Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Once home to the United States's largest plutonium production site, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is laced with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. The threat of an explosive accident at Hanford, that could be more catastrophic than Chernobyl, is all too real.
The EPA designated Hanford the most toxic place in America; it is also the most expensive environmental clean-up the world has ever seen, a $677 billion price tag that keeps growing. Huge underground tanks, well past their life expectancy, full of boiling radioactive gunk, are leaking, infecting groundwater supplies and threatening the Columbia River.
Whistleblowers, worried that the worst is ahead, are now speaking out, begging to be heard, hoping their pleas help bring attention to the dire situation at Hanford. Aside from a few feisty community groups and hand full of indigenous activists, there is very little public scrutiny of the clean-up process, which is managed by the Department of Energy and carried out by contractors that have shoddy track records like Bechtel. With new calls to support atomic power to combat climate change, Atomic Days debunks the myths of nuclear technology, from weapons to electricity, and shines a spotlight on the ravages of Hanford and its threat to communities, workers and the global environment.
Synopsis
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state has become the most toxic site in the Western Hemisphere, yet most Americans are in the dark about the damage their government's nuclear obsession has wrought on the environment and their tax dollars.