Hanford, WA Nuclear Site - Strange Google Earth image.

So I live right next to this site, I've driven out to see the abandon Fast Flux Test Facility as well as the old B reactor that was used during WWII. It's divided up into areas with a 500 to 100 range, the lower the number the higher security clearance you need. The public can go out to the 300 area, but it's not advised (i know because i had a hanford patrol officer escort me back to richland when i ventured out to far).

So I decided to google earth it and was wondering if anyone has a clue as to what this may be:

46 28 07.63"N 119 20 06.32"w

The site produces weapons grade plutonium and supports nuclear power. This site is almost to the 100 area, my first thought was a power plant, but what's up with the black squares with the weird looking symbols in the middle?

Thoughts?

[edit on 17-5-2010 by NewWorldDisorder]

Those black squares are water tanks, one looks to be either cooling hot rods or pumping air.

If you're talking about the 2 squares with circles in the middle.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/346a22914457.png[/atsimg]

Any idea if the black geometrical structures are normal for this type of location?


[edit on 5.17.2010 by ItsTheQuestion]

[edit on 5.17.2010 by ItsTheQuestion]

reply to post by breakingdradles


These are similar to my impression.

Those look like pools. The one with the ring with the white looks like it is spraying. The one with the other ring does not.

I have seen evaporation pools in Waste treatment plants that are set up like this.

My guess.

From the Wikipedia link on the Google Earth layout-
This is located right on Google Earth-

Columbia Generating Station
Wikipedia


The Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear power station, is a uranium-fueled General Electric boiling water reactor located on the United States Department of Energy Hanford Site, 12 miles (20 km) NW of Richland, Washington. Its site covers 1,089 acres (4.4 km²) of Benton County, Washington.

This plant is owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a consortium of Pacific Northwest public utilities. Energy Northwest's original name was the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS). Construction delays and cost over-runs for five planned WPPSS reactors drew considerable public and media attention. Construction began in 1972, but more than a decade passed before it began generating power.

In the year 2000, WPPSS changed its name to Energy Northwest, and later the plant's name was changed from WNP-2 (Washington Nuclear Power unit number 2) to Columbia Generating Station. Of the five commercial reactors originally planned by WPPSS for the State of Washington, this reactor was the only one completed (WNP-1 may yet be completed but WNP-4 and WNP-3 and WNP-5 were abandoned).

The reactor has performed well and provides Washington with 9% of the state's electrical generation capacity. With the 1992 retirement of Oregon's Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, it is the only commercial nuclear power reactor remaining in the Pacific Northwest. The nearest operating reactor is the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in central California. The plant's sole reactor is a General Electric Type 5. The plant had a new Westinghouse Electric turbine-generator installed in 1999, which brought its output rating to 1,250 MWe.

The Columbia Generating Station features six low-profile fan-driven cooling towers. Each tower cascades warmed water, a byproduct of water heat exchanging with steam after leaving a turbine, down itself and subsequently cools the warmed water via a combination of evaporation and heat exchange with the surrounding air. Some water droplets fall back to earth in the process, thereby creating a hoar frost in the winter. At times, the vapor cloud from the cooling towers can reach 10,000 feet (3 km) in height and can be seen at a great distance. Replacement water for the evaporated water is drawn from the nearby Columbia River.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


Picture-

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/15698f127472.jpg[/atsimg]

Well, looks like this is a double OH WELL.




[edit on 5/17/2010 by endisnighe]