Why Hanford?
Woods, Carole
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is located on the banks of the Columbia River in eastern Washington State. It is surrounded by fertile land that produces wheat, wine grapes, potatoes, apples,...
...250 So what if the DOE is planning to use the nuclear fuel dump as a source of plutonium for weapons...
...From the hydrogeological perspective, the Columbia River Basalt Group as a whole is not well suited for a high level waste repository...
...If we divert the "peaceful atom" to the bomb, any other nation with a nuclear power plant can feel justified in doing the same thing...
...251...
...Reprocess it...
...If Hanford's function is plutonium production, why would the DOE want the commercial nuclear waste dump there...
...law and the spirit of the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty and to use the "peaceful atom" for bomb production...
...In September 1981 the DOE's Hydrology Overview Committee stated: There is only one solid justification for studying this site [Hanford], and it is the sociopolitical fact that the land is a U.S...
...Well, there are at least three problems in addition to environmental considerations: • Military reprocessing of commercial nuclear fuel is illegal under the Hart-Simpson-Mitchell Amendment to the Atomic Energy Reauthorizing Act of 1982...
...and laser isotope separation, which will be able to bring plutonium extracted from commercial nuclear fuel up to weapons grade...
...Why...
...pull out the plutonium...
...Even the Department of Energy (DOE) rated the Hanford Nuclear Reservation as the least acceptable of five locations being considered as the site for the first national commercial nuclear waste dump...
...These additions are: process facility modification, which enables the PUREX (Plutonium URanium EXtraction) plant to accept commercial fuel rods...
...Additions are now being made to the plutonium extraction facilities at Hanford that will enable them to extract plutonium from commercial nuclear fuel rods, such as those to be placed in the nuclear waste dump...
...It is surrounded by fertile land that produces wheat, wine grapes, potatoes, apples, and cherries...
...What is the significance of the fact that Hanford is already a U.S...
...law against using "DOE-owned fuel" for bomb production...
...Indeed, the Hanford reservation was built during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project...
...Using commercial fuel in weapons production violates the spirit of the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty which was coauthored by the U.S...
...Is there any evidence that the DOE intends to use the commercial nuclear waste dump as a source of plutonium for bombs...
...Radioactive waste from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has already been found to have made its way through this ground water to the Columbia River and from there to the Pacific Ocean as far as California and British Columbia...
...nuclear plant similar in design to the one in Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, was shut down for six months so that safety improvements could be made...
...There is no U.S...
...Hanford's primary function is the production and extraction of plutonium for nuclear weapons...
...The ground under Hanford is basalt, a porous rock through which ground water flows in uncharted streams under high pressure...
...nuclear reservation...
...Nevertheless, Hanford remains one of the three finalists for this dubious honor...
...IN JANUARY the N reactor, which is the only U.S...
...Thus, the only reasonable explanation for the DOE's selection of Hanford as the nation's first commercial nuclear waste dump is the evident intention of the DOE to subvert U.S...
...nuclear reservation...
...and the plutonium in the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was made and extracted at Hanford...
...Isn't that just good planning...
...Former Secretary of the DOE James B. Edwards may have told us when he said, We are going to be needing more plutonium for our weapons program, and the best way I can see to get that plutonium is to solve the [commercial] waste problem...
...Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the DOE will gain title to the nation's waste commercial nuclear fuel in 1998, and that fuel will then be called "DOE-owned fuel...
Vol. 34 • April 1987 • No. 2
