Location
Hanford, Washington State, USA
Bus Map & Timetable found inside the Bus Depot
Goggle Earth View of Hanford & surrounding areas, Washington State, USA
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The "Green Run" was a secret U.S. Government release of radioactive fission products on December 2–3, 1949, at the Hanford Site plutonium production facility. Radioisotopes released at that time were supposed to be detected by U.S. Air Force reconnaissance.
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The purpose of the 'Green Run' was to test methods of detecting radiation from Russia's nuclear weapons programs. Conducted during poor weather conditions, the plumes from the Green Run release stagnated in the local area for several days before a storm front dispersed it towards the north-northeast. Parts of the plume eventually drifted in various other directions for as far as 70 miles.
In 1943, officials with the Manhattan Project picked a site near Richland, Washington, to build nuclear reactors that would create the plutonium fuel needed for two nuclear devices detonated by the U.S. in 1945: the 'Gadget' device (tested in New Mexico) and 'Fat Man' (dropped on Nagasaki). This factory initially consisted of three reactors and 540 buildings along the banks of the Columbia River that were purposed with producing the only thing a nuclear reactor was designed to efficiently produce: plutonium fuel.
