Workers uncover carcasses of Hanford test animals

Hanford workers have removed 40,000 tons of carcasses, manure and other waste from burial trenches at the former experimental animal farms at Hanford.

That included a railroad tanker car packed with animal carcasses, then buried, said Mark Buckmaster, Washington Closure Hanford remediation manager, during a presentation to a Hanford Advisory Board committee last week.

Up to 1,000 animals at a time were kept at the animal farm near F Reactor along the banks of the Columbia River, Buckmaster said. They ranged from rodents to cats and dogs to farm animals, including cows, sheep, goats and pigs. The farm also had alligators, although no carcasses were found, Buckmaster said.

Animal experiments started at Hanford during World War II, when plutonium was produced for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Some were planned to learn more about the health effects of radiation to protect nuclear workers, and some were for military knowledge.