Bombs to beams: US to turn nuclear plutonium site into 1 GW solar farm
Source: https://interestingengineering.com/, August 1, 2024
By: Ameya Paleja
The Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to turn a former nuclear weapons development site in Washington state into a one gigawatt (GW) solar farm. Once a top-secret site producing weapons-grade plutonium, the Hanford site will soon generate clean energy as part of the DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative.
The US is making major strides in reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and deploying more solar and wind power plants. Estimates suggest that as much as 90 GW of solar energy capacity has been added to the grid in recent years, powering 13 million American homes. Read more.