This morning some of us got to see an elk, he had woken us up with his bellowing call, definately a magnificent way to wake up indeed. We packed the vans and headed out towards Richland where the Hanford site is located. As we drove out of the park I was amazed to see lush grass and dense forest turn into red rock and low shrubs, I had no idea that there were parts of Washington that had a desert climate.
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| Washington State - Desert Addition |
At the Hanford site we were greeted by excited speakers and nice people, they even got desserts and pastries for us from the local bakery! The first part of the presentation involved us watching a documentary, one of the ones we had watched the day before so I had a hard time keeping focused. After the speakers started talking and people started asking questions the discussion got very interesting. We learned that the clean-up started back in the 80s and that they project for it to be complete sometime after 2050. We got a detailed lesson in the history of the site, including its involvement in the Manhatten project during WWII, why the Hanford site was chosen for the nuclear reactor, and the issues that went along with the production of plutonium.
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| Lecture at the Hanford Center |
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| Picture taken from one of Hanfords handouts showing the plutonium isotopes inside the reactor |
We discussed Hanfords clean-up goals and the major issues they face. Their plan is to clean ground-water and protect the Columbia river, retrieve tank waste, construct and run a waste treatment plant on the site, and remove contaminated soil from the river. However the biggest issue the site faces is the sheer volume of waste contained in the underground tanks. There are 177 underground storage tanks holding nearly 56 million gallons of highly radioactive waste. Some of these tanks are leaking increasing the chance that they will contaminate groundwater. The people at Hanford have replaced some of the tanks but there is so much waste that they have no where else to put it yet so they are currently at a stalemate on that issue. The site has made progress in its clean-up efforts though, they have stopped much of the liquid discharge to the soil, they removed roughly 15 million tons of contaminated soil from the river and shoreline, and 20yrs worth of contaminated groundwater pumped out and cleaned. With all this clean-up going on, many outside individuals see the site as being a radioactive wasteland where nothing could survive or mutant creatures run rampant. Coincidentally, Hanford has some of the healthiest populations of wildlife and plants in the area and these clean-up efforts brought jobs to the area which helped to build a community in the area. After the Hanford presentation we had another short presentation by Kathryn Sain, a Stockton graduate who talked to us about political advocacy and how she transitioned from Stockton into the job she is in now. I greatly enjoyed this days presentation and the topics were very interesting to me, I could see myself working or researching in that area of study and perhaps it is something I will look into. We left Richland and made our way to our KOA in Starbuck for the night, which we thought was in the complete middle of nowhere with nothing but large bluffs and farmland nearby. Our campsite was situated along the snake river and was perhaps one of our best nights camping because we got to the site early enough that we all got to relax. Matt, Dan, and I went for a run all the way up to the train bridge across the river, boy was I dehydrated I could hardly make my way back. We got back and everyone was setting up for dinner, but I decided to take a quick dip in the lake with Marnie and Katie but they chickened out. We all spent the rest of the night sitting by the campfire telling stories and getting to know each other until everyone got tired and we turned in for the night.
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