Congressional Delegation Urges Trump to Fund Hanford Work

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The entire congressional delegation from Washington is asking President-elect Donald Trump to make environmental cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation a priority.

Hanford for years made plutonium for nuclear weapons, and now is engaged in a multi-decade cleanup of the resulting waste at a cost of some $2 billion per year.

Both of Washington's senators and all 10 members of the House of Representatives sent Trump a letter on Monday asking him to support the cleanup that employs some 9,000 workers at Hanford, which is located north of Richland.

The letter noted that Congress and previous presidents have recognized the legal and moral obligation of the federal government to clean up Hanford, which contains some 55 million gallons of some of the world's most dangerous radioactive wastes.