RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Cleanup workers have started digging up some of the most hazardous radioactive waste that was buried at the Hanford nuclear reservation when it was helping make nuclear bombs.
The Tri-City Herald reports (http://bit.ly/phuiVv ) work is under way at the 6-acre site known as the 618-10 Burial Ground, six miles north of Richland. The project was accelerated with $57 million in federal stimulus money.
Washington Closure Hanford says it expects to find as many as 2,000 drums containing everything from mildly contaminated clothing to highly radioactive equipment and liquids.
The burial ground was used from 1954 to 1963.
The department faces a legal deadline to have the burial ground cleaned up by 2018.
