Atomic Geography: A Personal History of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation

by Melvin R. Adams

Overview

"I have spent a career sifting through the rubble, the abandoned documents, the factories and tools, with the thought of saving what remains of water, land, and animals. But water, wind, and root have their way."—Melvin R. Adams

Perhaps the first environmental engineer at Hanford, Adams spent twenty-four years on its 586 square miles. His thoughtful vignettes recall challenges and sites he worked on or found personally intriguing, like the 216-U-pond. Nestled among the trees, the pond looks like a pleasant place to go fishing. In reality, it has been contaminated with plutonium longer than any other place on earth.

In what Adams considers his most successful project, he helped determine the initial scope of the soil and solid waste cleanup. The Environmental Restoration and Disposal Facility today covers 107 acres and has a capacity of 18 million tons.

His group also designed and tested a marked, maintenance-free disposal barrier. It uses natural materials that will remain stable for thousands of years. They expanded a network of groundwater monitoring wells to define contaminated plumes, assess treatment effectiveness, and provide relevant data to hydrologists. They also developed a pilot scale pump and treatment plant for use on a four-square-mile carbon tetrachloride plume.

His environmental and engineering unit included a biological control group fondly dubbed "The Weeds." They controlled tumbleweeds, tracked and collected plants and animals found growing or digging in contaminated sites, and caught stray wildlife discovered in Hanford offices.

In Atomic Geography, Adams presents some surprising revelations. He shares his perspective on leaking high-level waste storage tanks, dosimeters, and Hanford's obsession with safety. He answers the question he is asked most, insisting he does not glow in the dark. He leaves that to spent fuel rods in water storage basins—a phenomenon known as Cherenkov radiation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874223415
Publisher:	Washington State University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2016
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Melvin R. Adams has published two other books with WSU Press, both on southeastern Oregon: Netting the Sun: A Personal Geography of the Oregon Desert and Remote Wonders: An Explorer's Guide to Southeast Oregon.

Table of Contents

Foreword Roy Gephart ix

Introduction: What is Hanford? 1

A Unique Geography 3

A Place of Paradox 6

The Personal Challenge 8

A Hanford Timeline 10

Part I Hanford: The Cultural Progression 11

First Fishing, then Farming 13

The Beginning of Hanford 13

The Secret Revealed 15

Cleanup 16

Part II Hanford: The Engineering Challenge 19

Coming to Hanford 21

Archaeological Analogs and the Nuclear Priesthood 27

The Weeds 33

Natural Analogs: Designing a Water Retaining Barrier 37

Thousands of Wells 44

Tumbleweeds 47

Bird in a Tank and Data Overload 51

Pumping Carbon Tetrachloride 55

Glowing in the Dark 59

Tank Leak Controversy 63

Part III Anomalies and Unusual Events 65

The Atomic Pond 67

The PUREX Railroad Tunnels 77

Z-9 Crib, Poisoning Plutonium, and the Crawler Robot 81

Burial Grounds 83

The Atomic Man 87

How a Japanese Balloon Shut Down Hanford 91

Part IV Hanford as Home 95

F House 97

The Street Names of Richland 101

Part V Hanford: The National Park 105

The Hanford Reach 107

Elk and Wild Horses 111

Rare Plants/New Plants 115

B Reactor 117

Part VI Reflecting on Hanford 121

Hanford as a Redemptive Quest 123

The Poetic Response 124

Glossary 133

References 135

Index 139

Editorial Reviews

"For a book about nuclear waste cleanup, paradox and irony figure prominently—Atomic Geography is intelligent, probing, and strangely poetic."

—ForeWord Magazine

"I anticipated a world of soulless drones in white safety suits. Adams proves closer to a blue-jean naturalist and poet."

— Eugene Register-Guard

"Adams explores technical issues with clear, personable prose, [and] does a good job of putting scientific information within human context."

—ForeWord Magazine

"Atomic Geography is impressive ground."

—Eugene Register-Guard

From the Publisher