Year: 2023

Runtime: 93 minutes

Director: Irene Lusztig

By Joan Amenn

Early on in the documentary “Richland” (2023), a Hanford energy worker somewhat defensively declares that viewing the creation of the atomic bombs that were used against Japan in WWII as a bad thing was an “outsider’s” way of thinking. He says that the residents of Richland see it as an accomplishment to be proud of. This extreme “them” vs. “us” way of addressing the Hanford Nuclear Site’s plutonium production hides a very ugly truth that the film goes on to explore. Many of the workers at Hanford during WWII and the Cold War suffered from radiation exposure as well as other toxic substances. But that is just the tip of the poisonous iceberg.

I knew going into viewing “Richland” that it would be tough for me to sit through because of my personal history working with the sick former energy workers at Hanford as they applied for compensation from a government that hired them and allowed them to work in conditions that caused them to develop various cancers, respiratory ailments, and other disabilities. There are scenes in the film that felt like a physical blow as I recalled all the people I spoke with who shared their experiences of working at Hanford with me. I cannot commend director Irene Lusztig enough for her dedication to telling this story, but she has only just scratched the surface of just how perilous Hanford was and is to the people who live nearby.

For the fourteen pounds of plutonium needed to build the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in WWII, there remains 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that are now stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford. (Spoiler alert: at least one of those tanks is leaking approximately 560 gallons a year into the soil.) Lusztig introduces us to the Chief of the Wanapaum tribe who have lived in the Richland area for thousands of years. When Native American tribes such as the Wanapaum people were displaced because the US government seized their land for the war effort they were told it would be returned to them when that work was finished. No one mentioned the land would be unfit for living on for millennium due to what was built there.

Juxtaposed to this in true Strangelovian fashion are the residents of Richland who embrace their heritage, even naming the high school football team the Bombers with a mushroom cloud as their mascot. I wish I was joking. Not all the students think this is appropriate but the older generations seem to stubbornly need to hold on to an idealized 1950’s when the government provided them with homes and their families with steady paychecks. It’s all very “Leave it to Beaver” only the Beave’s dad didn’t have to routinely leave a urine sample in a lead lined box on their front porch to monitor his exposure to radiation.

With Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” (2023) coming to soon, “Richland” is a very timely attempt to focus on the ordinary people who were impacted by the famous names and big IQ’s of the Manhattan Project. Lusztig lets the locals speak for themselves, which is brilliantly poignant and sometimes infuriating in their inability to grasp the human cost of their work at Hanford. The only quibble I have is that I would have liked them to be identified by their full names. The officials at the plant and some of the residents of Richland may not want that kind of exposure, however. There is only so much toxicity a person can take.