and the United States.

By mid-1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to construct pilot plants, laboratories, and other facilities so that the assembled scientists could carry out their mission. Initially, the Corps of Engineers’ Manhattan District was designated to manage the construction work, and in September 1942, General Leslie Groves took charge of all Army activities relating to the project. With the US formally committing to nuclear research due to the Second World War and domestic and international security concerns, a large scale American atomic project was initiated. It was known as the Manhattan Project, and research under this code name as conducted all over the country. Conceived, designed, built, and operated to work with fissile material in innovatory plants, it was an “extraordinary proof of US ascendancy in technology, engineering, industrial capacity and large-scale organization” . The original $6000 authorized for the Manhattan Project slowly grew to $2

Nuclear research all started when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered into World War II. When the United States realized that Germany attempted to build an atomic bomb, Americans began to concentrate on their research about creating an atomic bomb more heavily. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project, which included a group of top scientists, under General Leslie R. Groves, who worked around the clock to try to develop an atomic bomb within three years (Beyer, Page 15). The Americans and the British combined their efforts to research the development of the bomb and created plants and factories to work in the atomic bomb. They created plants for three separate processes: electromagnetic, gaseous diffusion, and thermal diffusion. These plants helped create the plutonium and uranium 235 needed to manufacture the atomic bomb ("Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Pre Cold War: Manhattan Project.", Web). The secrecy of the Manhattan Project was essential in order to develop the atomic bombs to end World War II.

During the early 1940s President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned “the Manhattan Engineer District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” to start the creation of the United States wartime atomic bombs (Findlay & Hevly, 2011, p. XI). Dubbed the Manhattan Project, the area of Hanford, Washington became the new plutonium factory after the federal government acquired “670-square-mile reservation” (Findlay & Hevly, 2011, p. XI). This reservation was made up of private land holdings, but became condemned for the government to start its build. Near the mid-1940s the first reactor, Hanford’s B, started producing plutonium, then was shortly followed by three more plutonium reactors (Findlay & Hevly, 2011, p. XI). In order to keep the secrecy of the

The inorganic metals that often plague brownfields include arsenic, cadmium, zinc, nickel and copper. However, the bioavailability of other problematic metals such as lead and chromium are very low and require more advanced resources and strategies in order to be extracted. In addition to these toxic metals, it has been suggested that phytoextraction techniques can be used to remove radionuclides that exist in sites with mixed wastes. Radionuclide refers to any element that emits radiation and that can cause cancer through drinking water that it contaminates. In addition to the environmental and health concerns that brownfields pose, there are also many sociological impacts associated with them.