Nuclear Tourism Hot Spot: Hanford, Washington
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 08.14.08 | 1:33 PM ET
We’ve written before about the popularity of the plutonium tour at the Hanford Site. What could be more fun than that? Nuclear tourism by kayak, perhaps? “Pat Welle, owner of Columbia Kayak Adventures, who leads two or three groups each month past the nuclear sites, said her business had more than doubled since she started it in 2004,” writes Hugo Martin in the Los Angeles Times. “A jet boat tour operator plans to add a second boat, and the river plays host to several bass fishing tournaments each year.”
All that at a spot where, Martin writes, the “reactors have leaked so much radioactivity into the air, land and water that the contamination caused by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident seems trivial by comparison.”
Radioactive iodine-131 for everyone?
(via Daily Travel & Deal Blog)
Related on World Hum:
* New Travel Book: ‘A Nuclear Family Vacation’
* Power Trip
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
shaun m 08.15.08 | 12:48 AM ET
having grown up in pasco tri-cities wa. it sure seems kinda scary to read about how unsafe handford has really become. now growing up it always seemed to be the joke of the day that it was only a matter of time that we were going to catch a catfish on the columbia at nite under the glistening green glow of the radioactive fish that ive landed. or to even think back in my memories of growing up on the columbia and snake rivers, floating down-river either of the two. good times 1973-1992 pasco washington resident.
DLS 08.15.08 | 8:32 PM ET
As someone who does live in Tri-Cities WA…the Hanford Site has not made the Columbia River unsafe…in fact, it’s one of the most heavily tested and monitored part of the river…if you really want to see polluted…head down the Columbia near Willamette and Portland…Now, THAT’S the most dangerous section and dirtiest par tof the river.
People really need to be more educated on the Hanford Site and what is actually going on out there before making comments that have no basis or fact behind them.
We love the Tri-Cities and have lots of water recreation on the Columbia, Yakima and Snake Rivers that come to a confluence here in the Tri-Cities. We aren’t worried because we understand the process and make educated and informed decisions.
Come visit and you’ll see for yourself why so many others are moving here and visiting. Sun 300 days a year, hiking, biking on 3-miles of river bike path, world class golf courses, heart of WA wine country (100 wineries within an hour’s drive of Tri-Cities), museums, great shopping…visit http://www.visittri-cities.com and see for yourself!