Our Northwest Energy

Hanford Officials Agree On New Clean Up Deadlines

RICHLAND, Wash. - The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is famously home to 53 million gallons of radioactive sludge. But over it's long history, the site has also collected scads of work materials, lab supplies and clothing that are also contaminated. Now, federal and state officials have agreed on a new set of deadlines for cleaning up that tricky waste. [Correspondent Anna King reports.]

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"Sleeping Giant" Overdue, Seismologists Ponder "The Big One"

PORTLAND – There's a sleeping giant in the Pacific Northwest that could wake very soon and shake us all up. That giant is a major quake on par with the one that rattled Chile earlier this year. Some seismologists say it's overdue. More than 500 of the world's leading earthquake experts are in Portland this week for their annual conference. Correspondent Tom Banse dropped by to find out when the next “Big One” might shake the region.

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Push For Multiple Business Energy Tax Credits Continues

SALEM, Ore. – In February, Oregon lawmakers voted to reign in a renewable energy tax credit program. The incentives had turned out to be far more generous than anyone intended. One of the new rules in place curbs the ability of companies to receive multiple tax credits by simply breaking up a larger project into several smaller ones. But that hasn't stopped at least one major player in the renewable energy industry from making the case for multiple versions of Oregon's Business Energy Tax Credit. [Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman looked into the issue.

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Many Tri-City Residents Welcome Spent Navy Reactors To Hanford

RICHLAND, Wash. – The Hanford Nuclear Reservation recently accepted another spent nuclear reactor from the U.S. Navy. The reactors travel by barge from the naval shipyard in Bremerton, along the Washington Coast and up the Columbia River to Richland. It's a highly secretive operation. But in the Tri-Cities, Washington, [Correspondent Anna King found] a nuclear reactor arrives almost like a celebrity would.

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New Nuclear Power Plant Clears Hurdle

A new nuclear power plant proposed near the Idaho-Oregon border cleared its first hurdle [today] Monday. But, groundbreaking is still years away because many more local and federal approvals are needed. [Correspondent Tom Banse reports.]

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Tesoro And State Investigating Oil Refinery Explosion

Oil refiner Tesoro [tess-AR-oh] is investigating the deadly [early] Friday morning explosion in Anacortes [Washington]. But the company does not yet have an explanation for the incident. The blast at the oil refinery killed four Tesoro workers and gravely injured three others. Senior Vice President Lynn Westfall said in a press conference [this afternoon]Friday that the explosion occurred near a heating and cooling area.

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