Oregon Public Broadcasting

A new study of nuclear waste is shifting some basic assumptions about how long it will take to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The research of sites across the country shows three-times more plutonium in southeast Washington than the federal government last estimated. Anna King reports.

Robert Alvarez is a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies and former advisor to the Secretary of Energy. His new study shows Hanford has more plutonium waste than any other DOE site in the country, at 4 tons.

During WWII and the Cold War Hanford workers drained radioactive waste into ditches and shallow man-made ponds. Alvarez studied the Department of Energy's own records to recalculate how much plutonium is actually buried at Hanford and other sites.

Robert Alvarez: "The department has to sort of come to terms with this issue. Because right now they're on the threshold of making some very important decisions on what to do with some of the most contaminated areas of the site."

Alvarez says even tiny amounts of plutonium can cause cancer. The new findings come just as the Obama Administration's new commission on the future of nuclear waste is set to tour Hanford this week.