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Hanford nuclear site's trash pits eligible for historic places listing

The Department of Interior has ruled that World War II-era burn pits at Hanford are eligible for listing on the National Register for Historic Places.

The ruling could lead to more careful excavation and study of the site by archaeologists as the pits are emptied as part of the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The burn pits have the "potential to provide important information otherwise unrepresented about the people who lived and worked at the Hanford Construction Camp during its period of significance -- 1943-1946 -- and about World War II-era culture and consumer culture and behavior," according to a report by archaeologist Erika Martin Seibert for the National Register of Historic Places.
Read entire article at http://www.tri-cityherald.com