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Hanford Site Tours
Public Road Tours
The 2009 Hanford Public Tour Season is now closed.
Information on the 2010 Hanford Public Tour schedule will be posted
on this website in early 2010.
The Department of Energy has set dates for the 2009 Public Tour Program at the Hanford Site. A total of sixty public tours are planned, with each tour including stops at the historic B Reactor,  the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, the Waste Treatment Plant construction zone, and at an area where groundwater contaminated by chemicals previously used at Hanford is being remediated and treated.
There is no cost to participate in a Hanford tour, but space is limited. Buses will leave at 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., and 11:30 a.m. from the Volpentest HAMMER Training and Education Center located at 2890 Horn Rapids Road in Richland, Washington. Each tour will take approximately five hours, so participants are encouraged to bring snacks and non-alcoholic drinks on the tour. A cafeteria is located at HAMMER with food and drinks available for purchase. The 2009 tentative tour dates are listed below:
April 21, 22
May 6, 7, 19, 20
June 3, 4, 16, 17
July 15, 16, 28, 29
August 12, 13, 25, 26
September 15, 16
Registration will begin on Monday, March 30, 2009. All tour slots are filled on a first-come first-served basis through an online registration system. Participants must be at least 18 years of age and be United States citizens in order to go on a Hanford tour.
Due to the overwhelming response for participating in Hanford tours, individuals may only request up to two slots on a tour for their party, and they may only register for one tour in each calendar year. We are unable to maintain a waiting list once all tour slots have been filled although interested people should check this website periodically as registered tour participants may cancel and slots could become available at any time.
In order to register, participants must provide their full names as shown on their photo identifications for each of the tour members. On the day of the tour, the names given on the online registration must match exactly the names shown on the photo identification before Site badges will be issued. Tour participants who are current DOE employees must wear their badges on the day of their scheduled tour. A security check will take place prior to participants boarding buses and before the buses enter the Site.
Hanford tours give visitors the history of the Site, beginning with Hanford’s original mission of plutonium production for national defense purposes through today’s program of environmental cleanup and restoration. The tour route takes visitors through all areas of the Site:
- The 300 Area, just north of Richland, where uranium was fabricated into “fuel rods” to be irradiated in Hanford’s nuclear reactors
- The original Hanford and White Bluffs town sites
- The nine nuclear reactors in the 100 Area along the Columbia River where “fuel rods” were irradiated to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. Visitors will receive a briefing on groundwater treatment activities, as well as take a walking tour of the B Reactor, the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor
- The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) where low-level radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes are disposed in a massive landfill with a capacity of over 11-million-tons
- Hanford’s Central Plateau, known as the 200 Area, where the processing of the irradiated “fuel rods” took place to extract plutonium for atomic weapons. This is the part of the Site where many of the waste sites currently being remediated are located, as well as where Hanford’s 177 underground nuclear waste storage tanks are found
- The Waste Treatment Plant construction site where liquid waste stored in tanks at Hanford will be immobilized in glass using a technology called vitrification.
Public Road Tour Requirements
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Tour Point of Contact |
Karen Sinclair, Mission Support Alliance (509) 376-2151 |
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Registration |
Tour participants must sign up using an online registration program beginning Monday, March 30, 2009. Visitors will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis only through the online web registration system. |
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Age |
All visitors must be at least 18 years of age to participate in a Site tour. |
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Identification |
Photo driver's license, military identification or passport. |
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Citizenship |
All tour participants must be United States citizens. |
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Clothing |
Clothing must be appropriate for an industrial environment and anyone not dressed appropriately will not be allowed on the tour. Closed toed shoes are MANDATORY. Sandals, flip-flops, thongs, or open toe/open heel shoes are prohibited. Long sleeve shirts and long pants are recommended. Short sleeve shirts, knee length shorts, or “capris” are acceptable but skirts and sleeveless shirts are not allowed. |
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Prohibited Articles |
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Clearance/Badges |
Visitor badges are required and will be issued to you on the day of the tour. The name you give on the online tour registration must match exactly the name shown on your photo identification which you are required to bring on the day of the tour. Current Hanford employees must bring their valid badge on the day of the tour. |
Note: Public tours are subject to immediate cancellation any time the Security Condition (SECON) level is raised above 3, or in the event of other security of safety concerns. Additionally, in the unlikely event of an emergency or other unforeseeable situation, the tour bus may be required to remain on the Hanford Site for longer than scheduled, or the tour may be immediately terminated. Tour participants should be prepared for delays, or an earlier than normal return time.
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