Hanford-based Economy

In 1943 what became known as the Hanford Site was developed as a site to produce plutonium for use in weapons for World War II. Approximately 51,000 workers were brought into the area to build and operate large reactors and plutonium processing plants. The top secret Manhattan Project included building the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor at Hanford (B Reactor) and producing the plutonium for the bomb that was used over Nagasaki. Plutonium production continued for over 40 years. During that time, much of Hanford’s waste was simply discharged into the ground, or stored in temporary tanks, many of which have leaked. As a result, soil and groundwater in certain areas of Hanford are contaminated. The emphasis has now shifted from Hanford’s military role to addressing and solving the environmental legacy at the site.

The Hanford leg of the area's economy is the federally funded program activity occurring principally on the Hanford Site.  The Hanford leg of the local economy, under the present level of funding provided by Congress, currently represents approximately one in four jobs in the Tri-Cities region. The current mission at Hanford is to clean up and manage the site’s legacy wastes, and to develop and deploy science and technology.

Hanford is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE hires contractors to operate the site and provide cleanup services. Major contractors at the Site include Bechtel Hanford, Inc, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., Fluor Hanford, Inc.; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and Bechtel National Inc.

The Site contains large industrial areas supported by billions of dollars of federal investment in infrastructure related to both the past and current missions.  Of note are:

· Rail and road transportation systems;

· Massive water pumping and distribution systems;

· Columbia Generating Station, a commercial nuclear power plant owned and operated by Energy Northwest;

· The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), the worlds only sodium cooled nuclear reactor (currently

undergoing final decommissioning);

· Eight decommissioned nuclear production reactors;

· Numerous hazardous waste storage, disposal and processing facilities, including a waste

vitrification facility under construction; and

· New hi-tech structures such as the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), and

the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Within the non-agricultural sector of the Tri-Cities area of Benton and Franklin counties, Hanford employment is the principal driver of the residential and commercial construction and service sector industries.  However, the peaks and valleys characteristic of the Hanford program as it is annually budgeted by Congress creates continuous uncertainty and periodic hardship for those industries and their employees, as well as local governments and special districts who must plan for and finance capital improvements. Due to federal funding cutbacks, employment at Hanford is declining. An estimated 14,500 high-paying jobs will be lost by the time the ongoing 40-year cleanup is converted to a basic site maintenance program in about 2028. This has serious implications for the area’s economy, which remains heavily reliant on Hanford employment.

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