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The next year, elevated plutonium levels were found in the topsoil near the now covered Pad 903. An additional 4,500 acres (18 km 2) of buffer zone were purchased. [citation needed] 1975 saw Rockwell International replacing Dow Chemical as the contractor for the site. This year also saw local landowners suing for property contamination caused ...
After sufficient plutonium had been produced, the production reactors were shut down between 1964 and 1971. Many early safety procedures and waste disposal practices were inadequate, resulting in the release of significant amounts of radioactive materials into the air and the Columbia River, resulting in higher rates of cancer in the ...
One of four example estimates of the plutonium (Pu-239) plume from the 1957 fire at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The Rocky Flats Plant, a former United States nuclear weapons production facility located about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Denver, caused radioactive (primarily plutonium, americium, and uranium) contamination within and outside its boundaries. [1]
The Hanford Test Reactor, which was shut down in 1972. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images The reactors weren't all built at once but over a 20-year period from 1943 to 1963.
“Cleanup at Los Alamos is long delayed,” Coghlan said, adding that annual spending for the plutonium pit work has neared $2 billion in recent years while the cleanup budget for legacy waste is ...
The US space agency has routinely had to carry out commands to shut off various science instruments over the years as the 47-year-old spacecraft drains its supply of plutonium.
However, the N Cell worked fine, and the RMA line was shut down for good in 1984. The RMC line was restarted on 1 July 1985, and ran until October. After multiple repairs, it was reactivated in April 1986 and produced weapons-grade plutonium for the next six months. Another shut down for a series of upgrades and repairs followed.
Historically, most plutonium-238 has been produced by Savannah River in their weapons reactor, by irradiating neptunium-237 (half life 2.144 Ma) with neutrons. [7] 237 93 Np + n → 238 93 Np. Neptunium-237 is a by-product of the production of plutonium-239 weapons-grade material, and when the site was shut down in 1988, 238 Pu was mixed with ...