Hanford

Hanford PDF Author: R. E. Gephart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
In Hanford: A Conversation About Nuclear Waste and Cleanup, Roy Gephart takes us on a journey through a world of facts, values, conflicts, and choices facing the most complex environmental cleanup project in the United States: the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Starting with the top-secret Manhattan Project, Hanford was used to create tons of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Hundreds of tons of waste and millions of curies remain. In an easy-to-read, illustrated text, Gephart crafts the story of Hanford becoming the world's first nuclear weapons site to release large amounts of contaminants into the environment. This was at a time when radiation biology was in its infancy, industry practiced unbridled waste dumping, and the public trusted what it was told. Hanford history reveals how little we sometimes understand events when caught inside of them. The plutonium market stalled with the end of the Cold War. Public accountability and environmental compliance ushered in a new cleanup mission. Today, Hanford is driven by remediation choices whose outcomes remain uncertain. It's a story whose epilogue will be written by future generations. This book is an information resource, written for the general reader as well as the technically trained person. It provides an overview of Hanford and cleanup issues facing the nuclear weapons complex. Each chapter is a topical mini-series. It's an idea guide that encourages readers to be informed consumers of Hanford news, and to recognize that knowledge, high ethical standards, and social values are at the heart of coping with nuclear waste. Hanford history is a window into many environmental conflicts facing our nation; it's about building uponsuccess and learning from failure. And therein lies a key lesson: when powerful interests are involved, no generation is above pretense.

Hanford

Hanford PDF Author: R. E. Gephart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
In Hanford: A Conversation About Nuclear Waste and Cleanup, Roy Gephart takes us on a journey through a world of facts, values, conflicts, and choices facing the most complex environmental cleanup project in the United States: the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Starting with the top-secret Manhattan Project, Hanford was used to create tons of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Hundreds of tons of waste and millions of curies remain. In an easy-to-read, illustrated text, Gephart crafts the story of Hanford becoming the world's first nuclear weapons site to release large amounts of contaminants into the environment. This was at a time when radiation biology was in its infancy, industry practiced unbridled waste dumping, and the public trusted what it was told. Hanford history reveals how little we sometimes understand events when caught inside of them. The plutonium market stalled with the end of the Cold War. Public accountability and environmental compliance ushered in a new cleanup mission. Today, Hanford is driven by remediation choices whose outcomes remain uncertain. It's a story whose epilogue will be written by future generations. This book is an information resource, written for the general reader as well as the technically trained person. It provides an overview of Hanford and cleanup issues facing the nuclear weapons complex. Each chapter is a topical mini-series. It's an idea guide that encourages readers to be informed consumers of Hanford news, and to recognize that knowledge, high ethical standards, and social values are at the heart of coping with nuclear waste. Hanford history is a window into many environmental conflicts facing our nation; it's about building uponsuccess and learning from failure. And therein lies a key lesson: when powerful interests are involved, no generation is above pretense.

Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford

Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309075963
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The Hanford Site was established by the federal government in 1943 as part of the secret wartime effort to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The site operated for about four decades and produced roughly two thirds of the 100 metric tons of plutonium in the U.S. inventory. Millions of cubic meters of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes, the by-product of plutonium production, were stored in tanks and ancillary facilities at the site or disposed or discharged to the subsurface, the atmosphere, or the Columbia River. In the late 1980s, the primary mission of the Hanford Site changed from plutonium production to environmental restoration. The federal government, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), began to invest human and financial resources to stabilize and, where possible, remediate the legacy of environmental contamination created by the defense mission. During the past few years, this financial investment has exceeded $1 billion annually. DOE, which is responsible for cleanup of the entire weapons complex, estimates that the cleanup program at Hanford will last until at least 2046 and will cost U.S. taxpayers on the order of $85 billion. Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford provides background information on the Hanford Site and its Integration Project,discusses the System Assessment Capability, an Integration Project-developed risk assessment tool to estimate quantitative effects of contaminant releases, and reviews the technical elements of the scierovides programmatic-level recommendations.

The Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project

The Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project PDF Author:
Publisher: National Academies
ISBN:
Category : Hazardous waste site remediation
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age PDF Author: Steve Olson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393634981
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph, decades of secrecy, and the unimaginable destruction wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb. It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs. In the desert of eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and many thousands of others—the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff at the facility—manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilization. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Olson, who grew up just twenty miles from Hanford’s B Reactor, recounts how a small Washington town played host to some of the most influential scientists and engineers in American history as they sought to create the substance at the core of the most destructive weapons ever created. The Apocalypse Factory offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and, ultimately, of lethal hubris.

Tank Closure and Waste Management for the Hanford Site

Tank Closure and Waste Management for the Hanford Site PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1098

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Atomic Geography

Atomic Geography PDF Author: Melvin R. Adams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780874223415
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Perhaps the first environmental engineer at Hanford, Melvin R. Adams spent 24 years on its 586 square miles of desert terrain. His thoughtful vignettes recall challenges and sites he worked on or found personally intriguing--like the 216-U-pond, contaminated with plutonium longer than any place on earth. In what Adams considers his most successful project, he helped determine the initial scope of the soil and solid waste cleanup. His group also designed and tested a marked, maintenance-free disposal barrier, expanded a network of groundwater monitoring wells, and developed a pilot scale pump and treatment plant. Adams shares his perspective on leaking high-level waste storage tanks, dosimeters, and Hanford¿s obsession with safety. He even answers his least favorite question, insisting he does not glow in the dark. He leaves that unique ability to spent fuel rods in water storage basins--a phenomenon known as Cherenkov radiation.

Nuclear waste absence of key management reforms on Hanford's cleanup project adds to challenges of achieving cost and schedule goals : report to the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives.

Nuclear waste absence of key management reforms on Hanford's cleanup project adds to challenges of achieving cost and schedule goals : report to the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives. PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428937684
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Hanford Remedial Action, Comprehensive Land-use Plan, Hanford Site in the Pasco Basin of the Columbia Plateau

Hanford Remedial Action, Comprehensive Land-use Plan, Hanford Site in the Pasco Basin of the Columbia Plateau PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Something Extraordinary

Something Extraordinary PDF Author: Robert L. Ferguson
Publisher: Cms-Author.com
ISBN: 9781948963275
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Finally, a concise but comprehensive narrative of the geopolitics and atomic research that led to the creation of the Manhattan Project--the American effort to develop and deploy the atomic bomb during World War II. Written by two award-winning authors who together have more than a century of direct experience with the subject, this book is unlike any other. A key component of the Manhattan Project was the development of the massive Hanford Site where the plutonium used in America's atomic bombs was produced. The book celebrates the 75th anniversary of the date in 1944 when the first production reactor, the B Reactor, went critical and the plutonium it produced helped win the war. The year 2019 is also the 35th anniversary of the startup of WNP-2, now the Columbia Generating Station, the only nuclear power reactor to be built by the Washington Public Power Supply System. Also, this year is the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Tri- Party Agreement, which governs the cleanup of the Hanford Site. Hanford and the B Reactor played an important role in the Cold War and in the growth and subsequent economic fortunes of the nearby Tri-Cities communities whose economies were directly affected by events at Hanford. When the plutonium production reactors and chemical separation facilities were deactivated, the community sought to find new missions and uses for the Hanford Site. By the 1980s, it was clear that Hanford's mission had finally changed from production to cleanup, ushering in a whole new set of challenges and opportunities that continue to this day. It's all here, from the history of atomic research to the continuing efforts to clean up the Hanford Site. Written for non-technical readers who may be first-time visitors to the Tri-Cities or the B Reactor--now part of the Manhattan Project National Historic Park-- or for those who have lived and worked around the Hanford Site and may want a brief and easy-to-read history of their community.

Hanford Site, Disposal of Hanford Defense High-level, Transuranic and Tank Wastes

Hanford Site, Disposal of Hanford Defense High-level, Transuranic and Tank Wastes PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 746

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Book Description