"Those guys are meaner than hell!" exclaimed our tour guide, Len Clossey, as our bus was pulled over by the S.W.A.T. team. Apparently, the man at the checkpoint had forgotten to call us in, and we were within 300 yards of a "national security interest." Dressed in black and well-armed, the S.W.A.T. guys detained us for about half an hour while they interrogated our bus driver and tour guides. Jon, a CRS student, said this about the experience: "Hanford scared me. It was just way too weird." This was probably the most memorable moment for me, not only at Hanford, but during our entire trip. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures, so this will have to do.--CRS student
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation encompasses 560 square miles of land in the Columbia Basin just north of the Tri-Cities in southeastern Washington state. It was built in secrecy at the onset of WWII for the production of weapons-grade plutonium. The small population living in two communities on the site was relocated to the Tri-Cities area, and thousands of skilled personnel were quietly moved into the area. The Hanford site was chosen because it had three things the government was looking for: sparse population, large amounts of water available to cool the reactors (from the Columbia River), and massive amounts of hydroelectric power (from Grand Coulee Dam).
On July 18, 1945, at 4:20 in the morning, the research and development of the institution came to reality. The first atomic bomb was dropped in the deserts of New Mexico. Soon after that, "The Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The legacy of Hanford is claims of health problems of Tri-Cities residents and other down-winders, a threat to the health of the Columbia River as radio nuclides from leaking storage tanks slowly move toward the river, and a failed nuclear power project, WPPS. The reservation is currently managed by FleurDaniels, whose responsibility to manage the Superfund cleanup operation currently underway. The future disposition of the site is under discussion, as agriculturalists, members of the Yakama and Umatilla tribes, developers, governmental agencies, and conservationists try to influence policy decisions. There are also regional and national efforts to protect the Hanford Reach, a 50-mile stretch of the river that represents the last free-flowing section of the Columbia River.
Columbia River Studies students heard about all this on their guided bus trip, arranged by Fleur Daniels, guided by a former Hanford worker. They saw abandoned nuclear facilities, operating nuclear power plants, abandoned townsites, empty trenches awaiting nuclear waste, and, of course, the S.W.A.T. team who considered our school bus an unauthorized vehicle. It was a tour they won't soon forget.
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