Hanford remains the nation’s most expensive and technically complex cleanup project, and delays, legal obligations and debates over how to treat tank waste – including whether to vitrify or grout certain wastes – mean the site could still take decades and tens of billions more to fully clean up. 

Hanford is being repositioned for a new wave of nuclear development – but that push is running into longstanding concerns about cleanup, oversight and trust.

Treated waste from the Hanford site’s leaking underground tanks continues to move incrementally through what local officials consider the world’s most cutting-edge treatment facility as workers assess its systems and infrastructure.

An HR consultant hired by the Port of Benton has delivered a scathing 28-page report on port operations, calling the organization “immersed in chaos, confusion and leadership neglect” and laying out sweeping recommendations for restructuring. Attorneys for the administrators vehemently dispute the report’s findings, with one calling it a “hit piece” and the other a “hatchet job.”

A slew of events, many of them sports tournaments and competitions, are expected to bring about 20,000 people to the Tri-Cities in April, filling hotel rooms, booking restaurant reservations and benefiting other local businesses. 

A downtown Kennewick bookstore is permanently closing its storefront due to smoke and water damage related to the fire at a neighboring restaurant three weeks ago. 

The first stainless steel containers containing treated wasted are now permanently stored at a designated special disposal facility on the Hanford site. 

The conflict in Iran has caused fuel prices to soar and Washington State farmers said it hits them hard when they are putting crops in the ground. 

The state’s leading trade organization for homebuilders is advising its members to meet with an accountant while staying abreast of legal challenges to the state’s recently adopted income tax. 

A brewery which signed a lease in October for a space at Port of Kennewick’s Columbia Gardens Artisan Village is opening this month.