ODOE at 50: History of Hanford Cleanup and Oregon’s Engagement
2025 marks 50 years of Oregon Department of Energy public service. As we continue leading Oregon to a safe, equitable, clean, and sustainable future for the next 50 years (and beyond!), we’re taking time to look back and reflect on what got us here.
Take a look at our photo history of Hanford’s nuclear reactors.
For more than 40 years, the federal government produced plutonium for America’s nuclear weapons program at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington state, about 35 miles from Umatilla, Oregon. Plutonium production ended at Hanford in 1988 but the site was left with tremendous amounts of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste. Since 1989, the focus has been on environmental cleanup.
The U.S. Department of Energy (which owns the Hanford site), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of Washington signed what is known as the Tri-Party Agreement on May 15, 1989, outlining the cleanup and compliance agreement for Hanford. While Oregon isn’t part of the official Tri-Party Agreement, our state has played an important role in the cleanup over the last few decades.
The radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes generated at Hanford were disposed of or leaked into the soil over time – which in turn contaminated Hanford’s groundwater. That contamination poses a long-term threat to the Columbia River, which flows from Hanford down to Oregon past local communities and prime farmlands and fisheries. Since the focus of Hanford shifted to cleanup in 1989, Oregon has been at the table to ensure cleanup decisions are protective of the river.
The Oregon Department of Energy has chronicled the Hanford cleanup in a series of reports, most recently in 2014 with Hanford Cleanup: the First 25 Years. The first decade of cleanup had a slow start in figuring out how to tackle such an extensive, ambitious cleanup plan. At the time, Oregon’s main concern was dangerous wastes in aging underground tanks (a concern that has seen progress but is still an issue today). In the early 2000s, construction started on some facilities that would house equipment to immobilize some of Hanford’s wastes. Oregon expressed concern with the significant groundwater contamination at the site, some of which reaches the Columbia River (another area that has seen progress since). Later in the decade, the major challenges were funding and the advanced technology required to get the cleanup done. In the 2014 report, ODOE shared that while progress continued, some areas remained behind, like treating waste in the now-leaking underground tanks. A significant accomplishment by that time, however, was a large expansion of groundwater treatment capability.
In 2024, the Cleanup Board submitted a first-of-its-kind report to the Oregon Legislature, outlining the board’s work. The report provided a brief history of the Hanford site, summarized actions taken in 2023 by the board and the agency, and provided a high-level look ahead at expected developments. In particular, the board noted several key issues to watch, including a research building close to the river with high levels of radiation under its floor; negotiations around a holistic path forward for treating and disposing of tank waste, and cleanup on the river corridor at the K-East and K-West reactors and N-reactor.
ODOE’s Nuclear Safety and Energy Security Division is working on a new update to the Hanford Cleanup series, 35+ years into cleanup, which will be available in 2026.
The agency’s Nuclear Safety and Energy Security team includes several experts, including a hydrogeologist, an ecologist, a radioactive waste remediation specialist, and coordinators for energy security, radiological emergency planning, and resilience. As implied by their many areas of focus, the team ensures the various risks at Hanford are considered as cleanup continues over the next several decades.
ODOE’s team also staffs the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board, a 20-member advisory group with 10 citizen members, six state legislators, and representatives from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Governor’s office, and two state agencies. The board’s key responsibilities include recommending state policy to the Governor and Legislature, keeping important cleanup issues visible and in the public eye, holding US DOE and its contractors accountable, and continuing to convey that the cleanup efforts are a regional issue and that Oregon has a stake in the outcome.
Former ODOE Assistant Director Ken Niles worked on Hanford issues for over 30 years before his retirement. Check out our early podcast series featuring Ken talking about the Hanford Site cleanup.
In addition to supporting cleanup efforts, ODOE staff are also trained to respond in the event of an emergency at Hanford, which could affect Oregon communities and farmlands. Each year, ODOE participates in emergency exercises by activating an Agency Operations Center at ODOE’s Salem office and practicing responses based on specific scenarios. Experts analyze data to determine an incident’s effects in Oregon and practice communicating that information to keep Oregonians updated. ODOE collaborates with other agencies and organizations, including the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Agriculture, the Department of Emergency Management, the National Guard, and Oregon State University. The Oregon team also sends staff to Richland, WA and northeast Oregon to have experts on site and to test soil and milk samples in the event of an offsite release of radioactive materials. The most recent exercise, in June 2025, involved a scenario where a plane crashed into a storage tank at Hanford. While obviously this would have been a very serious incident, wind direction and weather patterns for the scenario meant the likelihood of affecting Oregon was very low. Had the wind shifted to the south, however, Oregon communities and crops could have been affected.
In 2017, ODOE put its practice into action when a tunnel collapsed at the Hanford Site. The tunnel was used to store contaminated waste – thankfully, there was no release of materials and the US DOE was able to cover the collapsed opening to prevent any further issues.
As ODOE looks toward the next 50 years serving Oregon, we anticipate that our work with the Hanford Site cleanup will continue during that time – and we’ll continue advocating for the state’s best interests.
Learn more about ODOE, the Hanford Site, and our emergency preparedness work on ODOE’s website.