Oregon, Washington, and Others Ask President Biden to Increase Funding for Hanford Nuclear Site Cleanup

Oregon, Washington, and a coalition of organizations have sent a joint letter to President Biden calling for increased funding at the Hanford Nuclear Site. The letter asks President Biden and Congress to request and allocate adequate funding for Hanford, starting with $3.76 billion in Fiscal Year 2024.

Signees of the letter include Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Washington Department of Ecology, Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs, Tri-Cities Development Council, Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Hanford Communities, Hanford Challenge, Columbia Riverkeeper, Central Washington Building Trades Council, and the UA Local Union 598 Plumbers and Steamfitters. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation also sent a similar letter to President Biden.

The Hanford Site in southeast Washington State produced two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium stockpile during World War II and the Cold War, leaving behind one of the most contaminated nuclear cleanup sites in the world. From Hanford, the Columbia flows through prime Oregon farmlands and fisheries. Radioactive and chemical contamination poses a potential long-term threat to these important resources. Continued underfunding at Hanford will exponentially balloon the overall cost of cleanup, delay work by decades, and increase the risk of a catastrophic infrastructure failure or release of contamination.

Read the full letter and view a joint statement from Governor Inslee and Governor Brown.