Manhattan Project plutonium has been inside a rusting safe in a pit in WA since 1943

Manhattan Project plutonium has been inside a rusting safe in a pit in WA since 1943

Researchers have found the oldest ever sample of weapons grade plutonium - inside a beaten up old safe at the bottom of a pit.
The plutonium was the first batch produced as part of the Manhattan Project, but predates the first nuclear weapon test - Trinity - by seven months.

The potentially dangerous find was made at Hanford, Washington State, the site of a nuclear reservation, established in 1943 to support the US's pioneering nuclear weapons program.

Hanford made the plutonium-239 for Trinity, the first ever nuclear weapon test, on 16 July 1945. Just three weeks later, more Hanford plutonium was used in the nuclear strikes on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But sloppy work by the contractors running the site saw all kinds of chemical and radioactive waste indiscriminately buried in pits underground over the 40 years Hanford was operational, earning it the accolade of the dirtiest place on Earth.

In 2004, clean-up work uncovered a battered, rusted, and broken old safe containing a glass jug inside which was 400 millilitres of plutonium...

Earliest weapons-grade plutonium found in US dump