The Hanford Site has had a profound impact on the surrounding area and the world. To learn more about its history and significance, we invite you to join us for a 15-lecture series that spans 80 years of history. This series will explore the social, environmental, and economic impacts of this important nuclear site. Whether you are new to the topic or already familiar with Hanford, we designed these lectures to be engaging and informative for all attendees. Each lecture will feature prominent speakers who will provide insights into the history of Hanford and its ongoing impact. Attendees are welcome to select lectures that align with their interests or participate in all lectures to earn a completion certificate. This is a unique opportunity to delve into the history of a site that has significantly influenced our region and the global landscape.
Speakers: Mark Triplett, Rebekah Woods, Michael Lee, Kathleen McAteer - The first lecture in the Hanford Nuclear Legacy series delves into the connections between the Fukushima and Hanford nuclear sites, focusing on their historical impact and ongoing regional challenges. Panelists will discuss the lessons learned from these nuclear legacies, international collaboration, and the implications for future development.
Speaker: Thomas E. Marceau - This presentation on the archaeology of the Hanford Site first provides the chronological framework used to order its 11,000-year cultural history of the site, including the radiocarbon dates that place specific periods of site occupation within that framework. To illustrate that history, excavations at three different locations are summarized. These excavations document plant preparation, game animal selection preferences, and freshwater shellfish processing, respectively. The value of working with the area Tribes is highlighted throughout the presentation.
Speakers: Bob Bauman, Robert Franklin - This lecture explains the development of the Manhattan Project, the construction of Hanford as part of the Manhattan Project, and Hanford’s role in the war. It also explores the ways in which Hanford impacted the peoples of the region and the ways in which the people brought to work at the site changed the region, its economy and its culture.
Speakers: Bob Bauman, Robert Franklin - This lecture covers Hanford History during the Cold War (1945-1989). It explores the expansion of the plutonium mission beginning in the late 1940s through the transition and shut down of nuclear production in 1989. It also examines atomic culture in the region and the ways more people brought in to work at the site shaped the history and culture of the region.
Speaker: Brian Freer - This presentation makes the case that Hanford’s environmental history is an industrial story driven by the site’s role as a hydrometallurgical smelter. This approach puts chemical processing at the center of Hanford’s history. The paper begins from the position that previous scholarship on Hanford, and the wider US nuclear weapons complex, has typically emphasized the role of nuclear physics and “firsts” in reactor technology. With chemical processing for plutonium as our center of gravity we are better able to see Hanford in relation to its national and regional contexts. These contexts, notably a pre-existing network of non-ferrous metals smelters, railroads, and hydroelectric power in the American West, illustrate several points. First, that Hanford’s plutonium production itself was dependent on non-ferrous metals from regional smelters. Second, understanding the wider environmental and public health history of smelting in the American West may help us identify missing links concerning questions of health effects at Hanford. Finally, with Hanford’s industrial story front and center in its environmental history we are in a better position to make connections to other sites, both nationally and in other parts of the world, that face long-term environmental issues stemming from past industrial processes.
Speaker: Bruce Napier - Past nuclear material production efforts at the Hanford Site have resulted in releases of radioactive materials to soil, surface water, and air in the region. Solid and liquid waste disposal to soils totaling nearly 2 billion cubic meters have contaminated Site groundwater to levels of over 1000 times the national drinking water standards, but because that groundwater is unused, doses to individuals off-site have been minimal. Releases of fission and activation products from reactor cooling water to the Columbia River totaling over 1 billion curies (>4 exabecquerels) resulted in doses to populations downstream of Hanford that were within the legal limits at the time but would be substantial today – on the order of 100 mrem/year (1 mSv/year) through the 1960s. The primary releases to the atmosphere in the early years of operation were of around 750,000 curies (~30 petabecquerels) of volatile radioiodine, and the dispersion in the atmosphere resulted in deposition over wide areas of multiple states. Doses to the thyroid of exposed individuals could be large – up to 200 rem (2 Sv) to children downwind under certain dietary conditions. Regional health studies have not shown that there are measurable impacts to public health – although that does not mean that some individuals were not adversely affected.
Speaker: Trisha Pritikin - This presentation examines the impact of radioactive fallout from the Hanford site, focusing on Downwinders exposed to iodine-131 through contaminated milk pathways. It highlights historical events, personal accounts, and protests, while exploring governmental neglect in compensating affected civilians. The presentation advocates for federal apologies and national compensation plans for those harmed.
Speaker: Richard Raymond - This lecture outlines the environmental cleanup strategies at the Hanford site, detailing the management of solid and liquid waste, groundwater contamination, and tank waste retrieval. It highlights vitrification efforts, reactor decommissioning, and collaborative initiatives. Progress includes waste site remediation and the startup of melters for radioactive waste treatment.
Speakers: Alan Rither, Carolynn Novich - Over the past 60 years that Battelle has managed the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, the scientists, engineers, and support staff have transformed the aging remnants of the Hanford Laboratory into one of the premier research laboratories in the world. That process arose from Battelle’s entrepreneurial spirit and long-term vision for community development.
Speakers: Karl Dye, David Reeploeg - This lecture explores the evolution of Hanford's role from its pivotal contributions to the Manhattan Project to its current status as a leader in environmental remediation and clean energy innovation. Attendees will gain insights into the complexities of the Hanford cleanup, the economic and scientific significance of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the region’s initiatives in advanced nuclear technologies. Highlighting federal, state, and community collaboration, the lecture will examine how the Tri-Cities is leveraging its legacy and assets to pioneer sustainable energy solutions and support workforce development for a clean energy future.
Speaker: Mike Schwenk - During these two lectures, Mike Schwenk will share the story of the Tri-Cities during the period from the mid-1960s until around the year 2000. During that time the Tri-Cities would fight for its economic future through the Cold War and in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident – both major factors affecting the Hanford Site. This struggle has been characterized in many ways, but it is simplest to say it was a struggle for community survival. Mike will share why the community faced so many ups and downs, how leadership emerged to overcome the hard times, how Hanford evolved its mission, and how plans emerged that would set the course for a vibrant, diversified future. This is a story of community resiliency. It is also one of community vision, leadership, and the actions of many working together.
Speaker: Mike Schwenk - During these two lectures, Mike Schwenk will share the story of the Tri-Cities during the period from the mid-1960s until around the year 2000. During that time the Tri-Cities would fight for its economic future through the Cold War and in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident – both major factors affecting the Hanford Site. This struggle has been characterized in many ways, but it is simplest to say it was a struggle for community survival. Mike will share why the community faced so many ups and downs, how leadership emerged to overcome the hard times, how Hanford evolved its mission, and how plans emerged that would set the course for a vibrant, diversified future. This is a story of community resiliency. It is also one of community vision, leadership, and the actions of many working together.
Speaker: Rick Dunn, P.E. - This presentation explains how northwest hydropower anchors a grid like nowhere else in the US, supplying abundant and low-cost electricity to the region and to Tri-Cities area utilities for more than 75 years. But just as aggressive clean energy policies in Washington and Oregon aim to double electricity consumption, the firm capability of federal hydroelectric dams is 100% spoken for. This presentation examines power grid physics, land-use impacts, and a global perspective to provide a data-driven rationale for why policy makers should consider a natural-gas-to-nuclear energy transition as an alternative to a wind and solar centric strategy.
Speaker: Diahann Howard - This region is primed to serve as a launchpad for the next generation of nuclear and other advanced clean energy technologies. With decades of nuclear expertise, cutting-edge research, pioneering global companies, a skilled workforce and robust training programs, the region is already attracting new nuclear energy projects. This presentation will highlight local and industry-led initiatives in the Northwest to pave the way for these technologies, positioning the area as the hub for next-generation nuclear energy, advanced manufacturing and clean energy innovation.
Speakers: Yonas Demissie, PhD, Chad Kruger - Washington State University Tri-Cities Institute for Northwest Energy Futures (INEF) is entrusted to meet the global challenge of developing a sustainable clean energy future. INEF is using an integrated systems approach to optimize the interrelationship between emerging clean technology solutions, existing resources, and the economic, social, and political ramifications of these solutions. Our vision is that INEF will serve as a virtual hub focusing on clean energy solutions, leading and coordinating a network of expertise and capabilities beginning with Washington State and the Pacific Northwest and extending across the globe. We will leverage this network to identify pressing research questions, pursue collaborative solutions, educate the next generation of clean energy leaders, and create opportunities for meaningful two-way community and tribal engagement. Together, we envision a future where clean energy systems harmonize with the environment, economy, and society, creating lasting benefits for all.
Kenji Hasegawa (HNIU)
