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Cleanup work completed on 140 acres at Hanford

Officials report they have finished cleaning up roughly 500,000 tons of contaminated soil from trenches dug in the mid-1950s. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is seen in this undated aerial photograph.
Associated Press
Officials report they have finished cleaning up roughly 500,000 tons of contaminated soil from trenches dug in the mid-1950s. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is seen in this undated aerial photograph.

RICHLAND, Wash. — Workers recently completed clean-up work on 140 acres of the Hanford nuclear reservation where liquid waste from the making of nuclear bombs was poured into trenches in the ground.

The Tri-City Herald reportsnearly 500,000 tons of contaminated soil — 20,000 large dump truck loads — were dug up and buried in a lined landfill at Hanford for low-level radioactive waste.

John Price of the state Energy Department said it was pleased with the completion of the work by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation in the core of the BC Control Area, Hanford's largest waste site by area.

The trenches were built in 1955. They were covered with sand and gravel in 1969 to protect them from wind and animals.

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