Polluted nuclear weapons site to become tourist destination

AP ^ | Dec. 20, 2015 | NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

[PROCON]

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- The nation's most polluted nuclear weapons production site is now its newest national park.

Thousands of people are expected next year to tour the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, home of the world's first full-sized nuclear reactor, near Richland, about 200 miles east of Seattle in south-central Washington.

They won't be allowed anywhere near the nation's largest collection of toxic radioactive waste.

[PROCON]

I don't live too far from there, but not currently on my bucket list.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"They won't be allowed anywhere near the nation's largest collection of toxic radioactive waste."

Washington, DC ?

[gundog]

Seen any green bunnies?

[ColdOne]

Not on my bucket list either. When gov says something is safe......well you know.

[Spunky]

I have lived here almost all of my life. Not worried in the least. My daughter and husband took a tour of the B Reactor this summer. Took lots of pictures and it was very interesting. My husband and I hope to take a tour this coming year.

[Sasparilla]

The Hills have eyes?

[Steely Tom]

Someday I hope to take the tour of B reactor.

[SW6906]

"The intention of the park is to tell the full and complex and convoluted story," Jenkins said. That story is still being developed, but will certainly include a Japanese perspective, he said.

Yup, gotta slip a little liberalism in there, don't we....

[NorthMountain]

I got yer "Japanese perspective" right here:

[gundog]

Nah. Some bunnies at Hanford were caught and smeared with green glow in the dark stuff years ago, and released.

[catnipman]

Sadly enough, "plutonium-free" is not what most people thinks it means.

Still, there'll be fun things to do for all family members, no matter what their age:

[PROCON]

I live in Yakima and grown son and I will definitely visit next summer.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Really? Where? I have friends in Moses Lake.

[Calvin Locke]

The Trinity site is open for tourists. Extremely limited ticketing, as in only a couple of days a year, iirc.

A tad bit more general historic, than Hanford, which in my mind, is a more local and specialty attraction.

[PROCON]

Really? Where? I have friends in Moses Lake.

Where what?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Where do you live? You said you were near Hanford.

[PROCON]

I live in Yakima, North of Hanford and SE of Moses Lake.

9" of snow on the ground currently.

[PROCON]

Make that SW of Moses Lake.

[hinckley buzzard]

Hanford is a large preserve today, mostly undisturbed by human intervention. It is original shrub-steppe prairie, an ecological niche in arid eastern Washington, and adjacent to sensitive Indian lands such as Rattlesnake Mountain. There is already a nice Visitors Center in Richland that displays memorabilia and history of the Manhattan Project and Hanford's role in it.

[EQAndyBuzz]

I worked on Minute Man 3’s. I’ll take a pass on this.