![]() ![]() The confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia rivers has been a meeting place for native peoples for centuries. Hanford is the site of Washington state's highest recorded temperature, which reached 120 ☏ (48.9 ☌) on June 29, 2021. Climate Ĭlimate data for Hanford Site, Washington The flora includes sagebrush, bitterbrush, a variety of grasses, prickly pear and willow. The Columbia and Yakima Rivers contain salmon, sturgeon, steelhead trout and bass, and wildlife in the area includes skunks, muskrats, coyotes, raccoons, deer, eagles, hawks and owls. ![]() Hanford is a primary economic base for these cities. The site is bordered on the southeast by the Tri-Cities, a metropolitan area composed of Richland, Kennewick, Pasco, and smaller communities, and home to nearly 300,000 residents. The nuclear reactors were located along the river in an area designated as the 100 Area the chemical separations complexes were located inland in the Central Plateau, designated as the 200 Area and various support facilities were located in the southeast corner of the site, designated as the 300 Area. The site is divided by function into three main areas. In 2000, large portions of the site were turned over to the Hanford Reach National Monument. Some of this land has been returned to private use and is now covered with orchards, vineyards, and irrigated fields. The original site was 670 square miles (1,740 km 2) and included buffer areas across the river in Grant and Franklin counties. The Columbia River flows along the site for approximately 50 miles (80 km), forming its northern and eastern boundary. It is a desert environment receiving under 10 inches of annual precipitation, covered mostly by shrub-steppe vegetation. This land is closed to the general public. The Hanford Site occupies 586 square miles (1,518 km 2)-roughly equivalent to half of the total area of Rhode Island-within Benton County, Washington. In 2015 it was designated as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.Ī map shows the main areas of the Hanford Site, as well as the buffer zone that was turned over to the Hanford Reach National Monument in 2000 Besides the cleanup project, Hanford also hosts a commercial nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, and various centers for scientific research and development, such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Fast Flux Test Facility and the LIGO Hanford Observatory. The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, and the Hanford Site became the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. Many early safety procedures and waste disposal practices were inadequate, resulting in the release of significant amounts of radioactive materials into the air and the Columbia River. Nuclear technology developed rapidly during this period, and Hanford scientists produced major technological achievements. ![]() Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first atomic bomb, which was tested at the Trinity site, and in the Fat Man bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.ĭuring the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the more than 60,000 weapons built for the U.S. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Project, Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works and Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. The historic B Reactor, the world's first plutonium production reactor, is visible in the distance. The N Reactor is in the foreground, with the twin KE and KW Reactors in the immediate background. Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. ![]()
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