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Hanford Site
USDOE´s Hanford Site covers 560 square miles of desert is south central Washington state. Hanford is about 30 miles north of Oregon´s Umatilla and Morrow counties. For more than 40 years, Hanford made plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Hanford is now out of the plutonium business, but making plutonium created huge amounts of dangerous chemical and radioactive waste. Most of the high-level waste is stored in 177 large underground tanks.
Some tanks could, under the right conditions, burn or explode. If an accident happens, USDOE believes there would be no offsite impacts. Oregon is less certain of this.
Aging facilities and chemical uncertainties support Oregon´s continued concern. Should an accident occur, the wind could carry radioactive materials away from Hanford and toward Oregon. Fields, pastures, gardens, lakes and streams in Umatilla and Morrow counties could be contaminated. About 69,000 Oregonians live in the two counties.
Columbia Generating Station
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Nuclear Safety Home
Hanford Emergency Home
Hanford Emergency Preparedness in Oregon - Brochure
Photos showing the outside of the Columbia Generating Station and the turbine are courtesy of Energy Northwest.
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