Plutonium Finishing Plant

At the Hanford cleanup site in southeast Washington state, federal contract workers are trying to demolish a large factory called the Plutonium Finishing Plant, or PFP.

During the Cold War, the federal government used this factory to turn liquids containing plutonium into hockey-puck-sized solid “buttons” for bombs.

But radioactive contamination keeps spreading out of the PFP demo site’s controlled boundaries. So far, several workers, an office and dozens of vehicles have been found contaminated.

Around 200 workers have largely been idled since December 2017, as federal managers and their contractors try to corral the waste.

Environment and Planning

Several Workers Possibly Contaminated At Hanford Nuclear Site

Anna King

Since December 8, six workers at the Hanford Site have shown up as possibly contaminated. One worker was possibly contaminated twice.It happened at the…