Bombs to brilliance: US to turn nuclear waste into glass at polluted Hanford site

The mixture then cools into solid glass in stainless steel vats. While still radioactive, this form is far more stable and less likely to seep into soil or the nearby Columbia River. From secret project to nuclear legacyHanford’s 600-square-mile (1,500-square-km) site sits at the meeting point of the Snake and Columbia rivers, a region important to Native American tribes for thousands of years. In 1943, the U.S. government seized the land for a secret project, displacing about 2,000 residents. The site became home to tens of thousands of workers recruited nationwide to support the war effort.