Washington May Be A Very Bad Place To Live For Living Things

EPA map of radiation plume in Washington

Hanford, Washington, Not Fukushima, is the Big Radiological Threat to the West Coast Of America.

 There is a dangerous, suppressed and silenced, radiological threat to the West Coast of the United

The Columbia River flows right by the Hanford reactors spreading leaking nuclear waste into it.

States that puts the health of millions of Americans at risk that you have never heard about until now.

 It includes dangers to public health, dangers to the food supply, and dangers to future generations from long-lived radionuclides, including some of the most toxic material in the world.

 It is not Fukushima, it is Hanford Washington.

While radiation from the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns is reaching the West Coast, carried across the ocean from Japan, the radiation from Hanford is already there, has been there for 70 years, and is in serious risk of catastrophe that could dwarf the effects of Fukushima even on Japan.

Modern day life has released Pandora's Box and future generations will pay for it.

 The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, and decades of manufacturing left behind 53 million US gallons (200,000 m³) of high-level radioactive waste stored within 177 storage tanks, an additional 25 million cubic feet (710,000 m³) of solid radioactive waste, and 200 square miles (520 km²) of contaminated groundwater beneath the site.

Underground tank farm with 12 of the site's 177 waste storage tanks

 A huge volume of water from the Columbia River was required to dissipate the heat produced by Hanford's nuclear reactors.

 From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river and, after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned it to the river.

Before its release into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basins for up to six hours.

 Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several terabecquerels entered the river every day. The federal government kept knowledge about these radioactive releases secret.

Radiation was later measured 200 miles downstream as far west as the Washington and Oregon coasts.

 The plutonium separation process resulted in the release of radioactive isotopes into the air, which were carried by the wind throughout southeastern Washington and into parts of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and British Columbia.

 Downwinders were exposed to radionuclides, particularly iodine-131, with the heaviest releases during the period from 1945 to 1951.

These radionuclides entered the food chain via dairy cows grazing on contaminated fields; hazardous fallout was ingested by communities who consumed radioactive food and milk.

Most of these airborne releases were a part of Hanford's routine operations, while a few of the larger releases occurred in isolated incidents.

 In 1949, an intentional release known as the "Green Run" released 8,000 curies of iodine-131 over two days.

 Another source of contaminated food came from Columbia River fish, an impact felt disproportionately by Native American communities who depended on the river for their customary diets.

 A U.S. government report released in 1992 estimated that 685,000 curies of radioactive iodine-131 had been released into the river and air from the Hanford site between 1944 and 1947.

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