Oregon Public Broadcasting

People who live near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation appear pretty low key about the possibility the Department of Energy will store the nation's mercury there.

At a public hearing Tuesday, only about 15 people showed up. Some of those were federal employees. Correspondent Anna King reports.

The Department of Energy is looking for a place to stash as much as 10,000 tons of mercury.

Some residents, and organizations like the Tri-City Development Council, are against bringing in mercury to the already-contaminated Hanford site.

But given the chance few shared those concerns at the public meeting.

In fact, some see mercury storage at Hanford as an opportunity. Take Dick Whitehurst who's hoping his architectural/engineering firm might design the mercury storage building at Hanford.

Dick Whitehurst: “Well compared to everything else at Hanford I think mercury is safer than all of that. The storage is pretty stable it's in a big canister, it's sealed the only thing you have to worry about with mercury is terrorism.”

The federal government is considering other candidates for mercury storage, including: The Idaho National Laboratory, Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Grand Junction Disposal Site in Colorado.

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