U Canyon Deck Being Cleared

Video of U Canyon on the Hanford Site and work to clear the deck of U Canyon to prepare the 810-foot-long facility for demolition.

[@HanfordSite]

U Canyon, also known as U Plant, was mainly used to train crews to operate other chemical processing plants, recover uranium from waste generated during the plutonium extraction process, and to decontaminate and maintain equipment from other processing facilities. There's a backgrounder on the plant on our website: www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/UPlant

[@RUSTOLIO]

what is this facility and what was it used for?

[@christopheroneill3810]

This facility was used primarily to produce Plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. Nearby nuclear reactors converted some of the uranium in their fuel rods to Plutonium (one atom at a time, via absorbing neutrons) and after some time these rods (containing remnant Uranium, the produced Plutonium and a collection of other highly radioactive elements) were extracted from the reactors and then feed into 'reprocessing' facilities such as the 'U' Canyon shown in this video. In the 'canyon' buildings (so called because they were long and with high walls on each side), chemical separation techniques were used to separate Plutonium from all the other elements. The plutonium was then sent to make the cores of nuclear weapons. The processing parts of these 'canyons' were extremely radioactive when operating (and for many decades afterwards).

[@bassmith448bassist5]

The whole area is known as the Hanford Site. Originally built in 1942-43 to produce plutonium for the very first nuclear weapons used in world war 2. U canyon was one of the process buildings that enriched plutonium after it was extracted from uranium which had been irradiated in one of the 7 production reactors at the site. The equipment in the canyon carried radioactive solvents and particles through it so it is too dangerous to remove and dispose of, so it is encased in the canyon cells and grouted in place.