Oregon Public Broadcasting

At the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington, two dumps are being considered for the National Register of Historic Places.

Contractors expect to find just household items, but Correspondent Anna King reports there could be some surprises.

Back in the early 1940s most garbage was burned, but at other digs at Hanford some odd things surfaced.

Like a bottle of plutonium in a locked safe.

Contractors don't expect to find plutonium, but they hired a special archeological support team to help sift through the stuff.

The junk is from Hanford construction camps when the nuclear site was being built.

Todd Nelson is the spokesman for Washington Closure Hanford, the company in charge of the dig.

Todd Nelson: “The construction of the reactors, this would not be stuff from their landfill. That's at a different location; this is just strictly dealing with the workers that built Hanford.”

But Nelson says there are other types of hazardous chemicals in the landfill like boiler fuel and diesel.

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For more information about Washington Closure Hanford oral histories call Amy Hood at 509-948-4540 or e-mail to oralhistories@wch-rcc.com.