After 20 years of prep, wind delays Hanford demolition Monday

Windy weather on Monday delayed the start of demolition of Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant.

Workers have spent about 20 years cleaning out the highly contaminated plant to prepare for demolition of its main facility.

Weather permitting, the demolition should begin this week on what’s called Hanford’s most hazardous facility. The plant helped prepare nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The first section of the main plant to come down will be its Plutonium Reclamation Facility, an addition added as Cold War demand for plutonium increased. It recovered plutonium from scrap material that otherwise would have been wasted.

Some of the plant’s ancillary buildings have come down over the years.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 5:21 PM with the headline "After 20 years of prep, wind delays Hanford demolition Monday."