PUREX plant dumping ground. For decades during the Cold War arms race, nuclear waste was dumped at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s sprawling 200 East and 200 West areas.

Besides PUREX, there are three similar facilities at Hanford that need to be torn down: U Plant, REDOX and B Plant. The federal government has a public comment period that ends on Aug. 2. Comments ...

A study of the Hanford Site nuclear reservation’s PUREX plutonium processing plant found it was deteriorating and at risk of releasing radiaoctive contamination into the environment. It proposed ...

The PUREX plant in the center of the Hanford Site was built in the 1950s and was operated from 1956 to 1972 and again from 1983 until 1988. ...

The PUREX plant was the workhorse of Hanford’s processing plants. It went into operation in 1956 and separated plutonium from fuel rods from 1956 to 1972, and again from 1983 until 1988.

The 2nd PUREX plant tunnel holding rail cars loaded with highly radioactive Hanford nuclear reservation waste has been filled with concrete-like grout to stabilize it. The site’s 1st tunnel ...

1965-Aerial view of the Purex solvent extraction plant at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site, where plutonium is recovered from irradiated uranium as a product for the nation's defense program.

The closed PUREX plant was part of the nation's nuclear weapons production complex. Authorities say the collapse took place within one of two rail tunnels under the PUREX site, which contains ...

The plant’s main goal: to concentrate as much plutonium as possible from irradiated rods coming out of Hanford’s reactors. Near the PUREX plant, Hanford workers filled an underground train ...

PUREX is located within Hanford’s 200 East Area. It’s about 7 miles from the Columbia River and 5 miles from State Highway 240. Locals call these large buildings with deep underground walls ...

The PUREX plant was the workhorse of Hanford’s processing plants. It went into operation in 1956 and separated plutonium from fuel rods from 1956 to 1972, and again from 1983 until 1988.

There were no injuries in the collapse of a 20-ft by 20-ft section of a tunnel onto eight railcars carrying radioactive waste, and the Dept. of Energy says no radiation leaked from the PUREX site.