Demolition commences at Eastern Washington’s vast nuclear weapons complex.

Work is under way at Hanford to prepare the first huge processing canyon in the Department of Energy’s nationwide nuclear weapons complex for demolition. The DOE approved a plan for demolishing U Plant in central Hanford in 2005, but then decided to focus its budget on environmental cleanup closest to the Columbia River first.

But with $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money allocated to Hanford, DOE has been able to begin preparing U Plant to be torn down.

It’s one of five processing plants at the Hanford nuclear reservation built to chemically separate plutonium from fuel rods irradiated in Hanford reactors for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

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