Cam'Ronicles Part II: Documenting "The Area"



When I was growing up, my dream was to play professional basketball for the Utah Jazz. Later in life when I realized that my physical attribute were not up to snuff for the NBA, my second love became communications. I knew a profession in public relations could land me in a variety of career fields, but I never imagined I'd do anything science-related, let alone end up at a nuclear cleanup site. 


In a matter of weeks, my supervisor expected me to guide public tours of a former plutonium production site which is larger than the city of Houston. I had a lot to learn. My idea was to pick the brain of Hanford experts and to bring a videographer along as I did so. What a fascinating experience this was! 


The story of the Hanford Site has it all: history, war, culture, science, nature and now a valiant environmental remediation effort. 


Please take the time to check out this documentary at www.youtube.com/hanfordsite.   


Film Summary
A recent graduate from Utah State University (Cameron Salony) accepts a job with the Department of Energy at Hanford and soon finds that his new workplace is a former site of plutonium production during WWII and the Cold War, but today is part of the world‟s largest environmental cleanup. However, he soon realizes that the history runs even deeper at Hanford as he meets with members of local tribes whose ancestors inhabited the region thousands of years before settlers began moving into the area in the 1860s. Eventually the government would take the land from both the Native Americans and the settlers for war purposes in the 1940s. Today some of the best-educated scientists and engineers in the country are working together to clean up what remains after 45 years of plutonium production in an effort to restore the land. Join Cameron as he explores the history and issues of Hanford as he interviews local tribal members, a citizen advisory board member, former and current workers, Hanford management, regulators and more.

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